Earnings call transcript: Better Collective Q2 2025 sees revenue dip, stock rises

Better Collective reported its Q2 2025 earnings, revealing a revenue decrease of 18% year-over-year to €82 million, with EBITDA declining by €6 million. Despite these figures, the company’s stock price rose by 4.24% in the wake of the earnings release, closing at €137.70, up from the previous €132.10. The company maintained its full-year 2025 guidance, anticipating a return to growth in 2026. According to InvestingPro data, Better Collective has maintained profitability over the last twelve months, with a healthy gross profit margin of 40% and a strong Altman Z-Score of 15, indicating solid financial stability.

Key Takeaways

• Better Collective’s Q2 revenue fell by 18% year-over-year.
• The company completed a €50 million cost efficiency program.
• Stock price increased by 4.24% after earnings announcement.
• eSports established as a standalone segment, contributing 11% to group EBITDA.
• Full-year 2025 guidance maintained with growth expected in 2026.

Company Performance

Better Collective faced a challenging second quarter, with revenue declining to €82 million, an 18% drop compared to the same period last year. The company’s EBITDA also decreased by €6 million, yet it managed to achieve €12 million in savings through a comprehensive cost efficiency program. Despite the revenue dip, the company highlighted growth in recurring revenue and a strategic focus on its strongest markets. InvestingPro analysis reveals the company is currently trading at a premium P/E ratio of 25.7x relative to its near-term earnings growth, with analysts anticipating a sales decline in the current year. For deeper insights into Better Collective’s valuation and growth prospects, InvestingPro offers additional analysis through its comprehensive Pro Research Report, available along with 6 more key ProTips.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: €82 million, down 18% year-over-year
• EBITDA: €23 million, decreased by €6 million
• Cost savings: €12 million from efficiency program
• Revenue share income: €180 million last year
• eSports EBITDA margin: 56% in Q2

Earnings vs. Forecast

The company reported Q2 earnings per share (EPS) and revenue that aligned closely with forecasts. The revenue forecast was €82.5 million, and the actual revenue came in just slightly below at €82 million. This minor miss did not significantly impact investor sentiment, as evidenced by the positive stock movement.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings announcement, Better Collective’s stock price rose by 4.24%, closing at €137.70. This increase suggests positive investor sentiment, possibly driven by the company’s efficient cost management and strategic focus on growth markets. The stock’s performance is notable given the broader challenges in the advertising market and regulatory transitions in key regions. InvestingPro Fair Value analysis indicates the stock is currently undervalued, with a current ratio of 1.58 demonstrating strong liquidity. The company has delivered a YTD price return of 18.58%, despite facing some headwinds.

Outlook & Guidance

Better Collective maintained its full-year 2025 financial guidance, with expectations of returning to growth in 2026. The company has initiated a €20 million share buyback program and is focusing on the potential of recent acquisitions. The outlook includes increased activity anticipated in the latter half of the year.

Executive Commentary

"We are well-positioned for the future," stated Co-CEO Jesper Szurko, highlighting the company’s strategic adaptations and market leadership. Szurko also noted, "Brazil has transformed into a fully regulated and taxed market," emphasizing the region’s potential as an attractive growth market.

Risks and Challenges

• Regulatory changes in the Brazilian market could pose challenges.
• Soft CPM rates in the advertising market may impact revenue.
• Competition in the North American market, particularly with the NFL season approaching.
• Dependence on eSports growth amid evolving market dynamics.
• Economic uncertainties that could affect consumer spending.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts focused on several key areas, including the growth potential of eSports and the regulatory challenges in Brazil. Discussions also centered on the new Value of Deposits KPI and the company’s strategic positioning in the North American market.

Full transcript - Better Collective (BETCO) Q2 2025:

Conference Operator: Day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Better Collective Second Quarter twenty twenty five Presentation. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers’ presentation, there will be question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press 11 on your telephone.

Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Better Collective VP, Investor Relations and Communications, Miguel Mont Jacobskor. Please go ahead.

Miguel Mont Jacobskor, VP Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Better Collective: Thank you very much, and good morning, and welcome to Better Collective’s Q2 twenty twenty five webcast. As just said, my name is Michael Monk Jakobsko, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications here at Better Collective. And I’m today joined by our Co Founder and Co CEO, Jesper Szurko and CFO, Fleming Pilersen, who will provide today’s business update in connection with our Q2 report that was disclosed yesterday. Please follow me to the next page. We ask you to pay attention to this slide where we display our disclaimer regarding any forward looking statements in today’s webcast.

Please turn to the next slide as I hand over the word to Jesper for the second quarter highlights.

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Thank you, Meger. Good morning all, and thank you for joining today’s webcast. Let’s dive into the Q2 highlights, and please follow me to the next slide. Q2 played out as anticipated with results in line with our expectations. Revenue reached €82,000,000 and operational earnings €23,000,000 The results and comparisons to last year reflect the major market transition in Brazil and last year’s exceptional event calendar, including UEFA Euro twenty twenty four and Copa America in soccer as well as the North Carolina launch.

We’ve completed our EUR 50,000,000 cost efficiency program that we launched in October and thereafter completed a major organizational change, where we have increased our focus on our strongest markets and brands and streamlined the organization accordingly. Reporting wise, we have from this quarter established esports as its own business segment and launched a new Value of Deposit KPI to underline our quality of revenue and earnings. We are now entering the second half of the year, where we anticipate increased activity around the beginning of major sports seasons, and we are in my view well positioned to getting back to growth again next year. Looking at the second quarter and the first half in general, Better Collective is in a place where we wish to be when we started the year. And we therefore maintain our full year financial guidance, and the Board has decided to initiate a new share buyback program of up to €20,000,000 after completion of the currently running buyback.

Please turn to the next page. Following this overall introduction, I’ll focus on Brazil right away. Brazil has been the most significant market development for our business over the past year. Brazil has transformed into a fully regulated and taxed market after many years of being a big international market. It is the largest market ever to have undergone such a transition.

As all other stakeholders in the market, we’ve had to adapt to this market change. Collective has established local presence, completed major acquisitions, and established relationships with all important stakeholders in the market. As such, Beta Collective is now positioned as the largest digital sports media in Brazil, and more broadly in South America. We expect Brazil and the broader region to become a very attractive growth market in the future, of course pending that regulation is attractive. When we entered this year, the outlook for the Brazilian market was highly uncertain.

However, we delivered a slightly better than expected performance in the first six months, supported by swift adaptation by our local teams and solid work from our major partners. Player migration and waitering activity remain ahead of expectations. The absence of welcome bonuses continues to limit NDC volumes and unfortunately benefits non licensed sportsbooks. However, we remain confident that the market will seek to remain competitive longer term. Please turn to the next slide.

As previously announced from this quarter, eSports is reported as a standalone business segment, underscoring its scale, profitability and growth potential. We’re doing this now not only because accounting standards requires it, given it operates as a standalone business with its own management and the mere scale, but more importantly because it is a strategically important part of Beta Collective, where we see significant future growth potential. We see esports as a powerful growth engine for Beta Collective going forward. With HLTV and FootBin, we own two of the most respected and influential community platforms in global esports, giving us a rare opportunity to serve millions of passionate fans and grow alongside the scene. By establishing esports as its own segment, we sharpen our strategic focus, increase transparency and create room to invest even faster in new features, content and partnerships, so we can continue to provide the best fan engagement and unlock the full potential of these communities.

Platforms that are deeply embedded in the fabric of esports are hard to replicate, and we are committed to nurturing them for the long term benefit of fans, partners and shareholders alike. The Esports business segment represented 11% of group EBITDA in the first half and delivered an EBITDA margin of 56% in Q2. The revenue is almost solely generated from advertising and sponsorships, With unmatched audience loyalty and monetization opportunities, eSports is a strategic growth pillar in our brand portfolio, allowing us to provide free high quality content to our users and fans. Please turn to the next slide. On this slide, you can see the revenue and EBITDA bridge outlining the key building blocks from Q2 last year to Q2 this year.

First, the Brazilian market dynamics had a negative impact of EUR8 million on revenue. Secondly, in North America, activity levels were lower and the North Carolina state launch last year created a tough comparison, resulting in a €6,000,000 headwind this quarter. Thirdly, this quarter compares to Q2 twenty twenty four, when we benefited from the UEFA Euro and Copa America tournaments. In Q2 twenty twenty five, the football calendar was lighter with the Club World Cup in June and July being the main tournament of the quarter. The estimated effect is €5,000,000.

Conference Operator: Fourth, the weaker US dollar affected negatively with €2,000,000 And finally, we saw positive contributions from underlying growth in paid media and e sports, as well as the full quarter effect of the acquisition of Eisatz, combined adding EUR4 million.

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Altogether, this brought us to a Q2 revenue of EUR82 million. EBITDA decreased by EUR6 million in the quarter. The revenue related effects just discussed accounted for an EUR18 million negative effect. On the positive side, our cost efficiency program launched in October delivered EUR12 million in savings during the quarter. Altogether, this has resulted in a Q2 EBITDA of €23,000,000 Please turn to the next slide.

Following Q2, our 2025 and 2027 guidances remain unchanged and can be seen here. Please turn to the next page as I hand the word to Fleming for a dive into the financial performance.

Fleming Pilersen, CFO, Better Collective: Thank you, Jesper, and good morning to you all. Please follow me to the next slide, and we can dive a bit more into the financial performance. As Jesper mentioned earlier, year on year comparisons remain challenging in Q2 just as they were in Q1. However, performance is in line with our plans. As seen here, revenue was flat versus Q1 this year and down 18% year over year.

As previously mentioned, we have, to a large extent, counteracted this with our cost efficiency program, which has delivered the expected results as costs were down EUR 12,000,000 in the quarter or annualized close to the EUR 50,000,000 set out in October. I’ll come back to this later in the presentation. Let’s turn to the next slide. A key strategic focus of us remains the continued expansion of our recurring revenue base, which provides a solid and predictable foundation for the business and a big unrealized value. Compared to Q1, we increased recurring revenue by €3,000,000 in Q2.

Importantly, we are sending a steady flow of new customers on revenue share agreements as 86% of NDCs were sent on revenue share contracts. A significant portion of this revenue is still unrecognized and will materialize over time, further strengthening our long term earnings potential. Please turn to the next slide, where we’ll take a closer look at the revenue share development per year. Revenue share has been and continues to be a central focus for us as it is a key driver for our long term growth strategy as we create more value long term compared to upfront payments. And we share the upfront investments with our partners, allowing for them to capture more customers faster.

Revenue share income reached EUR 180,000,000 last year, continuing its long term growth trend. While the Brazilian regulation has impacted the last twelve months, we remain very confident in our investments into revenue share and view this as a strong foundation for long lasting partnerships. Please turn to the next slide, where we look at the cost development. Our cost base reached its peak mid-twenty twenty four, growing into Q3. In light of last year’s market shifts and after completing more than 35 acquisitions, we recognized the need to reduce our cost base and reassess the organization we have built while driving rapid growth in the past seven years.

In Q2 twenty twenty five, costs were 16% lower year over year or in absolute numbers, a decrease of EUR 12,000,000. On an annualized basis and with further cost increases into Q3 last year brings us to the EUR 50,000,000 cost efficiencies that we announced in October. These efforts mean better collection now operates on a leaner and more efficient foundation, which positions us well for the future growth. Please turn to the next slide, where we look at the NDC development and introduce our new KPI, the value of deposits. Over the past year, we have seen a decline in our NDC in our group level NDCs, largely driven by the slowdown in Brazil ahead of the regulation.

As seen on the graph on the left, we have split out Brazilian NDCs from the group to show how big an effect it has had on the growth development in recent years. As we have mentioned in the past, Brazil has, within a very short time, grown from being nonexistent to better collective to more than a €70,000,000 revenue in 2024. And this growth comes from these indices that you see here. If we exclude Brazil, the underlying NDC development looks more stable over the years. While NDC remain an important metric, it is important to reflect on how the relevance has evolved with the complexity of our business.

When we IPO ed Better Collective back in 2018, NDCs were as straightforward and useful KPI as our business operated in much fewer markets and with fewer partners. Today, however, the NDC metric tells a much more nuanced story as the value of players differ significantly across markets. As a result, comparing NDCs across markets at group level can be misleading and less reflective of the value that we are actually creating. And our main focus is on the value per NDC rather than the mere number of NDCs. That said, to provide stakeholders with more meaningful insight into the underlying activity and quality from our revenue share accounts, we are introducing an additional metric, value of deposits from our revenue share accounts.

As shown on the slide at the table to the right, value of deposits have shown consistent growth in the past, underlining the health and quality in our recurring revenue base despite the decrease in NDCs. A substantial part of this development is the addition of The U. S. Market, where we have seen more and more states go live from 2019 and onwards. The U.

S. Market is characterized by significant higher player values compared to other markets, and we have been seeking to work more and more on terms that include revenue share. While there was a temporary impact in Q1 due to the market regulation in Brazil, we have already seen an uplift in Q2. Going forward, we will provide information on indices alongside value of deposits to better illustrate the underlying activity and the health of our revenue share counts over time. Please turn to the next slide as I hand the word back to Jesper for some highlights.

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Thank you, Flemming. And please turn to the next page. To summarize, Q2 performance was fully in line with expectations. We advanced our strategic priorities, reduced costs by 16% year on year and established eSports as a dedicated business segment to sharpen focus on this segment significant growth opportunity. Our EUR 50,000,000 cost efficiency program is now completed, leaving us with a leaner structure and a strong team of highly skilled colleagues.

Brazil maintained good activity from Q1 and continues to hold strong long term potential. We have also introduced a new KPI, the value of deposits, which clearly underlies the health of our revenue share accounts. Looking ahead, we enter a busy second half with major sports seasons and remain confident in delivering on both our 2025 financial targets and our long term ambitions. Finally, I want to thank the organization for showing great adaptability through this transition. We are well positioned for the future, and I’m excited about what lies ahead.

Thank you for your attention, and let’s move to the Q and A.

Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer To ask a question, please press 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press 11 again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please tap into the box and click submit. We will now take our first question from the line of Sebastian Gray from Nordea.

Please go ahead, Sebastian.

Sebastian Gray, Analyst, Nordea: First, I want to touch upon the FanDuel news yesterday evening. So FanDuel committing to push into to to prediction markets. I’m sure you saw that. Can you remind us how do you see Better Collective playing part in this development? And also noting that you’re already partnering with with Kalshi.

So, I mean, on balance, what I’m asking is, is this a net positive or neutral? Or how do you view this development?

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Sebastian, and thanks for the question. It is, in our view, a pretty significant step that FanDuel is taking here. As you are probably familiar with, the prediction market is under a federal regime, meaning that it’s actually allowing for states where there is no sports betting regulation to drive business there. And the audience we have across our platforms is obviously the target group for such a product as well. And we naturally it’s basically just a paratha of the state’s size in The U.

S, it’s equally to the audience we have. So it’s a very exciting development. And as you rightly speak to, we work with Calci. So it’s something that is natural to us. It’s, of course, very early days.

But for me, it is quite significant that FanDuel is now embracing this.

Sebastian Gray, Analyst, Nordea: Okay. Jesper, thank you. A second question, would like to revert to Brazil. As you alluded to still uncertain environment with bonus restrictions and as we also saw from your new NDC split, I mean, a significant slowdown in NDC momentum in the market. Now I was just wondering, in your discussion with operators, do you sense any sort of fatigue or skepticism about the sort of the actual prospects of this or the potential of this Brazilian market going forward?

Or I mean, is the market simply so big that even with the current sort of uncertain regulatory environment, operators are still pushing for market shares? Any color here would be very helpful.

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Yes. No, I would not, in any way, talk to fatigue. It is an exciting market. But I think there’s a mutual understanding of the importance of regulation in order for a market really to thrive. And ultimately, comes down to what sort of consumer experience can we expect.

And one point is bonuses and overall conditions for players will matter when they choose where to bet. And unfortunately, there is an alternative being the non licensed market. And I think it’s more in that direction the discussion is. And I think a shared interest and focus in the industry of educating regulators on the importance of this as it is a very fine balance of creating the right kind of consumer protection in the license market and basically not tighten too much, so you end up driving consumers into a non licensed market.

Sebastian Gray, Analyst, Nordea: So I mean, regulation at the current framework, so to say, ad restriction and ban on welcome bonuses and also let’s also include the maybe adjustment of GGR tax, that does not change your overall view on the Brazilian market?

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: No. It’s we sort of took account of the regulation that was implemented. That is what we are navigating, right? We are taking part as many in educating about the effects of certain times of regulation. But no, we are just driving business and trying to maneuver based on the current regulation and cannot really speak to what will happen.

That is yes, that will just be speculation.

Sebastian Gray, Analyst, Nordea: Sure. No, that’s fair. And then just last question from my side, and I will revert to the queue. Maybe if you could talk a bit into the underlying mix of your indices. I mean, looking at the implied CPA rate for the quarter, it’s developing quite nicely.

So what’s the story really here? Is it less Brazilian indices in the mix? Or are there any sort of other reads into this?

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Well, it’s obviously, as you can tell, that there are less Brazilian NDCs compared to previous quarters. There’s to be honest, there are many variables in this equation. There’s also a difference of whether it’s paid customers we are driving and obviously, the geographical split. But overall, we are pleased to see that development that you have also noticed, Sebastian.

Sebastian Gray, Analyst, Nordea: Is there also a factor in this equation being that you are more towards casino customers?

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Well, it’s again, it’s one of those variables going into the equation.

Miguel Mont Jacobskor, VP Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Better Collective: So

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: you’re right that more casino players in general will favor CPA rates.

Sebastian Gray, Analyst, Nordea: Cheers. Thank you for taking my questions.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Johma Alberg from Redeye. Please go ahead.

Johma Alberg, Analyst, Redeye: Thank you. A follow-up on the Brazilian market and then the question on the regulation that’s ongoing there. So what have you baked into your 2026 expectation of growth? Do you foresee any, I mean, I guess, the tax changes? Or do you expect any what’s the effect of bonus when looking for twenty twenty six growth?

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Thanks, Jarmo. We have not guided on that specifically. I think what we have guided on is that we expect to be a return to growth for 2026. So we are not giving final details now for that part.

Johma Alberg, Analyst, Redeye: Alright. And looking into the second half here, I mean, you see a bit busier sports betting sports activity schedule. Also, I guess, in North America, the Missouri launch of sports betting there. What do you see in that market? Do you think it could be a good launch compared to historical launches?

Or do you see risk of low activity in that launch?

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: I think, in general, I would expect a fairly similar behavior with state launches, and then there may be slight changes. But it’s not like I expect anything out of the ordinary. In general, speaking to The U. S. And North America, we are two weeks away now from the start of the NFL.

And I guess, by now, you know that it’s busy times for us, striking deals, getting ready for that launch because it is such an important event for our business. So we really have, yes, a strong focus on execution right now in our North American business.

Johma Alberg, Analyst, Redeye: Got it. And also curious on I mean, showed this chart on Brazil, and this is historically delivered. I guess some of these have been converted to the regulated market, but should you also kind of that you have lost some of these to operators that have not come back to the market? And could that come back when some operators that might have not gotten the license to get that in the future, if you understand the question?

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Yes. I understand, Jammin. And to a very, very large extent, the NDCs delivered in the past have been sent to sportsbooks that now hold a license in the Brazilian market. In general, it’s part of how we assess markets, in particular, when it’s an international market with an expected regulation coming in. We’re very focused on driving cost NDCs to those partners where we believe they will be active in the market post regulation.

Otherwise, it’s not really worth it in our view.

Johma Alberg, Analyst, Redeye: Understood. And also a final question on capital allocation. I mean, highlighted some new share buybacks coming here. And also if you can give some update on M and A in relation to buybacks. And also if you can say something about M and A in the Esports business now when it’s stand alone.

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Yes. On M and A, nothing has changed compared to sort of statements earlier this year that we were very focused on realizing the potential with some of our more recent acquisitions and the existing potential in the business. So a high bar for a potential acquisition. Speaking to the share buybacks, historically, we have used shares for acquisitions. We have also quite recently canceled shares.

So I think we have flexibility there in basically just doing what will create the most value for shareholders of Better Collective. But M and A, we have a lot of inbounds. We keep dialogues going, but are focused on realizing internal potential right now.

Johma Alberg, Analyst, Redeye: Okay. Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now take our next question from the line of Oskar Roanski from ABG. Please go ahead, Oskar.

Oskar Roanski, Analyst, ABG: Thank you, and good morning, guys. So first, just a quick question on the Sportswind margin in Q2. Is it possible to quantify the positive impact of the Sportswind margin compared to an average in Q2?

Fleming Pilersen, CFO, Better Collective: Yes. Think compared to Q2 last year, we basically stated said it was in line with last year. So on comparison, it’s sort of neutral.

Oskar Roanski, Analyst, ABG: All right. I just wanted to hear more if it’s possible to I mean, how much above the long term average has it been, if that’s possible?

Fleming Pilersen, CFO, Better Collective: No, we don’t give that number, unfortunately.

Oskar Roanski, Analyst, ABG: All right. On Esports, so you mentioned it’s a good growth driver ahead. Just looking at Q1, a little bit of growth, but H1 kind of stable year over year, a little bit of a decline. So can you just comment on the current status of this? And also, if you have some color to give on the long term growth opportunities, if that’s possible?

Thanks.

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Yes. Thanks, Oscar. Yes. So eSports, in particular, with the brands of HLTV and FootBin, are two very powerful brands and huge communities and platforms that we own. Speaking to sort of growth developments, we have been affected by overall CPM rates being down.

And especially on the back of Liberation Day, it has affected the CPM and advertising market. So in light of that, performance is actually quite decent for our Esports business. And looking ahead, it’s a business where we really believe that we will experience underlying growth. And there’s also potential in the business where we can unlock more value. Very, very engaged audiences on both platforms and brands and unique positions in their ecosystems.

So something we are truly excited about.

Oskar Roanski, Analyst, ABG: Got it. Perfect. Just the next one on the North American outlook. So obviously, you had a kind of a rebasing in Q3 last year. And I think just converting the revenue to U.

S. Dollars, you’re kind of at a similar rate now in Q2 as you were in Q3 last year after the sort of rebasing. So can you talk a little bit about the underlying growth in the North American market if we just strip out the rebasing effects? Do you see potential for an acceleration? Or should we think that the underlying market growth is a little bit slower at the moment?

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: I think we already spoke to sort of the effect of the state launch last year compared to Q2 this year. And then in the fall, we spoke to the commercial landscape and sort of momentum around the start of the NFL and how that sort of developed. And to be honest, are right in it right now, those sort of work by our commercial teams with partners and preparation of content in our podcast show. So a lot is happening right now, and that’s why we are laser focused right now on delivering for up to the start of the NFL. So exciting times.

Oskar Roanski, Analyst, ABG: Perfect. Thanks. Next question, just on the full year guidance. You did $44,500,000 in EBITDA in the first half, pretty similar EBITDA per quarter in Q1 and Q2. So if it’s possible, could you give any more color on the expected seasonality?

Obviously, some NFL starts and some of the big football leagues starting now in Q3 again. But just on the Q3, Q4 development, should we expect pretty similar EBITDA going into Q3? Or and the vast majority of the uptick should be expected in Q4? Or do you expect an acceleration already in Q3?

Fleming Pilersen, CFO, Better Collective: Yes. I think the Fleming here. The seasonality basically goes that, as you say, European football starting as bigger leagues in August mid August, some of them. But I can say the bigger thing for North America is clearly the NFL that begins in the September. So the last four months are our high season, and we also expect that this year.

So some will affect, let’s say, Q3. But of course, Q4 is normally our biggest quarter.

Oskar Roanski, Analyst, ABG: Yes. All right. Finally, just on the cost run rate. I think you mentioned that you saw some more efficiencies and but that’s offset by underlying investments for returning to growth in 2026. Could we expect a pretty stable OpEx going into the second half as the efficiencies are offset by underlying investments?

Do you think that Q2 is a decent run rate in light of this?

Fleming Pilersen, CFO, Better Collective: Yes. We may see a bit more decline in cost, but I think it’s a good metric with the Q2, yes, with a notch down, I would expect.

Oskar Roanski, Analyst, ABG: Right. Perfect. That was all. Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Paul Yassin from Danske Bank. Please go ahead, Paul.

Paul Yassin, Analyst, Danske Bank: Yes. Thanks for taking my questions. Two questions. One is on the CPM and advertising income, which you referred to as being soft due to general setback. Can you update on advances on where it is now, or have you put that secondary?

Or or how should we look at that going forward?

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Yes. So that has been part of sort of optimization on specific brands and ad formats, which is actually we are seeing good results from and is part of mitigating the overall decline in the CPM rates. And at the same time, we’re also working very much on the customer segmentation sort of with an outset in The U. S. And that is sort of ongoing work where we are also looking forward to launch new initiatives in relation to that.

So we are seeing a positive impact on specific brands where we’re optimizing ad formats. And then we have sort of the most important part, which I’ve spoken to before, the customer segmentation and CRM first party data, where we are sort of doing initiatives now related to in the first instance, The U. S.

Paul Yassin, Analyst, Danske Bank: And when do you expect to be where you then see some market traction here? Are we well into ’26? Do thought we should look for something?

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: I think we have stated before that it’s basically looking at sort of the development of the advertising revenue metric. And then hopefully, we will gradually see the effect there coming in. And to some extent, despite it not being growth, we are actually seeing an effect because there’s not decline compared to the overall market.

Paul Yassin, Analyst, Danske Bank: Second question is about the paid media market. Some of your peers have spoken about Google changes hitting them quite negatively in the quarter. Have you avoided that in your numbers? Because I don’t see some major impact here.

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Yes, Paul. And I think just to maybe a slight correction that it’s not necessarily the paid, but actually more for sort of the organic search results where there have been a fairly big Google update. And obviously, you also have the AI overviews. We have not seen an impact from that, and performance has been stable. So I think I suspect that is what you referred to.

Paul Yassin, Analyst, Danske Bank: Okay. Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. There are no further questions from the phone at this time. I’ll turn back to the room for webcast questions.

Miguel Mont Jacobskor, VP Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Better Collective: Thank you. And maybe we stay on the paid topic, where there are a few questions related to what you expect for paid going forward and a few comments on the performance during this quarter. Yes. We overall see very strong performance with our paid

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: business. And it’s one of the areas where we would actually we would like to see the margin gradually going a bit down because that means we are investing and buying good business. And there is a strong performance and a lot of new initiatives in that part of Beta Collective. So it’s quite exciting. And again, to some extent, it’s event driven.

So the start of all these big leagues are the driver of also paid activity. So it’s high season also for that part of our business.

Miguel Mont Jacobskor, VP Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Better Collective: Thank you. Then we have a question for you, Jesper, regarding Christian and you now having shared the CEO role for some time? And how do you assess the progress and the results of this co CEO setup? What has been Christian’s key contribution in this role compared to his previous position as COO? Yes.

So it has really allowed for Christian to go deep on parts of our business. And just

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: to give a very concrete example, Christian is right now in our U. S. Office and staying there for approximately a month to oversee now the launch of or the start of the Nf L and launch new initiatives related to that. So it’s freeing Christian up to focus on product and concrete initiatives where he can have a big impact. So very happy with that.

And then on the COO role, where Sofia has taken over, we’re also very happy with how that has developed. Obviously, Sofia is still being supported closely by Christian with his knowledge of the business. But we are very happy with the changes we have made.

Miguel Mont Jacobskor, VP Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Better Collective: Thank you. There are also quite a few questions on the new KPI value of deposits. And maybe it would just help if you, Jesper, explained in simple terms what it is that we are showcasing on the graph Because I think if you do so, we will address most of

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: the questions. Yes. It’s actually a fairly simple graph because what we show is the deposits of all players into their betting accounts. We have that data on a daily basis. And here, then present sort of the aggregated figure for a quarter of all those players.

So that is what we are showing, how much are the players depositing over a quarter into their sports betting accounts.

Miguel Mont Jacobskor, VP Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Better Collective: Thank you. Then there are a few questions about Brazil and how we expect to come back to growth in Brazil, especially as there are still no welcome bonuses live? I think we touched a bit upon it in

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: the webcast, but maybe you can elaborate a bit on that, Jesper. Yes. It comes back to the position we have in Brazil, being the leading digital sports media and owning some strong brands, where we have this significant audience, where we also have from the Sportsbook side, a lot of demand for just traditional ads and brand visibility campaigns. On the NDC side, obviously, we strive to drive as many as possible. But as I alluded to early on, the ban of sign up bonuses is affecting this performance because we do see leakage to the non licensed market because from a consumer perspective, it’s simply much more attractive to be able to register with a sports book where you get a bonus.

But still, we are performing to some extent. And we assess that the quality of indices we are driving is good in this market. And then if we stay in Brazil, there are a few questions around the stabilization

Miguel Mont Jacobskor, VP Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Better Collective: of the market and when we expect the market then to grow and whether it has grown from Q1 to Q2.

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Yes. So obviously, it’s difficult to say exactly when you have the base, but we probably sense that it or at least we can frame it as it’s developing as expected, slightly better. And from Q1 to Q2, also in light of the Brazilian Serie A starting, we have seen a lift in revenue and performance there.

Miguel Mont Jacobskor, VP Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Better Collective: Thank you. And then we turn to AI Search and what our expectations are longer term with all these new services out there and also Google launching AI overviews.

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: Yes. As alluded to before, we have not seen a significant effect of the AI overviews. And if we start with the paid business, Google is clearly prioritizing the paid ads over the AI overviews whenever we it relates to commercial keywords and basically high value keywords from the perspective of Google. So it’s performance as expected and good performance. If I take on the lens of the longer term, we really believe there is a quite strong alignment between relevance and authority that will drive ranking in Google and relevance and authority that will enable you to become part of AI overviews and chatbot answers.

So essentially, owning strong brands with a big audience and having a lot of trust and authority with your brand, we believe is really the recipe of success in also in this new environment.

Miguel Mont Jacobskor, VP Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Better Collective: Thank you. Then we have a question here related to the cost efficiency program that we’ve had and whether we should expect any negative impact on the publishing revenue following that.

Fleming Pilersen, CFO, Better Collective: Yes. Perhaps I can take that. I think as all companies, when you are reducing organization and cost, you the challenge is, of course, to do it in a way where you don’t affect the business. And I think we have succeeded with that. Our business is performing as planned.

So we have tried

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: to make cost reductions in a way so we basically protect revenue and business in general. And I think that’s also where we have landed. And maybe building on that answer from Fleming, you should also view the restructure and sort of the ordering of new global business units and prioritization among brands to free up resources. So we basically invest in the business where we get the biggest bang for the buck. And I think that that has been crucial in these changes.

Miguel Mont Jacobskor, VP Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Better Collective: Thank you. And then let’s turn to the last few questions here as we are soon at forty five minutes. Fleming, I guess this one is for you. Is Missouri included in the full year guidance now, Missouri being the state launch expected for December?

Fleming Pilersen, CFO, Better Collective: Yes, we have not changed any guidance because of that. So the answer is yes.

Miguel Mont Jacobskor, VP Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Better Collective: And then the last question here, I guess, you, Jesper, is in the context of the FIFA World Cup next year, how long in advance do dialogues on ad sponsorships and etcetera take place? And in that light, could you elaborate on advantages of having a local approach as opposed to peers global approach?

Jesper Szurko, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Better Collective: The short answer is that we have already started, and that goes not just to commercial interactions and conversations, but also all the planning across our brands and basically aligning the kind of content we want to build and really use our global scale and very strong organization to cover this huge, huge event in the best way possible. So so so it’s a very exciting event. And and yes, we are already now preparing and having commercial conversations with partners around the World Cup. So it’s very, very significant for us, and we are excited about the World Cup next summer, especially with the host countries being Mexico, U. S.

And Canada.

Miguel Mont Jacobskor, VP Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Better Collective: Thank you, Jesper and Fleming. And that concludes our webcast today. Thank you for showing interest in Better Collective. Have a nice day.

Conference Operator: Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect your lines.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.