7: Sky Betting & Gaming (2016)

The fact Sky Betting & Gaming (SB&G) failed to improve upon last year’s seventh placed position should be seen as no reflection on the progress made by the Richard Flint-led firm over the past year, which has managed to close the gap on many of the operators positioned higher up the list.

Although now privately-owned, the firm recently released financial data for the 12 months to 30 June which showed a 51% rise in revenues to £376.3m. Betting accounted for 57% of that total with the vertical growing 64% to £214.1m, while gaming grew 36% to £159.5m.

Interestingly, the operator managed to increase customer value by 15% to £192 while at the same time significantly increasing total customers – which grew by a third to 1.95 million. The operator’s close relationship with Sky, which still owns 20% of the business, continues to be of great importance, along with its headline sponsorship of the Football League.

Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday show heavily promotes SB&G’s Super 6 competition, which remains a major customer acquisition channel. The firm recently released a horseracing version of the free-to-play product, with social cross-sell an important element of SB&G’s acquisition strategy.

One of SB&G’s weaknesses is its lack of international reach but the firm is addressing this by leveraging the strength of the Sky brand in both the German and Italian markets. In September SB&G launched Super 6 in Italy along with a beta version of its sportsbook. Germany is pencilled in for 2017 – the firm recently hired Deutsche Telekom’s gaming head Jochem Weiner to lead the launch.

While SB&G this year invested in technology through the acquisition of CORE Gaming and a 5% stake in NYX Gaming, M&A on the B2C side doesn’t appear to be front of mind. Instead, the firm seems likely to launch an IPO, with some expecting a flotation as early as 2017.