Gambling.com Group acquires RotoWire in $27.5m deal
Affiliate giant targets continued US expansion with daily fantasy sports resource purchase
Gambling.com Group has announced the acquisition of Roto Sports Inc (Roto Sports) for a total of $27.5m (£20.8m), a transaction that is set to close in January 2022.
Roto Sports is the operator of popular US fantasy sports website RotoWire.com that offers news and advice to fans of daily and season-long fantasy sports.
The site, which has been operating for 25 years, had over 100,000 subscribers over the course of the last year and attracted more than 17 million unique web visitors.
The acquisition will see Gambling.com pay $20m upfront, with $15m in cash and $5m in newly issued ordinary shares. The affiliate will pay a further $2.5m and $5m on the first and second anniversaries of the deal being finalised.
Gambling.com, which announced a 37% rise in Q3 revenue in November and began trading on the Nasdaq in July, highlighted RotoWire’s “existing audience, content library, talented workforce, media partnerships and trust with US sports fans” as an opportunity to further increase affiliate revenue in the US.
Peter Schoenke, president and co-founder of RotoWire.com, wrote an open letter to reassure fans of the site that “nothing will be changing with the company as far as our content or our relationship with you”.
He added: “The staff and I are staying on with the new company. The same articles, personalities, features and tools that you enjoy now will remain.”
Charles Gillespie, CEO of Gambling.com Group said: “Over the past 25 years, Peter and the RotoWire team have produced some of the best fantasy sports content in America and have in turn embedded their business into the heart of the American sports experience.”
Currently, RotoWire provides content to, amongst others, ESPN, Yahoo fantasy, NBA.com, Fox Sports and DraftKings.
“Commercially, the RotoWire business has three different revenue streams, each generating over $1m per year, which give it significant reach into sports media organisations as well as with advertisers and individual sports fans.
These deep and long-lasting customer relationships are an ideal platform from which to capitalise on the new era of American sports – the betting and gaming era,” Gillespie added.
Schoenke added: “The United States is entering a whole new world of sports fandom and combining forces with Gambling.com Group will accelerate RotoWire’s growth.”