Angler Gaming: agnat för framgång

2012-11-27 10:50, Edited at: 2012-11-27 11:11

I en exklusiv VD-intervju synar vi förutsättningarna för Angler Gaming att lyckas i Sydamerika. Fokus på kasino och oexploaterade marknader ger goda förutsättningar för en stark tillväxt.

Hans Dahlgren är VD på Angler Gamings operationella dotterbolag Starfish Media. Ambitionen är att växa kraftigt på de sydamerikanska marknaderna där konkurrensen ännu är begränsad och där bolagets fokus på kasino skiljer det ur mängden.

Bolaget marknadsför sig just nu i Chile, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, medan Brasilien står på tur. Först 2014 budgeterar bolaget med ett positivt EBITDA-resultat och aktiens resa på börsen har hittills varit mycket volatil. Vi räknar med fortsatt stora kurssvängningar, samtidigt som vår bedömning är att bolaget har goda möjligheter att överträffa sitt mål 2015 att nå en omsättning på cirka 50 MSEK, med ett EBITDA-resultat på cirka 16 MSEK. Med ett börsvärde på 84 MSEK vid kursen 2,00 kronor är åtminstone en del av den tillväxten redan inprisad i aktiekursen.

DM: How do you pick which markets to launch on? Is it the usual; use of internet payments, a tradition of casino games, high growth of broadband?

HD: Factors such as e-commerce and broadband penetration combined with certain social factors are dominant when picking a market, but as we also have statistics from Betsson we can extrapolate which markets we think has the best potential. For Emerging Markets, one also has to account for factors such as taxes on foreign transaction and special exchange rates against certain currencies.

DM: What does competition look like in your selected markets?

HD: The competition is currently limited as the potential revenue is still small compared to European markets. Smaller operators like BetMotion and PokerLoco as well as larger ones like bWin.party, 888 and PokerStars operate on some of the same markets. Our strategy however is to focus strictly on casino games and that specific segment has less competition as the larger competitors mainly focus on their Sportsbook and Poker products since their marketing budget allows for sponsoring football clubs, world-wide known poker players and so forth.

DM: Is there a risk you might lose focus launching on many markets at once since you are only half a dozen people or are the affiliates doing most of the job?

HD: There is little risk for us to lose focus as we constantly re-evaluate the markets based on performance and can thus give more focus to the ones performing well. We originally allocated the same budget for all markets but as some proved better than others based on player activity, we adjusted the marketing strategy accordingly. CasinoEstrella is currently being marketed in social media and certain ad-networks as well as through SEO. Traffic from affiliates is picking up and we expect that to continue going forward.

DM: Do you buy customer support from a third party supplier?

HD: We currently have in-house support as we believe it is one of the essential building blocks of a good gaming company and need to ensure its quality. This is one of the main reasons why for example BetSafe became such a success. The cost of in-house compared to outsourced support is more or less the same, however, having in-house support also gives us the opportunity to lower operational costs for translations and man-power when it comes to building our brand through blogs and social media.

DM: When do you intend to launch your Brazilian brand?

HD: During Q4 2012.

DM: How should investors view the legal risk normally associated with online gambling in Angler Gaming?

HD: The legal risk associated with Angler Gaming is in line with that of most other operators and is currently neither more or less, than for example, those operators targeting Sweden. The only exception is Argentina where gaming is regulated on a provincial level and operators can only engage players in the province where they hold their license. The only province that has any larger operators is Misiones where bWin is regulated and formerly Victor Chandler. However, Victor Chandler exited the market due to their assessment regarding market maturity coupled with the fact that bWin’s gamble to target Buenos Aires from Misiones did not quite work out as expected according to popular opinion. No federal regulations currently exist in Argentina.