SBC News sits down with Ebbe Groes, EveryMatrix CEO, in the wake of the supplier’s undisclosed all-cash deal for FSB Technology. Groes outlines how the deal will bolster its presence in the UK and boost its OddsMatrix platform, while he also divulges the firm’s future M&A plans.
EveryMatrix acquired FSB Technology in July this year, its third acquisition in three years following LeapBit and DeepCI. What was the strategy behind this deal?
We identified FSB towards the end of last year and were in various negotiations since then. The core rationale is to take the union of both these companies and produce something even better than each of us has done as standalone businesses.
Being a successful B2B supplier is all about scale, to secure many clients, to build successful technologies once and to sell them many times over. This gives you the profitability you need to keep investing in product. With FSB added to the group we immediately have better scale, plus market entry into new territories such as UK & Ireland and to further expand in Africa.
Exciting is an overused word but this really qualifies as just that in our universe. This is a big step up for EveryMatrix and we’re really pleased to invite the FSB clientele into the EveryMatrix family. It’s a great opportunity to return to our roots in London where we first started which is very close to where FSB’s office is today.
How have the three acquisitions shaped the company’s standing in the industry?
We’ve previously acquired two other businesses; LeapBit in May 2022, a retail focused sportsbook technology enabling us to create a fully omni-channel sportsbook offering across retail, online and mobile; and DeepCI (now PartnerMatrix Intelligence) in June 2023.
Recently integrated with our affiliate management platform offering PartnerMatrix, PartnerMatrix Intelligence provides customers with unique AI-driven data analysis of any affiliate pages in the world enabling them to take instant, actionable decisions on where best to allocate resources, how best to optimise their campaigns, for example and therefore really drive efficiencies and revenues.
Both these deals have enabled us to grow in both sports and affiliate marketing, strengthening our offering, scaling both business units and adding even more unique firepower to our modular B2B software.
What is EveryMatrix’s M&A strategy now that you’ve got three deals over the line in three years?
We’re looking to invest into the future of the company through M&A. To succeed this must bring added profitability that stands in relation to the investment we make, not only in acquiring the target company but also the – often substantial – effort and resources spent during integration.
We can have different motives and past acquisitions show this. DeepCI was very product driven. FSB, on the other hand, is a market driven deal. They brought a strong set of clients and a strong market presence for us to use and win both instant and increasing market share.
What they have in common – and hopefully all future acquisitions – is strong synergies with EveryMatrix. This can be revenue synergies, upselling a new product to our large existing client portfolio – or upselling our products to the portfolio of the target company. There can also be revenue synergies, whether in using scale to reduce costs through more efficient procurement or migrating from one product to another and reducing overall costs.
M&A in igaming must be viewed differently between B2C and B2B igaming. In B2B, where we find ourselves, the last few years has seen a strong trend of B2C operators buying software capabilities combined with the consolidation of some of the largest B2B providers. The threshold for being a credible B2B provider is gradually increasing. We’re now part of this and we would expect both further consolidation of the main turnkey providers – like our FSB acquisition – while a continued appearance of interesting niche/single-product specialist companies which can eventually become part of multi-vertical suppliers – like our DeepCI acquisition.
How does the acquisition of FSB Technology strengthen OddsMatrix, EveryMatrix’s sportsbook platform?
This acquisition is a fantastic opportunity to make EveryMatrix even better in many dimensions but especially in sportsbook. FSB has always prioritised sportsbook as the core of their success. They’ve been delivering turnkey sportsbook as their lead product and this is something we can really use.
We’ve had some fantastic turnkey wins and delivered some highly complex turnkey projects in the last few years including Bet-at-home and the Hungarian Lottery and proven we are a tier-one provider. So, by taking our two strengths and adding them together, this allows us to stand out as the leading B2B supplier with the best turnkey solution when you look at it from a sportsbook perspective.
Another strength is how strong FSB are in horse racing. They have an in-house trading team who have worked on this product for many years and dedicated clients where horse racing is at the forefront of everything they do.
It’s different from what we’ve known and done but with this product and FSB, alongside their knowhow, technology and client base we stand to greatly benefit and become even stronger than we are today.
What is EveryMatrix’s appetite for future M&A?
M&A and consolidation may have slowed down compared to say five years ago, but there is an increasing amount of innovation in this sector and many more startups and disruptors. This is particularly the case in data automation and AI across all areas of iGaming. I can see these being relevant and beneficial to both operators and suppliers in the years to come.
Completing the FSB deal has been a big achievement for us and is our most ambitious acquisition to date, by value, size, and complexity. Our ability to quickly transact and get this over the line so smoothly has been very impressive.
We’ve funded these deals with our own profits and by reinvesting the funds we’ve generated through our rapid growth to enable us to grow even more in the future. This has been a very successful model. I would never rule anything out, but for now we’re focusing on incorporating key FSB features into our offering, including what has been recognised as one of the strongest horse racing products among sportsbook providers, and to migrate FSB customers to our technology platforms.
These customers will also benefit from our superior modular products including casino, games and aggregation, payments, player account management, managed services and affiliate management and data tracking. Once migrated to OddsMatrix, they will gain access to proven, tier-1 sportsbook and odds feeds products, as well as our technology, development and resource pipeline, decades of industry expertise within our 1,000 employee strong workforce across 13 locations worldwide and a global network of partners.
The original version of this article was published by SBC News.
