Swedish Company Better Collective Purchases VegasInsider, Sister Site

• Stockholm-based Better Collective has purchased VegasInsider and ScoresAndOdds for $20 million in cash.
• The sites will change from their current subscription-based models to an affiliate link platform.
• Better Collective is the world’s largest sports betting affiliate company.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – “The Global Leader in Sports Gaming Information” has found a new home.

VegasInsider, which has been handicapping sporting events and publishing odds since 1997, has been purchased by Stockholm-based Better Collective. The deal, worth a reported $20 million, also includes VegasInsider’s sister site, ScoresAndOdds.

The two brands will bolster Better Collective’s growing portfolio, which was expanded in May with the $21 million acquisition of the RotoGrinders family of websites.

“With the acquisition of the two mega-brands, VegasInsider.com and ScoresAndOdds.com, Better Collective is paving the way to expand [its] position as the market leading sports betting information company to include the US,” said Better Collective co-founder and CEO Jesper Søgaard.

“I am confident that we, by way of these acquisitions, have put Better Collective in pole position for a market leading position in the US states where online sports betting will be regulated and available.”

That regulation is a key consideration in how Better Collective intends to change things going forward. Historically, the revenue model in play at VegasInsider and ScoresAndBets has been based on subscription fees, pick sales, and basic advertising.

Now, however, Better Collective intends to convert these properties into affiliate-based products. As the largest sports betting affiliate in the world, Better Collective’s core competencies should make that transition as smooth as possible.

Per the company’s press release, Better Collective intends to “make a technical and commercial overhaul of the websites in order to facilitate regulated affiliate marketing…from the states that allow online sports betting.”

The timeline for the changeover suggests that both VegasInsider and ScoresAndOdds will start sending affiliate traffic to regulated sportsbooks in Q3 2019, though profit from these sites will be depressed until approximately H2 2020.

Currently, a total of 10 states have active, regulated sportsbooks operating within their borders. A further half-dozen states have also legalized the pastime, with books pending launch sometime before the end of the year.

Considering the rate at which legal sports betting is coming to America, this deal is nothing if not timely.

During last year’s NFL season – the first to take place amid expanded US sports betting – VegasInsider and ScoresAndOdds netted over 15 million unique visitors per month between them.

It isn’t out of the question that Better Collective’s new assets could be handling affiliate links for sportsbooks in 25 or more states by this time next year.

News tags: Better Collective | Jesper Sogaard | RotoGrinders | ScoresAndOdds | Stockholm | Sweden | VegasInsider