Super Group Limited (SGHC), the parent company of global online sports betting and gaming Betway, and multi-brand online casino Spin, has started a whole new chapter as it became a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on January 28, under the symbol “SGHC.”
In an exclusive video interview with Yogonet, conducted just a few hours after the company’s shares began trading, Super Group President Richard Hasson said this process is a culmination of over two decades of building the business across the world. “And now, as the business moves from being a privately owned business into a publicly-traded business, that’s going to give us a platform to continue to deliver on our strategy and on our growth across the world,” he says.
The deal to go public was announced last April, consisting of a merger with special purpose acquisition company Sports Entertainment Acquisition Corp. (SEAH) at a valuation of nearly $5 billion. Hasson thinks that since that announcement, “people have become a lot more aware of who the Super Group is and what we do,” which will “open significant doors.” Being a public company brings additional currency, which eventually could be used for potential M&A, he adds.
Super Group has recently released projections for full-year 2022 net gaming revenue of more than $1.7 billion, up from 1.5 billion last year, and EBITDA at over $420 million, increasing from 350 million. “There is going to be growth that comes from new markets, from existing markets, you may have seen our brands were launched in nine new markets last year, and there’s a very healthy pipeline for this year,” he explains.
Hasson notes Super Group’s business is not dependent on one single region or market, as it has a very diversified revenue stream, operating in 26 different languages, with licenses in more than 25 different jurisdictions, “and it’s a constant search of the additional revenue adding on to our existing base and continuing to grow across all these markets.”
Furthermore, SGHC President says they are not focused on any one country, but on the global opportunity, and cites H2 Gambling Capital estimates of a global gaming opportunity above 125 billion dollars, so he sees “a lot of upsides to grow in many different markets.” “In terms of the U.S. specifically, that’s one opportunity along with many, many other countries and other regions that our brands will be launching or are already live in,” he says. “We’re bringing more than 20 years of experience into all new markets that we go into, and we will apply the same principles, the same ethos, the same thinking into the U.S. once Digital Gaming Corporation becomes part of Super Group.”
When asked about the booming metaverse, and potential investments in immersive technologies for that area, Hasson said that’s one of many channels that the company’s teams would potentially be looking at. “It’s constantly innovating, it’s constantly improving and enhancing our product, and depending on which market we’re in and ensuring every single customer is being provided with the right level of entertainment using a product that they’re happy with. If the metaverse comes into that at some point, then we’ll leave it to our product guys into our country teams in terms of understanding exactly what it is that our customers are.”
Board's John Collins, Chair Eric Grubman, CEO Neal Menashe, President Richard Hasson.
Next in the same video interview came John Collins, former CEO of Sports Entertainment Acquisition Corporation and now Super Group’s board member. “They were a very different type of company to use the SPAC tool as a way to ultimately go public because they are a real company. They’ve got the global scale. They’re profitable, they make money every day,” Collins notes. His business partner at SEAH, Eric Grubman, will now continue as chairman.
“Super Group’s story never changed in terms of who they were and how they viewed the opportunity and how they were going to begin to execute. What did change, though, was the lens that the capital markets, the investors really view the sector. And so they went from really high growth and valuing that opportunity almost exclusively to really beginning to value what usually the capital markets value, which is obviously high growth because they still are a high growth company, with profitability. And when you start to look at it through that lens, along with many of the other attributes that Supergoop has, control of their own tech stack, its decades of experience, global scale. There are not many companies that stand up to Super Group and certainly not many companies that are currently in the capital markets who look like Super Group,” Collins tells Yogonet.
Betway has announced sponsorships with NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, and NHL’s New Jersey Devils over the past months. “I think the leagues and the teams are first sweeping to take as much sponsorship and advertising revenue as they possibly can because there are so many players who are flush with capital from the public markets. And that’s been a bit of the story over the last 12 months,” Collins says. “I think as we get into a different type of capital market that doesn’t necessarily reward that. I think it’ll take a lot more creativity to really begin to figure out how you can truly partner with the leagues and the teams across the sports field. Because I think that those individuals, the teams in the leagues are only just beginning to scratch the surface in terms of how these relationships can really grow my business. I think one of the huge opportunities that Richard has already identified is the fact that Betway has such a global scale. And so as you think about a partnership with any of the leagues in North America, whether it’s the NHL and the NBA or even frankly, the NFL, that’s what they’re interested in, right? They want to see how this relationship can help them build their fan base internationally. And I know Betway has a lot of ideas still to come on that end because of their global perspective.”
