Sports media and affiliate business Playmaker Capital reported record profitability for the three months ending 31 March 2023.
Playmaker characterised the “strong growth” in Q1 as a consequence of the deepening engagement the business has achieved with sports fans in North America.
Chief executive Jordan Gnat emphasised that continuing growth in the year ahead would be driven by intensifying the Playmaker integration efforts and advancing operational efficiencies throughout the business.
“Efforts are under way to integrate our affiliate business, Wedge, with our scale of audience across the Americas,” said Gnat.
“We see a strong organic revenue opportunity here and will continue to work to optimise our growing audience through our full-service monetisation stack – programmatic, direct sales, direct-to-consumer and affiliate – while delivering our fans the best local, relevant content that is available when, how and where they want it.”
Significant Playmaker Q1 growth
Playmaker reported revenue of $15.7m in the first quarter, a 190.7% increase from the $5.6m the business achieved in the same period the previous year.
Of this $9.7m comprised Playmaker’s digital media business, while $6.0m resulted from the organisation’s affiliate business.
Excluding the financial impacts of the company’s October acquisition of igaming affiliate Wedge Traffic, the business experienced 69% growth over Q1 2022.
In terms of adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation or amortisation (EBITDA), the business recorded $5.9m, an organic increase of 76%.
The purchase of Wedge significantly affected the business’ costs and expenses, with the total increasing to $10.9m from the $5.6m achieved in the prior period.
Continuing profitability and EBITDA margin growth
Overall, the business received $160,900 in net profit in Q1, compared to the $3.4m loss Playmaker reported the previous year.
“We are very pleased with the revenue growth we delivered in Q1 but, even more importantly, profitability continues to improve, with adjusted EBITDA growing faster than revenue during the period,” said chief financial officer Mike Cooke.
Cooke said that the business’ increased profitability and EBITDA margin was due to improving efficiencies across the business.
“As of 31 March 2023, we have sufficient cash on hand to continue to execute against both organic and inorganic growth opportunities in a focused, strategic way.”