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    2018 was a record year for Aspire Global

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    Home Aspire Global > Media > 2018 was a record year for Aspire Global

    An interview with Tsachi Maimon, CEO at Aspire Global speaks about record high 2018 and the company’s strategy for 2019. The interview was published on the Swedish Shareholders’ Association website.

    1. Within B2B, revenues increased by 88% percent in your fourth quarter. More efficient partners were the primary key to growth. Could you elaborate a bit on this?

    Tsachi Maimon, CEO of Aspire Global: “In the last year, we decided to higher the bar for engagement with partners. We have broader due diligence on the partners in order to make sure they have the right marketing budget and marketing capabilities in order to drive high value to Aspire.“

     

    1. Could you describe the criteria for a new potential B2B partner?

    “First of all, we are investigating if they have any bad history in the gaming sector. We are checking different forums and also making some due diligence on the owners. After that, we are checking their business potential capabilities- what is their marketing budget, what are the channels they are planning to operate in and also on a personal level to see if the team is a good one to partner with. “

     

    1. Could you explain the development for your betting vertical in your own B2C business?

    “Sure, it is a pure success story. We launched this vertical only at the end of Q1 2018, so we have less than 12-months experience, and the results were much more than we expected. We believe that some of the layers we developed on top of the regular betting odds, making our product more sticky and engaging.“

     

    1. Re-regulation in Sweden is likely to accelerate your growth in Sweden. When do you think we can start to see increased revenue from Swedish partners?

    “It’s a good question. Currently, our market share in Sweden is small. We are now developing some unique features specific to the Swedish market like the popular payment method- swish and also the possibility to login via your bank ID. We believe that those features, in addition to the excellent marketing knowledge our partners have in the online and social networks like Facebook and Google, will allow us to grow in the Swedish market. We expect this to affect revenues in H2 2019.”

     

    1. What can you say about acquisitions?

    “We have enough money in our bank account – through our own operation and through the bond we issued a few months ago– but we are looking for the right candidates for acquisition. We are familiar with most of the “acquisition targets” out there and trying to make sure that the one we chose will be a successful one for the long term. We often see acquisitions that were good in the short term but not necessarily in the long term. We don’t want to fail here.“

     

    1. Is it challenging to find companies to acquire in today’s climate?

    “Not necessarily. There are a lot of companies that are looking to be acquired. The challenging thing is to find the quality ones.”

    1. You recently announced new financial targets, what are the most important steps you will take to achieve them?

    “Yes, we are feeling very confident with the targets we announced. I believe that improving our product in areas we know will contribute more income to the company, plus opening more markets for our partners to operate will do the work.“

    1. Given that your EBITDA marginal for Q4 is 20 percent, your long-term financial EBITDA marginal target of 16 percent looks low, why is this?

    “True, the calculation we did is by taking our existing markets where we currently have revenues from, and we know that high chances are that they will be regulated in the coming years so we wanted already to take into consideration the gaming duties that we will need to pay.“

    1. What are your main growth opportunities when you step in 2019, and what are your biggest challenges?

    “Our growth opportunities for 2019 is by opening more markets for our partners and launching more operators that will offer sport + casino. We believe that it will trigger nicely on the revenues. Our challenges are to make sure everything we plan, will be on time and with the quality we wish for.“