The rise of pro gamers and dedicated fan bases has boosted user numbers on streaming platforms like Twitch, which Amazon bought in 2014 for $970 million. The opportunity in streaming is vast, with just a handful of platforms dominating the US$3.8 billion industry. Kick continues to attract fresh streamers, with its alluring 95/5 revenue split supporting the platform’s growth from 9,000 active channels in January to 67,000 active channels in April. With such strong growth and a positive attitude towards gambling streaming, Kick poses a formidable challenge to Twitch's dominance.

While the US and other newly regulated markets present exciting opportunities for affiliates, we are particularly enthusiastic about the prospects for affiliates focused on directing bettors towards crypto wagering operators. Similar to the US market dynamics, numerous crypto operators are currently vying for market share and affiliates are well-remunerated for delivering depositing bettors to crypto operators.

World-renowned investor Warren Buffett and numerous other famous investors were initially influenced by betting and bookmaking (particularly horse racing) before transitioning to financial markets. The new wave of professional bettors are now finding success in financial markets as well, with significant cross-over in the statistical analysis and thought processes applied across the two domains.

In May last year, we first discussed the opportunity of crypto wagering, which is the fastest growing part of the wagering industry. Some online crypto operators have rapidly become large businesses and well-recognised global brands, such as Stake.com and Sportsbet.io. Whilst there are numerous existing B2B wagering platforms for fiat operators, there are just a handful of platforms built for crypto operators.

The large betting syndicates receive generous rebates from pari-mutuel/tote betting for providing liquidity. This gives them a significant edge over other participants. To receive this rebate, bettors need to turnover vast sums of money.
There has never been more data and technology applied to professional betting as there is today. The increasing power and prevalence of AI is the latest wave of technological disruption, which presents opportunities and threats to betting syndicates.

India’s online wagering market is growing at a rate of over 20% annually and has become an attractive market for global operators and B2B suppliers due to the country’s rapid development (GDP per capita has doubled since 2009) and the presence of over 370 million bettors. ​​The Indian cricket wagering industry alone is estimated to already be worth US$150 billion, with around 85% of Indian bettors wagering on the sport.

US bettors are incredibly frustrated with both the US online wagering experience and the US taxation system (regarding the treatment of winnings). These hurdles are pushing volume to unregulated operators, such as those operating in Costa Rica. Regulated operators (such as FanDuel) are able to develop strong brand awareness in the US through marketing channels unavailable to unregulated operators. A vote on Flutter’s US listing would require a 75% approval rate at Flutter’s April annual meeting.

Online crypto operators, such as Stake.com and Sportsbet.io, have a similar user experience to online fiat operators, and are already recording extraordinary turnover. We are seeing opportunities emerging to invest in the next generation of wagering platforms, leveraging new technology and embedding modern third party integrations. These platforms will integrate crypto at the technology layer rather than as an afterthought. Considering the continued growth of crypto wagering globally as well as all online wagering in the US, we are very excited by the possible opportunities.

The world’s largest professional betting syndicates wager billions of dollars each year by exploiting a unique ‘edge’ across sports and horse racing. There are several emerging syndicates across both sports and horse racing. One such racing-focused syndicate is led by Dominic Catsaras and another syndicate focused on tennis is led by Tom Dry. 

Flutter effectively leverages its experience gained outside the US to grow FanDuel with a focus on near-term profitability. In 2021, the US represented just 22.5% of Flutter’s overall revenue. Flutter’s third quarter results demonstrated FanDuel’s clear market leadership, with 42% gross gaming revenue market share in online sports betting and 18% market share in iGaming.