Esports and sports betting, media, and technology company, Rivalry, outlined its recent progress and strategic outlook for 2023 in a letter to its shareholders, expressing its belief that it will be another year of record achievements for the business.
Closer Look at 2022
Highlighting 2022 as a breakout year for the company in which it achieved triple-digit growth in revenue and betting handle year-over-year, and achieved its first profitable month in October, Rivalry stressed the importance of diversification which reduced the impact of seasonality and eliminated the firm’s dependency on bonuses and player subsidies.
I’m extremely proud of the differentiated approach Rivalry has taken from day one and what it has enabled us to achieve, creating a truly distinct product and brand that is driving operating leverage and bearing fruit across the business.
Steven Salz, chief executive officer and co-founder of Rivalry
The approach already proved its value to Rivalry, allowing it to cut bonus and other promotional spend in 2022 by 50% relative to its revenue year-over-year and achieve a below-market cost of customer acquisition, decouple the business from its reliance on new net spend for growth and set it on a path to profitability.
Delving deeper, the letter explained to Rivalry shareholders some of the nuances of the firm’s approach to customer acquisition derived from gaming and internet culture and knowledge of demographics gained by participating in player communities to instill lasting brand affinity among gaming fans who are viewed as the consumers of the future economy.
Due to this intimate understanding of the audiences and cultures that are bound to shape the next generation of consumer products, Rivalry believes it will be able to “tap into a global gaming audience and drive betting activity among … 532 million esports viewers worldwide.”
Future Outlook
Looking into 2023 and beyond, Rivalry is planning to expand its esports offering with new titles and markets, release new in-house developed and third-party games on its proprietary Casino.exe platform, launch a mobile app to increase accessibility for its product, increase addressable market and customer base geographically, expand content and partner program, and continue with the proactive capital markets outreach to attract new investors.
Seeking to advance the business toward consistent profitability, Rivalry will be looking to create margin stability while increasing the average customer spend, build intrinsic value capture via the increased total addressable market, and improve retention cost, as well as lower customer acquisition cost further.
“As we move into 2023, we’re eager to continue demonstrating the same operational excellence which has enabled us to stand out in a deeply competitive industry,” Salz concluded.