XLMedia Acquires Saturday Football Inc in a $23m Deal

The total consideration of the acquisition is $23.0mln in cash plus $1.0mln in long-term incentive shares.

XLMedia Strengthens Existing Partnership with Saturday Football Inc 

The top digital performance publisher XLMedia is taking over Saturday Football Inc, an online publisher of US college (American) football news, the company announced today. XLMedia will pay $23.0m in cash plus $1.0m in long term incentive shares. 

Saturday Football Inc. was founded in 2014, and currently operates two leading college football media sites with about 10m visits per month. The collaboration between XLMedia and Saturday Football Inc. commenced in December 2020 through an agency partnership, which led to a number of revenue opportunities and close ties between the two companies.

XLMedia’s payment will be carried out in two batches – an upfront consideration of $11.0m in cash plus an additional $12.0m, payable over three years. The Acquisition will be funded from XLMedia’s existing cash reserves. 

XLMedia expects to benefit from the large US College Football marketplace, which will add up to its existing US sports vertical. XLMedia also pointed out Saturday Football Inc.’s key brand sponsorships, established social media presence, video and content production, and programmatic AdTech capabilities as strong advantages. 

Unaudited revenue and underlying earnings (EBITDA) of Saturday Football’s sites reached about $2.5mln $606,000 or so respectively over the 12 months ending 31 July 2021, according to XLMedia estimates. 

This transaction provides additional operation depth and reach to our sports footprint which we believe is fast becoming a significant growth driver for our business.” 

Stuart Simms, chief executive officer of XLMedia 

XLMedia remains a strong market player reporting approximately $38.0 million in cash balance as of the end of June 2021, up from the $24.8 million for the same period last year. In December 2020, the company finalized a $12 million cash and $3.5 million shares deal for the acquisition of CBWG Sports‘ US-centered portfolio. 

US College Football Season to Boost XLMedia Revenue 

XLMedia’s management believes that the closer collaboration with CBWG Sports will contribute to the generation of more revenue from the partnership with Saturday Football Inc. The acquisition of Saturday Football Inc will also create significant cross-marketing opportunities for XLMedia and will open its doors to the South and Midwest States, including markets with the potential to legalize sports betting. 

Simms added that the forthcoming US College Football season will provide additional opportunities to XLMedia, while its growing US presence is ideally positioned to further support the team at Saturday Football Inc.