Additional Ways to Market Your Company for Sale

Additional Strategies for Positioning Your iGaming Company for Acquisition

Over the last decade I have advised scores of operators, platform suppliers, and affiliates on the road from founder-led start-up to value-maximising exit. If the first wave of teaser e-mails and broker blasts has failed to generate competitive tension around your sale, do not assume the market is disinterested—assume your message has not yet found the right ears. 2024 alone produced more than US $10 billion in disclosed iGaming deals, including Flutter’s US $1.8 billion purchase of Scientific Games’ online division and Boyd Gaming’s acquisition of Resorts Digital, proving that capital is still hunting for quality assets.

Below is a disciplined, confidentiality-sensitive playbook that keeps the narrative length you asked for while moving from generic “spray-and-pray” outreach to a tiered, research-led campaign that resonates with the financial, strategic, and insider buyers who currently dominate deal flow.

1. Recalibrating Your Outreach

If inbound interest has stalled, revisit three pillars: message, medium, and market. First, refine the investment case using metrics that the iGaming buy-side actually prices—lifetime value-to-customer-acquisition-cost (LTV/CAC), exposure to regulated versus grey jurisdictions, and proprietary technology depth. Second, change the channel: paid search and retargeted display on LinkedIn and X now outperform legacy broker mailing lists for high-growth B2B suppliers. Third, retune market coverage by overlaying your in-house licensing map with acquirers actively pursuing those same jurisdictions; the fastest deals I have closed began with licence adjacency rather than pure EBITDA multiples.

Confidentiality is the red thread throughout. In a vertical as reputation-sensitive as gaming, a leaked sale can derail a banking covenant review or trigger a regulator’s “change-of-control” curiosity long before a heads of terms is signed. Use numbered NDAs, staggered data-room access, and watermark every deck. A seasoned M&A adviser can usually maintain secrecy for 60–90 days—long enough to create an auction atmosphere without provoking employee flight.

2. Mapping the Buyer Universe

A single cap-table can be attractive to four macro classes of purchasers—each requiring a slightly different courtship.

Anonymised teasers can be pushed to all four segments, but your follow-up narrative should pivot: strategics need synergy models, financiers need leveragable cash-flow proof, insiders need vendor-finance options.

3. Direct-to-Market Digital Advertising

Google Ads and YouTube pre-roll remain viable for B2C casinos, but B2B SaaS or content studios usually generate higher-value clicks on trade-press newsletters (e.g., iGB, EGR, SBC) and tightly geofenced LinkedIn campaigns aimed at “Head of Corporate Development” job titles. Set impression caps to reduce digital footprints that could be scraped by inquisitive affiliates.

4. Harnessing Your Personal Network

Your next owner may already share a Slack channel with you. Organise discreet breakfasts with former co-founders, venture backers, or even ex-competitors now working inside Tier-1 groups. In my own practice, two of the last seven exits originated from a five-year-old WhatsApp chat of ICE London alumni. A conversational, NDA-fronted approach often surfaces price-agnostic buyers who value cultural fit over strict IRR targets.

Word-of-mouth scales fast: once five people know, assume fifty will know within the week, so prepare a holding statement for staff and key suppliers in case the rumour escapes.

5. Internal Succession: MBOs, MBIs, and ESOPs

Management buy-outs (MBO) suit affiliate networks where leadership already controls the day-to-day trading accounts. The upside is operational continuity; the downside is leverage. Expect to vendor-finance at least 30 % of consideration or agree to an earn-out.

Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) can be powerful retention tools, especially for dev-heavy content studios whose value walks out the door at 6 p.m. every day. ESOPs, however, are paperwork-intensive and seldom deliver top-quartile pricing; think of them as talent insurance rather than liquidity maximisation.

Any announcement to staff must be choreographed. Draft two Q&A scripts: one for managers involved in the diligence room, another for rank-and-file employees whose main fear is a change in payroll date rather than strategic vision.

6. Competitor & Near-Neighbour Sales

Competitors understand your KPIs in seconds, which accelerates diligence but magnifies leak risk. To mitigate, release staged data: first revenue clusters, then customer concentrations, then licence files only under a “no-solicitation” rider.

Outside pure head-to-head rivals, “near-neighbour” strategics—payments gateways, odds suppliers, game aggregators—now fuel a majority of mid-market deals because they are seeking distribution, not just EBITDA. Analysts tracking 2025 iGaming deal volume estimate that technology-driven adjacencies will outpace classic operator roll-ups by 3:1.

7. Professional Intermediaries Worth Cultivating

• Accountants & legal advisers – Many run sector desks; a two-page teaser can travel across those desks worldwide within 24 hours.

• Industry consultants – Boutique strategy shops often coach PE firms pre-deal; get on their radar early.

• Trade associations – Membership of the European Betting & Gaming Association (EBGA) or the US-based iDevelopment & Economic Association (iDEA) grants access to investor breakfasts and sealed Slack channels.

• Retired C-suite executives – These individuals can bridge trust gaps between buyers and regulators, especially for multi-jurisdictional licence transfers.

Offer success fees or referral commissions aligned with market norms (2-3 % on the first €10 m falling to 1 % thereafter).

8. The Extended Buyer Pool

Competitors’ senior staff may seek a carve-out via management buy-in; high-value customers sometimes graduate to partial ownership, especially in B2B segments where their purchasing volume already shapes your roadmap; suppliers hungry for vertical integration—content studios buying RNG licence holders, for example—regularly pay above-market multiples for secure demand channels.

Finally, treat investor-backed buyers—often SPAC remnants or single-purpose vehicles created by family offices—exactly like strategics: insist on NDAs and proof of funds. None of my mandates goes to a management meeting without verified capital, a lesson learned after a faux-fund approached three UK sportsbooks claiming sovereign wealth backing.

Private-equity appetite remains robust. Funds raised in 2021–22 must deploy or return capital by 2027; with public-market multiples still below their 2021 peak, add-on iGaming deals priced at 6-8× EBITDA look compelling next to SaaS.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. How long should an iGaming sale process take in 2025?

A competitive process for a sub-€100 m asset typically spans 9–12 months—three for preparation, three for buyer outreach, and three to six for exclusivity, licensing approvals, and closing. Multi-jurisdiction licences can extend timelines by 20 %.

Q2. What valuation multiples are realistic?

Pure‐play affiliates with flat growth trade at 3–5× EBITDA, while regulated-market B2B platform providers with recurring SaaS income can command 8–10×. Regulated B2C operators sit in the 5–8× band, but strategic synergies can lift that ceiling.

Q3. Does taking cryptocurrency payments raise or lower valuation?

If robust AML controls are in place, crypto integration is neutral to slightly positive; it broadens TAM and signals tech agility. Poorly documented crypto flows, however, are a red flag for both strategics and PE.

Q4. Should I disclose grey-market revenue in the teaser?

Yes, but bucket the numbers under “Other International” and release precise country splits only after NDA; undisclosed grey exposure discovered in diligence can halve an earn-out.

Q5. Is an earn-out inevitable?

Roughly 70 % of mid-market iGaming exits in 2024 used an earn-out to bridge valuation gaps. Plan for 12–36 months, tied to EBITDA or NGR milestones, and cap earn-out at 30 % of headline price to preserve upside without sacrificing certainty.

Q6. Can I run a dual-track IPO and trade sale?

In today’s muted public markets, dual-track processes rarely survive past the first S-1 draft; the IPO turns into leverage for a higher trade-sale offer. Only consider it if you exceed €100 m EBITDA or hold a dominant licence footprint.

Closing Thoughts

The M&A window for quality iGaming assets remains open despite macro volatility. Draft a narrative that highlights growth vectors regulators will tolerate, use a multi-track buyer engagement matrix that layers confidentiality controls over digital reach, and remember: the best price often comes from the party already paying you licensing, content, or payment-processing fees today. Position your story for that audience, and 2025’s appetite for tech-enabled gaming businesses should do the rest.