Strategy Update

RNS Number : 1001E

Bidstack Group PLC

26 October 2022

 

Certain information contained within this Announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR") as applied in the United Kingdom. Upon publication of this Announcement, this information is now considered to be in the public domain.

26 October 2022

Bidstack Group Plc

("Bidstack" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Strategy Update

Following the successful conclusion of its shareholders' meeting on 25 October 2022, Bidstack Group Plc (AIM: BIDS), the in-game brand activation platform, is pleased to share an update on its strategy for the accelerated growth of the business.

The Board is excited that the Group's increased focus on the US market is starting to create traction and its team is continuing to grow.  The recruitment campaign focused on recruiting US-based sales, gaming and marketing professionals with significant experience in gaming, digital advertising and with local market knowledge is continuing and, following the announcement of Jude O'Connor (CRO) and Camila Franklin (COO), the team now comprises nine people. 

As announced on 20 September 2022, the Directors' target of annual revenue from the US market of US$100m or more within the next three years is already starting to become visible and members of the US team are incentivised to provide these results.

Asia-Pacific is also becoming a key region which exhibits favourable market dynamics for gaming and advertising.  Bidstack has appointed Motoki Kikuta (Regional Lead) based in Tokyo to capture the opportunity with local game developers and media agencies.

Bidstack's breadth of game developers continues to grow given new products, ad-formats and the acceleration of adoption of the Company's platform.  This is reflected in several new commercial deals: 

● Bidstack has signed with global mobile developer Outfit7 for its portfolio of games which have global reach and up to 470m monthly active users; and

● Bidstack now has a partnership with Unity as a Unity Verified Solution.  The Verified Solution status has been rigorously tested and will see the Bidstack SDK featured on Unity platforms as a "best-in-class" monetisation solution for game developers.

Bidstack's technology and licensing business is also becoming a crucial pillar of growth for the future. This part of the Group's business has already achieved a number of enterprise agreements, including a contract to provide a leading Asia-Pacific mobile marketing technology company with the ability to white-label the platform, as announced on 11 July 2022. Since then it has signed a multi-year deal with metaverse franchise, SimWin Sports.

The Directors are pleased with the Group's technology and licensing business' pipeline of both demand and supply side customers wishing to license Bidstack's self-serve platform in non-core markets.

Bidstack is working to build a transparent, open marketplace which removes barriers to the growth of programmatic buying and selling in gaming environments. As demand for in-game advertising continues to grow in line with advancements in measurement and brand safety, Bidstack's product roadmap is expected to deliver the following items in 2023:

● Further SSP capabilities by expanding connections with enterprise partners and integrating new ad formats to scale inventory access; and

● Expanded data infrastructure to ingest third-party data sources for verification, viewability and attribution and reporting capabilities for audience activation and campaign optimisation.

As a consequence of these developments, Bidstack intends to undertake a comprehensive business review, specifically reassessing and renegotiating, where appropriate, both existing and new reseller engagements in all geographies in order to maximise the benefits of its contacts with developers, publishers, ad-tech vendors and media companies.  This strategy is based on the Group's early evidence of its success in selling directly into North America and Japan.

Bidstack's has uploaded an investor presentation which can be found at www.bidstack.com/investors .

James Draper, Founder/CEO said:

"Bidstack has an aggressive growth strategy for 2023 and beyond. We are happy to share the new revenue streams the Group is exploring, including licensing our proprietary technology, empowering IP rights holders to control their brand activations in the virtual world and the expansion of our gaming 'SSP', which now houses all ad-formats within the gaming ecosystem.

"This is an exciting period where we are looking to accelerate our top line growth and look to cement our position as the dominant technology provider for game developers and platform owners for targeted, brand-based communications within gaming environments and applications."

-ENDS-

Contacts

Bidstack Group Plc James Draper, CEO	via Buchanan
SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nomad) Mark Brady / Neil Baldwin / James Keeshan	[phone]
Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Broker) Fred Walsh / Tom Marsh	[phone]
Buchanan Communications Limited Chris Lane / Stephanie Whitmore / Kim van Beeck [e-mail]	[phone]

 

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