Bidstack Group PLC – Final Results

Bidstack Group plc (AIM: BIDS.L), the native in-game advertising group, is pleased to announce its final audited results for the year ended 31 December 2018.  The Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2018 will be published on the Company’s website – www.bidstackgroup.com today and copies will also be posted today to those shareholders who have opted to receive physical copies.

2018 was a transformational year for the Company and, in September 2018, saw the Company acquire Bidstack Limited by way of a reverse takeover (“RTO”), raise £3.5m in an over-subscribed placing, and appoint each of James Draper, founder and CEO of Bidstack Limited, Francesco Petruzzelli, founder and CTO of Bidstack Limited, and John McIntosh as CEO, CTO and FD of the Company, respectively.

Highlights

• Acquisition of Bidstack Limited completed on 19 September 2018 for a consideration of £6.8 million, satisfied by the issue of 112,964,011 shares at 6 pence per share;
• Placing of 58,333,340 shares at 6 pence per share to raise £3.5m for the Company also completed on 19 September 2018;
• Revenue £316,906 (2017: £10,034);
• Operating Loss before Acquisition related costs (£1,187,291) (2017: (£494,307)); and
• Cash as at 31 December 2018 of £2.1m (2017: £1,661).

Operational Highlights

• IPO proceeds used to strengthen sales and technical development teams;
• Exclusive dynamic digital advertising contracts now signed with nine games including FM18, FM19 and DiRT Rally 2; 
• Bidstack’s platform is live in both FM18 and FM19 with approximately 1m impressions per day in Asia alone in December 2018; and 
• Platform is live on an end-to-end programmatic basis with PubMatic, operator of a major Supply Side Platform;

Post Year End Highlights

• First full integration with a demand side platform (“DSP”), Avocet, enabling the purchase of advertising inventory on a programmatic basis; 
• Second DSP agreement signed with Platform161 expanding the breadth of Bidstack’s demand side platform; and
• Creation of our Advisory Committee to harness talents of select group of high-profile executives from video games and digital advertising industries. The first two appointments being Pete Beeney (Spotify) and Joel Livesey (The Trade Desk).

Donald Stewart, Chairman, said “I would like to welcome our new shareholders and to thank them for their support.

The team has made great progress in the development of the Bidstack platform since completion of the RTO.

These advances coupled with the high levels of interest in Bidstack’s business model we are experiencing from games publishers, developers and other leading technology businesses all support the Directors’ belief that we have a significant first mover advantage in the provision of dynamic native in-game advertising and that the business will generate highly significant amounts of advertising traffic.

“In order to exploit this substantial opportunity, in the short term the Board intends to prioritise investment in technical developments which will place Bidstack in the best possible position to operate at significantly increased scale.

“We believe this strategy will result in the business being well placed to meet market expectations for 2019 and will facilitate extensive growth in 2020.  As a fast-growing business, we expect that revenues in 2019 will be significantly second half weighted with perhaps a more marked split than previously anticipated.”

James Draper, Chief Executive, said “The video gaming industry is experiencing remarkable growth.  Recent announcements of streaming services will see the industry evolve even further now that tech giants like Google and Apple are investing heavily in this area.  Streaming will allow gamers to access high resolution games without having to own a console or high spec PC, attracting an ever greater audience.

“Streaming, virtual and augmented reality services – as well as the evolving business models towards subscriptions and free to play, make our net-new revenue offering enticing to game publishers and developers.  Crucially, every game publisher we have spoken to welcomes our proposition.

“We believe our business model is a win-win for developers, publishers and advertisers and will position Bidstack well to make the most of its first mover advantage in the provision of dynamic native in-game advertising.

“Bidstack’s strategic challenge is about speed and execution.  Our technology continues to be developed by our highly skilled team in the UK and Riga.  We are ensuring that the Company has the resources, connections and personnel required to maximise the considerable opportunity we find ourselves presented with.

“I believe our business is very well positioned to exploit this growth opportunity and build a highly scalable native in-game advertising business that can carve out a significant position within the video game advertising world.”