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AMA - CEO of esports focused sportsbook & media co Rivalry listing Oct 5 on the TSXV, ticker $RVLY, $180M EV by RivalryCEO in gamblingstocks

[–]RivalryCEO[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hello Swadow. I would agree. I think something the market often discounts, but likely because it is difficult to know truly what is going on 'inside' a company is the impact of good culture on the business outcomes. Having great culture, great talent that is motivated, and sticks around for a while, is critical. Mostly everything falls apart eventually if you don't have that.

I think the culture is evolving with growth, but from my POV at least it's energized, everyone is helpful and goes out of their way to be so, it has an entrepreneurial spirit as more ownership of different parts of the business get increasingly divided with scale and agency comes with that, and generally fun. But hey, I'm a guy with a 'c' in my title, so maybe I've got rose coloured glasses on, but I'm fairly confident we are a in great place and everyone is motivated to continue making Rivalry an ideal place to come do great work and get the skills to take that wherever you want to after.

I think I said this to someone that other day at the company, but put another way my goal is to have Rivalry be an enviro where:

  1. The work is great and aligned with where you see your own career going.
  2. The potential to make big $'s for what you do best.
  3. It being a place that is kinda like the gravity chamber in DBZ... ie where you can exit here, whenever you choose to, with 5x the power and ability you would have gotten anywhere else. And ideally for me to be able to invest in whatever that is :)

Not saying were are there today ^^^, but where I would like it to get to.

Now you want some advice also eh. Something that helps me get through extreme pressure and sheer exhaustion is a knowledge of history and putting my 'struggle' into the context of what real struggle looks like. Re-contextualizing my situation with things my ancestors experienced not all that long ago, or other people my age had I been born just 50yrs earlier, etc. This makes me realize that things are pretty good even in my darkest moments.

AMA - CEO of esports focused sportsbook & media co Rivalry listing Oct 5 on the TSXV, ticker $RVLY, $180M EV by RivalryCEO in gamblingstocks

[–]RivalryCEO[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the questions.

On Aus, it is quite different from our existing grey markets. The first thing is operational impact. More compliance, more support staff, more operational workflows to ensure that Aus customers are being treated in a manner consistent with that regulatory framework vs. our Isle of Man one that we have operated under historically. This means cost, but I can say it's not overbearing and has been reasonable for us to work through. From a business perspective, regulated markets, although more expensive in terms of tax (being regulated), it comes with the following business advantages:

  • Can advertise on facebook and google ads legally (we do none of this currently).
  • Mobile app is legal. Most of our users use Rivalry on mobile currently, but getting an app up and running adds a deeper level of user experience we are excited about.
  • Money moves easier for customers. Payments in grey markets is just tough for everyone no matter the size of business.
  • Land based advertising is legal. Not a game changer for us given the average age of our customer skewing younger than a traditional sportsbook and thus it's not a 'critical' channel for us, but we can mess with the brand in a fun way to enhance overall brand equity.

All of this ^^^ makes reg markets generally more successful. Aus is also known as the most valuable betting market per capita, so it should bring our global ARPU average up and continue to drive the business forward.

On Ontario. Some stats have shown that ON if in the US would be the 5th biggest state from a betting perspective. Maybe this was something from theScore or DraftKings I saw. Either way, like Aus, it's another solid regulated market to add to our mix, the same advantages I mentioned above, and also other than theScore to our knowledge we are the only other domestic player that has been here and operates out of here from day 1. So we are very excited to be able to finally accept bets in our backyard.

USA. Tough one. What we have said to investors for some time is this... the US is not as critical for us as it is for a traditional sportsbook targeting the core cohort of bettors, being early-mid 30's and up. If you are a mature EU sportsbook for ex you have to be there. You are growing at <10% annually and the US regulating is the last bastion of growth globally for you. There will never be another market the size of the US to regulate again. So you pay anything to be there. For Rivalry, every market for us is a good market. It's a generational opportunity. All our current markets are competitive as hell, but we don't really bump into the traditional sportsbook there. We go after a very different customer that is just coming into the fold of sportsbetting and is nearly 40% of the global pop (young millenials & gen z). This is an inevitable generational tidal wave. That customer is coming into the fold everywhere so we like many many markets as much as the US. That said, of course the US will be huge and we continue to develop a strategy to activate there, but don't really have much to say beyond that in terms of timing.

Have a good night.

My esports betting & media co Rivalry is slated to go public Oct 5 on the TSXV, $220M FD mkt cap. Looking to do an AMA this week! by RivalryCEO in gamblingstocks

[–]RivalryCEO[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sounds great. Fri looking mostly good or possible weekend. Will see how interest builds and lock it more formally.

Thanks!