Nobody expected this kind of blowout. When Gambling.com Group announced their second-quarter numbers for 2025, they didn’t just beat expectations – they absolutely demolished them. With earnings per share hitting $0.37 against predictions of just $0.17, this performance was like watching someone hit a royal flush twice in a row.
But here’s the thing about this company – they’ve been defying expectations for nearly two decades now, transforming from a humble bedroom startup into one of the most dominant forces in online gambling marketing. And their latest quarter suggests they’re just getting started.
The Numbers That Made Everyone Take Notice
Let’s start with the headline grabbers. Revenue shot up 30% year-over-year, landing at a company record of $39.6 million and easily surpassing forecasts of $38.92 million. Meanwhile, gross profit climbed 27% to reach $36.9 million, with margins sitting pretty at an impressive 94.55%. Those are the kind of numbers that make CFOs smile and competitors nervous.
Adjusted EBITDA grew by 22% to $13.7 million, while something really interesting happened with their revenue mix – recurring revenue now makes up more than half of total sales. That’s not just growth, that’s the kind of predictable, stable income that makes investors sleep better at night.
The regional breakdown tells an even more compelling story. North America led the charge with a massive 56% jump to $19.1 million, driven by what the company calls “strong performance marketing” and a sharp rise in subscriptions. The UK and Ireland market grew a solid 12% to $11.1 million, while other European markets expanded 15% to $6.6 million.
But the real star of the show was their sports data services division. Revenue from this segment didn’t just grow – it quadrupled to CHF 10 million (about $12.4 million). Subscriptions now represent 25% of total revenue, a remarkable shift for a company that built its reputation primarily on affiliate marketing.
From Bedroom to Boardroom: The Gambling.com Story
To understand where this success comes from, you need to rewind to 2006. That’s when Charles Gillespie, a University of North Carolina student, made what he now calls a “beautifully stupid” decision. Instead of following his classmates into prestigious consulting firms like McKinsey or Deloitte, he decided to start a company from his college bedroom.
Initially called World Sports Network (WSN), the company focused on something pretty niche – covering soccer for fans in East Asia. Gillespie figured that since online gambling was illegal in the United States at the time, Asia represented the best opportunity for growth. It was a logical assumption, but the market had other plans.
In 2007, Gillespie brought on his high school friend Kevin McCrystle as co-founder and chief operating officer. The two had attended Providence Day School in Charlotte together and stayed connected through university. “It’s a small miracle that we’re still working together and haven’t killed each other,” Gillespie jokes. “There’s an incredible amount of trust between the two of us.”
By 2009, the company had pivoted significantly. They rebranded as KAX Media and shifted focus to online casino games in Western Europe, particularly the UK and Ireland. This move proved prescient. In 2011, they made a crucial investment – purchasing the Gambling.com domain for $2.5 million. Five years later, they rebranded the entire company as Gambling.com Group.
The real game-changer came in May 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on sports betting. Suddenly, the American market that Gillespie had written off years earlier became the biggest opportunity in the industry. “We were focused on the UK, Ireland, European markets,” Gillespie recalls. “So we had to turn the whole thing around.”
Turn it around they did. The company went public on NASDAQ in July 2021 as GAMB, and by 2024, the U.S. market accounted for the majority of their $108 million in total revenue, contributing about $60 million. Today, Gambling.com Group operates more than 50 websites across 17 national markets in 11 languages, with offices in Dublin, Malta, Wisconsin, Florida, and Charlotte.
The Acquisition Machine
What really sets Gambling.com apart is their aggressive but strategic approach to acquisitions. They’ve become something of a serial buyer, consistently identifying and integrating companies that expand their capabilities or market reach.
The RotoWire acquisition in January 2022 for $27.5 million was a masterstroke. This fantasy sports platform brought over 100,000 paid subscribers and more than 17 million web visitors annually. More importantly, it gave Gambling.com a trusted brand with deep relationships throughout American sports media. RotoWire has three different revenue streams, each generating over $1 million annually, and its content has become embedded in the American sports experience over 25 years.
Earlier in 2025, they acquired Odds Holdings – the parent company of OddsJam and OpticOdds – which immediately boosted their sports data services revenue by 405% in Q1. OddsJam provides betting tools and analytics to serious gamblers, while OpticOdds delivers real-time data feeds to gambling operators. These acquisitions transformed Gambling.com from primarily an affiliate marketing business into a comprehensive sports data powerhouse.
The most recent addition is Spotlight.vegas, a Las Vegas-based booking platform that they’re acquiring for up to $30 million. The deal structure is interesting – $8 million upfront, with up to $22 million more if performance targets are hit through 2027. Spotlight.vegas generated $30 million in sales in 2024 and works with over 40 clients, including entertainment venues and land-based casinos. For Gambling.com, this acquisition represents an expansion beyond gambling into the broader entertainment ecosystem.
“The addition of this custom-built booking platform will help drive further monetization of our audience, expand our client base to include land-based operators and give our digital professionals a new platform to show off their industry-leading marketing talent,” explains CEO Gillespie.
Taking on the Giants
The online gambling space is increasingly dominated by massive players like FanDuel and DraftKings, who together control roughly two-thirds of the U.S. sports betting market. These companies have enormous marketing budgets – DraftKings alone spends over $500 million annually on marketing – and both benefit from having built large user bases in daily fantasy sports before expanding into betting.
FanDuel generates significantly more revenue than DraftKings, with $12.31 billion in 2023 compared to DraftKings’ $3.67 billion. Both companies leverage strategic partnerships with major sports leagues and aggressive customer acquisition campaigns. FanDuel has deals with the NBA that include free months of League Pass, while DraftKings has partnered with Major League Baseball and received direct investment from the league.
Other major competitors include BetMGM, which leverages the MGM Resorts brand and extensive physical casino network, and Caesars Sportsbook, which acquired British gambling company William Hill for $3.7 billion in 2021 to power its technology platform. These companies compete directly with Gambling.com for customer acquisition and market share.
But here’s where Gambling.com’s strategy gets interesting. Rather than trying to compete head-to-head with these giants in customer acquisition, they’ve positioned themselves as the company that helps drive customers to all of these platforms. They’re the middleman that benefits regardless of which sportsbook wins any particular customer. It’s like being the company that sells picks and shovels during a gold rush – you make money whether anyone finds gold or not.
The Technology Challenge
The biggest threat to Gambling.com’s business model isn’t competition – it’s artificial intelligence. As AI-powered search engines become more sophisticated, they threaten to disrupt the traditional traffic patterns that affiliate marketing companies depend on. When someone searches “best sportsbook,” instead of clicking through to a comparison site like Gambling.com, they might just get an AI-generated answer directly in their search results.
Gillespie acknowledges this risk but isn’t panicking. “While AI tools are capable of making recommendations, they base those recommendations off of data from specialist websites such as our own and link back to their sources,” he explains. The company’s strategy is to become so authoritative and comprehensive in their coverage that AI tools have no choice but to reference their content.
The online gambling industry is also grappling with rapid technological change more broadly. The integration of 5G technology is enabling more sophisticated mobile gambling experiences, while AI and machine learning are being used for everything from personalized marketing campaigns to fraud detection and compliance monitoring.
For affiliate marketers like Gambling.com, AI presents both challenges and opportunities. On the threat side, search algorithm changes can dramatically impact traffic patterns. Google’s recent core algorithm updates have already affected the company’s traditional search rankings, contributing to more conservative revenue guidance for the second half of 2025.
But AI also enables more sophisticated marketing strategies. Gambling.com is using machine learning for predictive analytics on player behavior, automated ad optimization, and personalized content creation. These tools allow them to deliver more relevant experiences to users and optimize their marketing spend more effectively.
The Omnichannel Evolution
One of the most significant transformations at Gambling.com has been their shift away from dependence on traditional search engine traffic. CEO Gillespie describes this as moving “from an affiliate marketing business into a multiplatform integrated marketing, data, and soon-to-be ticketing services business.”
The company now engages users across multiple touchpoints – email marketing, mobile apps, social media communities, paid advertising, and YouTube content. This omnichannel approach reduces their vulnerability to changes in any single traffic source and allows them to build deeper relationships with users.
Their sports data services business exemplifies this evolution. Rather than just referring customers to gambling sites, they’re now providing valuable data and analytics directly to both operators and serious gamblers. This creates multiple revenue streams from the same audience and positions them as an essential part of the sports betting ecosystem.
The subscription model component is particularly attractive because it generates recurring revenue that’s less dependent on customer acquisition costs. When someone pays monthly for access to premium betting data or fantasy sports advice, that’s much more predictable income than one-time affiliate commissions.
Financial Strength in a Volatile Market
Despite the impressive growth numbers, Gambling.com’s stock performance has been mixed. Shares slipped 3.98% on the day earnings were announced, even though the results crushed expectations. The stock later recovered 1.3% in after-hours trading to close at $10.95, but it remains much closer to its 52-week low of $9.22 than its high of $17.14.
This disconnect between fundamental performance and stock price suggests the market may not fully appreciate the company’s transformation. InvestingPro’s analysis suggests the shares are undervalued given the company’s financial strength and growth trajectory.
The company maintains a moderate debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, which means their cash flow can easily cover interest obligations while leaving room for continued investment in growth initiatives. This financial flexibility is crucial in an industry where marketing spend and acquisition opportunities can require significant capital quickly.
Looking ahead, Gambling.com has updated their full-year 2025 guidance to project revenue between $171 million and $175 million – representing 36% annual growth at the midpoint. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to reach $62-64 million, reflecting 29% growth year-over-year.
The Global Gambling Gold Rush
The broader online gambling market provides a favorable backdrop for continued growth, and that applies as well to the online crypto gambling market. The global online gambling market was valued at $78.66 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $153.57 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 11.9%. North America is expected to be one of the fastest-growing regions, driven by continued state-level legalization of online sports betting and iGaming.
In the United States specifically, the gambling market is projected to reach $121.29 billion in 2025, with annual growth of 5.08% expected through 2029. Online gaming revenue, which includes both sports betting and iGaming, expanded 27.5% to $2.19 billion in May 2025 alone. The average revenue per user in the gambling market is projected at $594.13 in 2025, with user penetration expected to reach 58.8%.
Currently, 30 states allow online sports betting in some form, and seven states permit both online sports betting and online casinos. Gambling.com is authorized to operate in 22 of these states, positioning them well to benefit from continued legalization efforts.
The regulatory environment continues to evolve favorably. States are increasingly viewing online gambling as a significant source of tax revenue, and the partnerships between gambling companies and major sports leagues have helped legitimize the industry. FanDuel’s NBA partnership and DraftKings’ MLB investment are just examples of how mainstream sports organizations are embracing what was once considered a taboo industry.
What’s Next for the House
The Spotlight.vegas acquisition signals Gambling.com’s intention to expand beyond pure gambling into the broader entertainment ecosystem. By offering show tickets, restaurant reservations, and local attractions in Las Vegas, they’re positioning themselves to monetize their audience in new ways while building deeper relationships with both land-based operators and consumers.
The company expects Spotlight.vegas to contribute at least $8 million in net revenue and $1.4 million in adjusted EBITDA for 2026. But the real value may be in the strategic precedent it sets. If successful, this model could be expanded to other major entertainment markets and integrated across their portfolio of websites.
The sports data services business continues to show remarkable growth, with revenue quadrupling year-over-year and now representing over 25% of total revenue. The acquisition of OpticOdds has given them a leading position in providing real-time data feeds to operators, while OddsJam serves the growing market of sophisticated bettors who want professional-grade analytics tools.
Management has set an ambitious target of reaching $100 million in adjusted EBITDA, and their current trajectory suggests this goal is achievable. With their diversified revenue streams, strong market positions, and proven acquisition strategy, Gambling.com has positioned itself to benefit from multiple trends reshaping the gambling industry.
The risks remain real – AI disruption, increased competition, regulatory changes, and market volatility could all impact future performance. But for a company that started in a college bedroom and has consistently defied expectations, these challenges look more like opportunities than threats.
As Charles Gillespie noted in his recent earnings call, success in this industry comes down to “entertainment” and maintaining users’ “sense of agency.” People want to feel in control of their gambling decisions, and they want access to the best information and tools available. For nearly two decades, Gambling.com has been providing exactly that, and their latest quarter suggests they’re better positioned than ever to continue doing so.
The house always wins, but in this case, the house appears to be Gambling.com Group – and they’re sharing the winnings with investors who recognize a good bet when they see one.