Year end trading update

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"). Upon publication of this Announcement, this information is now considered to be in the public domain. 

11 January 2019

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

Year end trading update

Bidstack Group plc (AIM: BIDS.L) the native in-game advertising group which was admitted to trading on AIM on 19 September 2018, is pleased to provide an update on trading for the year ended 31 December 2018.

Highlights:

·    Trading for the year ended 31 December 2018 is expected to be in line with market expectations with over £300,000 of revenues generated for 2018;

·   Exclusive dynamic digital advertising contracts now signed with nine games including FM18, FM19 and DiRT Rally 2;

·    FM19 launched in early November 2018 following successful beta trials incorporating Bidstack's platform with approximately twenty advertisers;

·    Bidstack's platform is live in both FM18 and FM19 with approximately 1m impressions per day in Asia alone in December 2018;

·    Bidstack's platform is now live on an end-to-end programmatic basis with PubMatic, operator of a major Supply Side Platform;

·    The Company is looking to further strengthen its sales team in 2019 across a number of areas.

Bidstack is pleased to confirm that it expects trading in the financial year ended 31 December 2018 to have been in line with market expectations for 2018, with particularly good traction for FM19 in Asia.

The period since completion of the reverse takeover and admission to trading on AIM in mid-September 2018 has seen good growth in the business on several fronts.  In particular, the Company generated its first material revenues, of over £300,000, in line with market expectations.

FM19, the sixth version of Football Manager, launched on 2 November 2018.  Bidstack conducted Beta trials in FM19 for around 20 advertising partners, including Talk Talk, AEG, Hofmeister, Converse, ESPN and Penguin Random House, with the Company restricting the number of brands seeking to participate in the beta trials.

Bidstack signed an exclusive dynamic, digital advertising agreement with Codemasters in December 2018 for two games including DiRT Rally 2.  The Company is in discussions with several other leading games developers and publishers regarding exclusive partnerships and will provide further updates as and when appropriate.

The Company continues to strengthen its sales team and has placed digital advertising for a number of global brands including 188 Bet, BooHoo Man, Audi, MG Motors and Volkswagen.

James Draper, CEO, said, "We have made good progress against our stated objectives since coming to the market in September 2018. The funds raised have been put to use primarily on expanding our sales team and refining our technology and the Company has successfully transitioned from proof of concept to revenue generation through the platform.  Bidstack is now serving digital dynamic advertising into games across different continents, proving that the platform can scale globally."

Contacts

Bidstack Group PLC

James Draper, CEO                                                                                 +44 (0) 7850 341 885

SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nomad)

Mark Brady/Neil Baldwin/James Keeshan                                         +44 (0) 203 368 3550

Peterhouse Capital Limited (Broker)

Eran Zucker/Lucy Williams/Duncan Vasey                                         +44 (0) 20 7409 0930

Alma PR

Josh Royston/Rebecca Sanders-Hewett                                             +44 (0) 203 405 0205

Notes to editors

Bidstack is an advertising technology company which provides dynamic, targeted and automated native in-game advertising for the global video games industry across multiple platforms. Its proprietary technology is capable of inserting adverts into natural advertising space within video games across multiple video games platforms (mobile, PC and console).

Bidstack's customers are games publishers and developers (on the supply side), and advertising agencies, brands and programmatic advertising platforms (on the demand side). Bidstack contracts exclusive access to the native in-game advertising space within video games from their developers or publishers and sells that advertising space either direct to specific brands and their agencies or through programmatic advertising platforms.