BIDS.L Share News (BIDS)

(Sharecast News) - In-game advertising technology company Bidstack reported revenue of £1.7m in its preliminary results on Friday, rising from £0.14m year-on-year and ahead of market expectations.
The AIM-traded firm said cash balances at year-end on 31 December totalled £2.3m, down from £3.1m a year earlier, and in line with forecasts.

Its adjusted loss before tax widened to £6.99m from £5.4m, which was also in line with market expectations.

The board noted the company's oversubscribed placing in June, which raised gross proceeds of £5.7m.

During the year, the company said it ran more than 40 in-game advertising campaigns and added 25 new partners, covering more than 30 markets, to its 'Approved Partner Network'.

It also signed agreements with large advertising agency holding groups including Interpublic, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP.

The company ran more than 10 direct campaigns for brands across five key verticals, being luxury, consumer packaged goods, financial services, automotive and retail.

A total of six new esports team collaborations and two franchises were signed during the year, with the company said it was currently working with 20 games, including five games from three 'AAA' studios.

An additional six AAA games were covered by partnership agreements during the period.

"In 2021, Bidstack intends to continue building its technology to unlock the potential of gaming for advertisers by focusing on raising awareness with global agency holding groups and advertisers, showing evidence of return on investment with ad measurement and through increasing the ease of purchase with premium inventory," the board said in its statement.

"In addition, the company will be stepping up its investment in growing its robust pipeline of 'AAA' and high-fidelity game portfolio and mobile publisher base, diversifying its product offering to publishers, rolling out its Pubguard security product and enhancing its SDK integration.

"Bidstack's focus on execution will accelerate in 2021 and 2022, ensuring the company's performance builds on what was achieved in 2020 and supports its long-term plans by focusing on building an open exchange industry standard and infrastructure for advertisers to buy in-game ads seamlessly, continuing to build Bidstack's proprietary self-serve technology features and strengthening its safety features with Pubguard."

The board said the company would also continue working to define the taxonomy of in-game advertising, including formats, sizing, copy and best practices.

It also noted the company's year-end cash reserves of £2.3m, and nil debt.

"As always, cash management remains a key focus within the business as the board expects Bidstack to continue to have negative cash flows in 2021.

"However, the company is now aided by regular cash receipts arising in the ordinary course of trading, which are having a positive impact on our monthly burn rate."

In addition, the company received a non-trading cash payment in January of more than £0.5m, and was anticipating a further similar receipt late in the second quarter.

"The board expects that revenues for 2021, while materially greater than 2020, will continue to be significantly second-half weighted."

At 0921 GMT, shares in Bidstack were down 4.16% at 5.75p.