Better Collective has reportedly cut between 75 and 85 jobs worldwide, bringing the cost of Brazil's gambling disruption into focus ahead of its third-quarter results. NEXT.io reported on 11 November that the redundancies took place at the end of October and affected locations including the group's Farringdon office in London.
The publication also reported that chief operating officer Sofie Ejlersen left in October, while saying the circumstances of her departure were unconfirmed. According to NEXT.io, Better Collective did not elaborate when approached during its pre-results silent period.
The company has separately confirmed that its Q3 report will be published on 18 November. Until then, the reported employment changes sit alongside an already documented financial response to Brazil: reduced guidance, suspended longer-term targets and a pause in share buybacks.
For a group built through international acquisitions, the wider question is how much protection a large portfolio offers when one of its markets abruptly stops generating expected income.
Brazil's importance was already in the company's numbers
In its 27 September update, Better Collective put Brazil's previous 2026 revenue trajectory at approximately €45 million. That represented around 12% of the then analyst consensus for annual group revenue. It also identified an annual Brazilian cost base of approximately €10 million.
These figures show why the disruption mattered, although they are neither a standalone profit calculation nor the subsequent Q3 outcome. People, products and local infrastructure had been put in place to serve a market expected to keep operating.
The September forecast assumed no further Brazilian betting and casino revenue after implementation of the restrictions. Organic revenue growth guidance fell to 3-8% from 7-12%, while expected EBITDA growth before special items moved to a range of minus 7% to plus 3%, previously 8-18%. Both ranges were expressed in constant currencies.
Management also suspended its 2027-2028 financial guidance and the buyback programme. Those decisions show the effect reaching beyond one quarter's revenue: uncertainty had changed how confidently the group could plan and allocate capital.
The uncertainty continues. On 11 November, Agência Senado reported that the provisional measure prohibiting fixed-odds betting had been extended by 60 days, giving Congress more time to consider whether to convert it into law.
Our earlier report on Brazil's paused betting-ban cases describes the separate court proceedings.
The expansion strategy had a clear commercial logic
Better Collective's acquisition history explains why it had that exposure. In May 2021, it completed the US$240 million purchase of Action Network, strengthening its position in American sports betting media as regulated markets expanded.
The Playmaker Capital transaction took the group further across the Americas. Announced in November 2023 with consideration valued at €176 million, it closed in February 2024. Its portfolio included Futbol Sites, Yardbarker and The Nation Network, adding broader sports audiences alongside betting-focused media.
The strategy offered more routes to customers and advertisers: established local brands, different sports communities and opportunities to apply performance marketing across a larger audience.
Our view is that this remains a coherent commercial proposition. Its resilience depends on the mix of earnings beneath the portfolio. Several brands can reach different audiences while still depending on the same jurisdiction's permission for their commercial partners to trade.
An acquisition can spread audience risk and increase exposure to a particular growth market at the same time. The value of that expansion therefore depends partly on how much spending can adapt when the market changes.
Recurring revenue still needs an operating market
Better Collective said a substantial majority of its Brazilian revenue came from revenue-share agreements with licensed operators. Across the group, revenue share accounted for 49% of revenue in Q2 2026, according to its interim report.
For an affiliate, revenue sharing can create income from customers referred in earlier periods, depending on the agreement and their subsequent activity. That can support a longer commercial relationship than a payment tied only to an initial acquisition.
The vulnerability is equally clear. A continuing contractual relationship needs an underlying business capable of producing the revenue being shared. If operators cannot offer the relevant products, an audience that still follows sport does not automatically produce the same affiliate income.
Broader advertising, sponsorship and subscription businesses offer other sources of revenue. Their usefulness as protection depends on whether demand for them survives the same disruption. Counting websites or countries gives only part of that picture.
For publishers assessing their own exposure, the practical question is how many apparently separate income streams could weaken together.
The restructuring began before the latest shock
There is another important part of the chronology. Better Collective's second quarter showed improving results: revenue rose 9% to €89.1 million and EBITDA before special items increased 20% to approximately €27 million.
Its August report also described work to integrate technology, consolidate content management systems and automate processes across its brands. The organisational changes were intended to reduce duplication and make the group easier to scale.
That work preceded the September disruption in Brazil. It would therefore be too simple to attribute every subsequent cost reduction or reported executive departure to one event. The available information does not establish the reasons for Ejlersen's reported exit or identify how every affected role fitted into the business.
Consolidation can make economic sense after a series of acquisitions. A group may be paying repeatedly for similar systems or processes. The challenge is retaining the local expertise and commercial relationships that made the acquired brands valuable in the first place.
A reduction in headcount can lower expenditure while creating other costs: delayed product work, weaker coverage, disrupted sales relationships or recruitment needs later. These are risks to assess as the changes unfold, rather than outcomes established by the current report.
A different dependency from Catena's search problem
We recently examined search distribution and the pressure on affiliate earnings in our analysis of Catena Media's third-quarter results.
Better Collective raises a related question at another level of the business. A publisher can improve its technology, build an audience and diversify how readers arrive, while the economics of monetising those readers remain exposed to regulation affecting its partners.
That makes resilience a matter of contracts, markets and costs as well as traffic. A stronger direct relationship with an audience is valuable; converting that relationship into income still requires products advertisers can lawfully offer and budgets they are willing to spend.
Our view: judge the flexibility that survives the cuts
The most useful assessment of the reported redundancies will come from the business left operating afterwards. Better Collective needs a cost structure capable of enduring uncertainty while preserving the teams and products that can earn revenue elsewhere.
The next disclosures should help clarify the expected savings, the cash cost of restructuring and the effect on operations. It will also matter how much spending remains committed in disrupted markets and how management distinguishes existing integration work from additional measures.
Co-founder and co-CEO Jesper Søgaard and CFO Flemming Pedersen are scheduled to present the results on 19 November. Those are the questions against which their explanation should be assessed.
In our view, the pause in buybacks is understandable when visibility over future income has deteriorated. Protecting financial flexibility gives management more room to choose where to invest and what to retain. Its success will depend on the operating decisions that follow.
Better Collective's international scale gives it options. The challenge now is turning those options into earnings that can support the remaining organisation, even while the future of a once-promising market remains uncertain.