Bidstack reports a surge in online gaming
, joins the Vox Markets COVID-19 index as its reports a surge in demand for its services as the restrictions on movement and the cancellation of live sporting events has led to the video games industry witnessing record numbers of daily active users, concurrent players and hours played.
According to the operators of the Company's first fully operational programmatic title, Football Manager 20 hosted over 180,000 concurrent players worldwide on 22 March 2020, a record for the game, making it the third most played game on Steam, the video game distribution service.
According to the Facteus Insight Report on Consumer Spending and Transactions (a weekly report on the impact of COVID-19 on the consumer economy in the US) published on 25 March 2020, spending on video games (both online and offline), which has seen strong growth for most of 2020 so far, began to surge in the week of 9 March 2020 and year on year is up over 60% in the week of 16 March 2020.
The Company’s demand teams are now working with multiple agency groups, both inside and outside our existing trading frameworks, to help them fill the gap generated by the absence of live sporting events and the obvious reduction in the effect of out of home advertising.
Current Trading
As a result of the increase in games consumption, Bidstack's virtual out of home environment, with its global reach and ability to engage committed sports and video games fans through native in-game advertising, is currently experiencing high levels of inbound demand from advertising agencies and has received some exciting and unexpected commercial opportunities.
However, as expected, the Company has suffered some disruption, mainly due to a number of trade shows having been cancelled. Despite this, the Company’s systems and procedures that have been implemented are said will ensure that, from an operational standpoint, the business is largely able to proceed as normal.
The Company also announced it will be commencing its first campaign in a new game from a global leader in digital interactive entertainment on 6 April 2020.
Shares are currently up 17% in early morning trading
James Draper, CEO of Bidstack commented: "COVID-19 has created an unprecedented economic and social climate. Our first concern has been to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all our staff, who are now working safely from home.
"Disruption to the advertising industry, particularly in the out of home and live sports segments, is leading media buyers to seek digital alternatives for their brands. It's no longer "business as usual" in these significant areas. Agencies need to innovate to assist their brand clients to reach targeted audiences. Bidstack's technology enables them to do that.
"Our team is working closely with agency groups to help them test, report and activate larger campaigns across our growing portfolio of titles through this period.
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