Sign In

Steven Salz

Co-Founder & CEO at Rivalry

Steven Salz is a Co-Founder and CEO at RivalryGLHF, with a strong background in the esports industry.

He studied Bachelor of Arts (BA) at Western University, where he likely developed skills that have been instrumental in his career.

Steven has held key positions in various organizations, including Director at LootMarket.com, Director at PlayVIG, and Co-Founder & CEO at Rivalry.

His experience also includes roles such as Equity Research Analyst at M Partners Inc and Associate at Portfolio Advisory Group, showcasing his diverse skill set in finance and business.

With a proven track record in leadership and strategic decision-making, Steven Salz continues to drive success in the competitive esports landscape.

Highlights

May 28 · linkedin

We are announcing Rivalry Token today, ya, the crypto kind. Don’t like it? Too bad. Are you disappointed that my nut jokes on LinkedIn ended up being a crypto announcement? Well that’s a mistake. You are misinterpreting signal as noise. Want to see why? Take a deep breath and read the article, ChatGPT estimates it will take ~8min, you can do this, it will be worth your time.

... I mean shit, read it to argue with me at least.

Aug 29 · linkedin

Today we announced record Q2/23 results at Rivalry.com $RVLY and gave guidance that we anticipate reaching profitability in H1 2024 💰

Betting handle was $112.2M (+192% YoY); Revenue $8.5M (+60% YoY); and GP $3.8M (+86% YoY). These results were delivered while reducing marketing spend by 6% YoY, a testament to Rivalry's market leadership in next generation sports betting and casino.

On marketing, our content and brand strategy helped us to acquire 44% more new customers year-over-year at a 41% lower cost of customer acquisition. Site engagement was also up, with average betting handle per customer increasing by 63% year-over-year.

Momentum has continued in Q3, with July putting up $46.4M in handle, a single-month record.

With Rivalry’s continued growth, cost efficiencies, and marketing sophistication, we are now on track to hit profitability in H1/24!

Our quarterly and annual growth trends against stable OpEx (ex one-time items) and declining marketing spend continues to validate the success of our brand, marketing, and product among next gen bettors.

We delivered some incredible products in Q2, including our first mobile app in 🇨🇦, and more recently, and industry-first SGP product for esports (or as it’s known on Rivalry: Same Game Combos 🧠). And much more to come in Q3.

This quarter however we did experience some weaker margins in sportsbook which impacted revenue that we are adapting to. Our position among young Millennial and Gen Z consumers is one of our greatest advantages, but also presents unique learnings regarding betting behaviors.

In the immediate term we have been tuning our operational initiatives to address normalizing margin and seeing early results. To contextualize the upside potential of this work, at industry average margins Rivalry would have been profitable in Q1 and Q2 this year.

Ultimately, this is the nature of building a business that delivers triple-digit growth on a YoY basis, multiple years in a row, as Rivalry has. Intrinsic to rapid growth in any venture or field is rapid learning, and an ever expanding opportunity set on the back of that.

I'm extremely pleased with the underlying trends at $RVLY which have given us confidence in providing that H1/24 profitability guidance.

Thank you to the team, our partners, and customers for your continued belief and support in the vision! Vamo.

PR: https://lnkd.in/gDTyDU8g

#sportsbetting #esports #esportsbetting

Steven Salz
Add to my network

Location

Toronto, Ontario, Canada