The executive leadership appears out of touch and incompetent. BC is structured so their executives are based in geographic locations (South America, North America, etc) and oversee the companies they own in those regions. However, the leadership seems to have little knowledge of the businesses they run and how to operate them. They appear to lack a fundamental understanding of the sports gambling space in the U.S. and how it differs from Europe, failing to adapt and adjust to obvious trends in the industry (sportsbooks spending less on marketing and affiliate partnerships, legalization in major states stalling, etc.). The executives then blame these struggles as the reason for layoffs and suggest that they are exploring new revenue streams, but then those never come to fruition. In 2023, there were layoffs that were deemed as a result of failing to meet affiliate revenue projections. Instead of investing in other revenue streams (monetizing content, selling media partnerships and sponsorships, selling ad space on podcasts/video shows, brands' websites and apps, etc) they acquired two more companies, then laid off 300+ more people a year later in 2024.
When they acquire companies, they do not integrate them so you end up with company leadership that is often at odds because the brands (Action Network, Playmaker HQ, The Nation Network, RotoGrinders, Vegas Insider, etc) are in the same sector, but have no incentive to collaborate. Then every year, senior leadership at these companies are forced to re-sign with their positions going unfilled, full teams are let go and these individual companies are left understaffed and under-resourced. These companies then are left without key components (Vegas Insider had an understaffed content team, The Action Network never had a dedicated sales team, Playmaker HQ didn’t have a dedicated studio space, etc.)
They also seem to skirt the line between legal compliance and ethics with many things and their decision-making when conducting performance reviews and layoffs does not appear merit-based with executives seeming to protect those they are friends with while laying off those who are actually meeting or exceeding performance standards.
Overall, Better Collective is neither an effective collective or better than other brands in the space. And it’s much worse than you can imagine.