SportsHero powers up with Indosat mobile gaming deal

SportsHero (ASX: SHO) has levelled up its relationship with Indonesian telco giant Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, expanding their agreement to include mobile casual gaming. The move builds on the June launch of SportsHero’s iGV.Com Family Game Pass for PC, with the mobile rollout expected early in the December quarter.

For context, Indosat is Indonesia’s second largest telco, boasting close to 99 million customer accounts and more than 50 million monthly active users across its MyIM3 and Bima+ apps. Under the new arrangement, those users will be able to subscribe to a suite of mobile games directly through their phone accounts, with the option of direct carrier billing.

The commercial terms look attractive for SportsHero. Gross subscription value per customer is expected to range between about 4.75 and 9.75 Australian dollars per month, depending on service choices. Indosat will retain 35 percent of revenue while SportsHero receives 65 percent. After platform partner costs, SportsHero expects to bank margins between 35 and 65 percent depending on volumes. Importantly, revenue from mobile gaming will come on top of the existing PC product.

Chief executive Tom Lapping described the deal as a major expansion of the partnership. “The addition of the mobile gaming product enables us to target a much larger customer base, with mobile gamers in Indonesia outnumbering PC gamers by 20 to 25 times,” he said.

The numbers back him up. Research indicates that South East Asia has about 432 million gamers, of which around 286 million play on mobile devices. That means about two thirds of the region’s gamers prefer mobile, making it one of the largest markets globally in terms of player count, rivalling Europe and North America.

For SportsHero, which positions itself as a sports and gaming engagement platform, the deal is an important step into the mainstream of South East Asia’s fast expanding mobile gaming economy. With a favourable revenue split, marketing muscle from Indosat and access to one of the biggest user bases in the region, the expansion could mark a turning point for the company’s growth trajectory.