LONDON, UK: Venatus Media Limited (“Venatus”), the leading gaming & entertainment publisher monetisation and advertising platform, and Bidstack Group Plc (AIM: BIDS), the in-game advertising and video game monetisation platform, today announce a commercial partnership that will grant Venatus exclusive access to Bidstack’s vast video game advertising inventory across six key global markets.

Venatus is a global advertising agency that specialises in digital gaming and entertainment. Venatus was founded in 2010 and has offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, Sydney and Seoul. In 2021, Venatus received an investment from Livingbridge private equity to support its global expansion, which is reflected in its recent key hires in the US.

Bidstack has been a pioneer of the intrinsic in-game advertising format since 2017 and now has an inventory of more than 400 high-quality video games across mobile and PC, with a total monthly reach of 100 million people. The Company works with leading publishers such as Sports Interactive, Ubisoft and Miniclip, and has delivered award-winning in-game campaigns for brands such as OneFootball, Apple, Samsung, Marriott Bonvoy, Paco Rabanne, and Doritos.

Venatus and Bidstack have previously worked together to provide advertising in esports properties and are both pleased to strengthen their existing relationship and synergies. Under the new relationship, Venatus will become the sole provider of direct sales of Bidstack’s in-game inventory across the US, UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, and South Korea, leveraging its extensive international advertising sales presence of more than 40 gaming specialists. Access to Bidstack’s intrinsic in-game network adds another dimension to the existing Venatus offer, which focuses on providing advertisers with campaigns in-game, next to the game and around the game, with leading publishers such as EA, Futbin, Rovio and custom activations on platforms like Roblox.

James Draper, Founder and CEO at Bidstack, said: “Venatus and Bidstack share a history of innovation in the video game advertising space. Now, we’ve identified an opportunity to create increased value for both businesses, our customers, and partners through a major tie-in that combines Venatus’ video gaming specialist sales heft with Bidstack’s programmatic technology and network of games. We’re delighted to have Venatus alongside us.”

Rob Gay, Co-Founder and CEO at Venatus, said: “Venatus offers brands multiple touchpoints with consumers within, next to and around video games. With the rapid growth of intrinsic in-game advertising, we now partner with experts in the format and add another string to our bow on behalf of our customers. This partnership comes at an opportune moment after the expansion of our US leadership team in June and, with Bidstack’s world class in-game network, we can build richer, more diverse campaigns on behalf of our clients in this incredibly exciting gaming media channel.”