OPERATOR BRAND HEALTH INDEX

Do you know what your iGaming brand is worth, and what makes it risky?

The OBHI is a repeatable quarterly methodology for iGaming operators, deployable worldwide. For investors and advisors: a structured, consistent assessment of brand strength and brand risk, alongside financial due diligence, not a replacement for it.

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28indicators, four pillars

11risk dimensions, kept separate

30+years of brand experience

OBHI score

67.5/100

Evidence coverage 92%

Business Performance · 32%

6.8/10

Stakeholder Equity · 28%

6.7/10

Marketing Investment · 20%

6.8/10

Competitive Position · 20%

6.7/10

Operator Risk Index, kept separate from the score 2.7/10 · low

Illustrative example, not a real operator.

Sound familiar?

Three angles, one missing instrument

You're evaluating multiple iGaming targets, across jurisdictions, but brand value comes back differently and non-comparably in every memo, if it's covered at all beyond a paragraph of sentiment.
The financial due diligence is watertight; the case for brand and reputation risk relies on management's own assumptions.
After closing, reputation or compliance risk surfaces that wasn't systematically weighed beforehand.

Clients ask for brand and risk substantiation on top of the financial numbers, but a repeatable, sector-specific methodology for iGaming doesn't exist, regardless of which regulated market the target operates in.
Existing brand valuation tools are too heavy and too generic for a quick scan in a deal process.

Why does EBITDA decline while the marketing budget keeps growing? Why does CPA rise every quarter while competitors keep growing more cheaply?
Performance KPIs like CPA, ROAS and FTDs show what is happening, not why. They say nothing about the brand and risk factors that determine that outcome over time.
You can report your NGR, CPA and CLV down to the euro, but not how strong your brand is, or how it comes across to a buyer.

What you get, precisely

A quarterly scorecard, four separate components

Every indicator is also weighted by reliability (objective / semi-objective / subjective). A separate Evidence coverage shows how completely the scores are entered and documented, and drops when estimates score higher than hard data. It measures coverage, not verification: checking the sources remains the assessor’s job.

Headline score

OBHI score (0–100)

28 indicators across four pillars: Business Performance, Stakeholder Equity, Marketing Investment, Competitive Position. Translated into a rating scale from B to AAA+.

Rating scaleFour pillarsQuarterly cycle

Risk, kept separate

Operator Risk Index

11 risk dimensions, deliberately never blended with the headline score, from AML and responsible gambling to VIP concentration, revenue from markets without a local licence, and market concentration. A single serious risk never disappears into an average: the overall label is never lower than the most serious dimension. Just as a credit rating and its outlook remain separate.

11 risk dimensionsNever blended

Indicative

Brand value range

A Low/Base/High estimate based on royalty relief: the OBHI positions the royalty rate within a sector range, after tax, over a forecast period plus terminal value, with warnings when risk is elevated or growth assumptions are high. Explicitly not an ISO 10668-certified valuation, not a sale price and not for financial reporting (IAS 38), but a substantiated starting point.

Royalty reliefLow/Base/High

Financial core

Unit economics

Does acquisition pay for itself? CLV:CAC on contribution rather than revenue, payback set against the player lifetime, and contribution margin. Reported alongside the score, never folded into it.

Contribution CLV:CACPayback

Why brand value is now decisive

Four developments turn brand strength into a hard variable

Acquisition is getting more expensive and constrained

Compliant advertising channels are becoming scarcer as advertising rules tighten. Operators who attract players organically are structurally less exposed. That gap widens every quarter.

Acquisition costsOrganic growth

Retention is the new profit engine

Players stay with a brand they trust, not with the last bonus they saw.

+25–95% profitability from 5% more retention

RetentionCustomer loyalty

Brand strength increasingly shapes the exit price

Reinforced by the consolidation wave sweeping the sector: 2026 stands as one of the biggest M&A years to date, with brand value increasingly an explicit part of the valuation.

4–7x EBITDA with a weak brand position → 10–14x with a strong brand + tech

M&AExit valuation

The business model itself is shifting

From one-off CPA deals to RevShare models that only pay off with players who genuinely stay loyal. At the same time, regulation is becoming a heavier deal filter. Regulators are fining more often, and more heavily.

Dozens of fines in H2 2025, reaching up to £10M per case

RevShareRegulationDeal filter

The business case

Not a marketing metric, a deal-relevant variable

Research across sectors links brand value to revenue, risk, share price and acquisition price. The figures below come from broad studies that are not specific to iGaming and are indicative.

€1.76additional revenue per €1 increase in brand value (135 companies, 2005–2024)

−5.1%total risk per standard-deviation increase in brand value

30–50%of enterprise value in an acquisition can be attributed to the brand, depending strongly on sector and brand

+2.3%avg. share-price increase per 1% more brand strength (Interbrand 2025)

2008 / 2020stronger brands: higher returns, lower risk in both crises

	Weaker brand position	Strong brand position + tech
EBITDA multiple at exit	4–7x (local operator)	10–14x (multi-jurisdiction)
Effect of 5% more retention	—	+25–95% profitability

Not abstract: four indicators and one risk dimension

“28 indicators” is abstract until you see them

Organic vs. paid traffic ratio

How many players do you find without paying for them, straight from GA4 data?

Bonus efficiency

Does the brand keep players with less bonus spend than the market, or does loyalty have to be bought again every quarter?

Brand ownership & decision-making

Is there someone with genuine mandate over brand decisions, or does it happen ad hoc?

NPS (Net Promoter Score)

Would players actually recommend you, measured through a standardised survey?

Regulatory Exposure (risk dimension)

How large is the financial exposure from open regulatory matters, regardless of how many there are?

That last one does not count towards the score but towards the separate Operator Risk Index, as do VIP concentration, revenue from markets without a local licence and market concentration. Such risks are often underrated: the OBHI makes them comparable across quarters, competitors and acquisition targets. The full list, including the measurement protocol per indicator, is included in the Interpretation and Completion Guide every client receives.

Not a black box

How a score comes together

<40B and below

40–49BB

50–59BBB

60–69A

70–79AA

80+AAA/AAA+

28 indicators are scored every quarter, each weighted by reliability.
The four pillars add up to the OBHI headline score (0–100), according to a fixed, transparent weight per pillar.
The score is translated into a letter rating, shown above.
Risk is reported separately via the Operator Risk Index, never folded into the headline score.
A rating only appears when all 28 indicators and 11 risk dimensions are entered, every flattering score is documented with a source, measured value and period, and the assessor is recorded. Otherwise: “Insufficient data”.

Every indicator, every weight and every assumption is written out in the underlying report: no hidden calculation model.

From intake to boardroom

Implementation in four weeks

Week 1

Gather data

Existing figures (GA4, CRM, financial data) are collected and the scorecard is filled in for the first time.

Week 2

Interviews

Structured conversations for indicators without an external source: brand ownership, internal brand knowledge, cross-functional alignment.

Week 3

Analysis

Strengths, risks and priorities are distilled; the indicative brand value and the Operator Risk Index are built up separately.

Week 4

Board presentation

The report is presented and discussed with management, the board, or the deal team.

Each following quarter, this process repeats faster, since data sources and contacts are already known.

For illustration

What a quarterly cycle delivers

No guaranteed return here: that's a claim nobody can currently substantiate. The OBHI makes visible which brand and risk indicators contribute to an improvement, so a board knows where to steer.

Hypothetical illustration, not a real result An operator scores 58 (BBB), with heavy dependence on paid acquisition as the biggest risk. If the organic traffic ratio, brand ownership and affiliate dependency improve over the following quarters, that translates into a higher Business Performance and Stakeholder Equity score, and therefore a higher OBHI score.

Fictional operator	Q1	Q2
OBHI score	54.0 (BBB)	58.9 (BBB)
Operator Risk Index	2.9	3.4

The headline score improves, but the Risk Index rises too, a signal a deal team or board wants to see separately, not hidden behind a positive overall number. That is exactly why the two are never merged.

Who this is for

Three audiences, one instrument

Investors & deal teams

Private equity, strategic buyers, corporate development. A structured, repeatable assessment of brand strength and brand risk at a target, alongside the financial due diligence, with one consistent method across multiple targets and markets. Market differences are not normalised; the report states them.

Advisory firms & consultants

M&A advisory, deal advisory, gaming practices. A ready-made, sector-specific methodology to bring to a deal team or client, without having to develop a brand valuation methodology yourself.

Operators worldwide

Heading toward a funding round, acquisition or licence renewal, who want their brand and risk profile to look just as solid as their revenue figures, and who want to show brand value and risk separately, not blended.

Also suitable forManagement teams and boards who want one repeatable format for the quarterly conversation on brand, risk and board confidence; CMOs and CEOs who want to make the case for brand investment with the same discipline as a financial KPI.

Less suitable forAnyone seeking a certified formal valuation, or teams unwilling to set aside time for the quarterly process.

Comparison

How the OBHI compares with existing tools

None of these tools is better or worse; they measure different things. The OBHI is the only one that combines brand strength, a separate risk profile, unit economics and an indicative brand value for a single iGaming operator. Where others are stronger, the table says so.

Swipe sideways to see the full table →

Tool	iGaming-specific	Scorecard with internal operator data	Separate operator risk index	Unit economics	Brand valuation	Formal certification	Own consumer research	Completed by
OBHI	Yes	Yes	Yes, 11 dimensions	Yes	Royalty relief, indicative	No	No	An external assessor
Blask	Yes	No	No	No	No (modelled revenue, CEB)	No	No (search data)	Automated, external data
Brand Finance	Partly (gambling ranking)	Not in public rankings	No	No	Royalty relief	ISO 10668-compliant	Yes	Brand Finance
Kantar BrandZ	No	No	No	No	Financial value × brand contribution	Brand contribution model MASB-validated	Yes	Kantar
Interbrand	No	No	No	No	Economic profit × role of brand	ISO 10668-compliant	Yes	Interbrand

What the OBHI deliberately does not do: a formal, certified valuation or its own consumer research. For those, the other providers are complementary, and their data can serve as a source in an OBHI assessment. Based on publicly available information as of September 2026; the brands named belong to their respective owners.

Erik Pas

Developer of the OBHI

erik@erikpas.nl
+31 6 2980 6085
erikpas.com

Brand of the Year (NIMA) Cannes Lion Award Challenger Award Fab Award (UK) Golden Award for Topical Advertising ×2 Golden Esprix LAMP Gold LAMP Silver SAN Accent ×2

Brand strategy, applied to iGaming

I’ve spent more than thirty years working on brand development and strategy for brands that together have reached hundreds of millions of consumers, including Red Bull, PayPal, KPN, Bavaria, Sony, Henkel and Chess.com. That experience has translated into multiple international recognitions for strategic brand work.

In recent years I’ve also applied that brand experience to iGaming, including brand strategy work for operators, among them a brand repositioning that preceded the successful sale of an operator in 2021.

This combination, decades of proven brand methodology at some of the world's strongest brands, applied to the specific dynamics of iGaming, is the foundation I’ve built the OBHI on.

More about my work and background at erikpas.com.

Sample report

See what an OBHI report looks like

A fictional operator, run through the current version of the OBHI. Download the two-page summary straight away, or leave your email address for the full five-page report.

Summary edition · 2 pages

Download the summary

Headline score, risk index, unit economics and brand value
Quarter-on-quarter trend and key findings
Governance conditions behind every rating
An excerpt of the scorecard and the risk index

Download summary (PDF)

Full sample report · 5 pages

Get the full report

All 28 indicators with measured value, period and source
All 11 risk dimensions
Unit economics and brand value with every assumption
Priorities, method notes and limitations

Illustrative example: the operator and all figures are fictional.

Reach out

Ready to talk further?

A short, no-obligation thirty-minute conversation is enough to establish whether the OBHI fits your situation.

For investors & advisory firms

Want to put the OBHI to work in a current or upcoming deal process?

Get the sample report

For operators

Ready to know where your brand really stands?

Direct contact

Erik Pas

Developer of the OBHI

erik@erikpas.nl +31 6 2980 6085 erikpas.com

Prefer to call or email directly instead of using the form? You can reach me directly using the details above.