The Ibairian gamble: OverActive Media's pivotal year

In January 2024, OverActive Media, a Canadian group listed on the stock exchange, completed two major strategic operations: the integration of KOI, a structure founded by Ibai Llanos and Gerard Piqué, and the purchase of Movistar Riders, the historic flagship of Spanish esports. With these acquisitions, the company took a clear European turn - and a gamble on a model combining competitive performance, content focused around a content creator, and a powerful community.

One year later, the 2024 financial review confirms that this transition was much more than a simple brand repositioning. Indeed, OverActive Media has almost doubled its annual revenues, from $11.3 million to $19.4 million in 2024, while drastically reducing its net losses (-$453K versus -$9M in 2023). "We've built strong momentum since bringing KOI and Riders into Overactive," stated Adam Adamou, Overactive Media's CEO. Our 2024 results reflect 10 months of contribution from them, but the impact has been clear. There's still a lot to do in merch, content, and expanding KOI globally. We're now on four continents and growing. This weekend's sold-out LEC Road Trip with Movistar is a major moment, and we've got a big product drop coming Sunday."

Ibai Llanos' impact is not simply measured in millions of subscribers or peak viewers. The integration of KOI, backed by its image and media clout, has strengthened OverActive's Business Operations division, which now accounts for 60% of total sales ($11.8m out of $19.4m). This segment, which combines revenues from sponsorships, content, and marketing activations, reflects the shift towards a hybrid model between an esports structure and a new-generation media.

A note of caution needs to be made about 2024, which takes the historical commercial contracts of the three companies and just adds them up. Thus, it will be important to observe the behavior of sponsors regarding the amounts allocated to a single entity.

One of the major lessons to be learned from the 2024 results is the return to a logic of controlled operating margin, after several loss-making years. OverActive Media generated a gross profit of $12.1 million, representing a gross margin of 62% - a clear improvement on 2023 (66% on a smaller revenue base).

This decision to focus on “gross profit” reflects a clear desire to structure the company's business model around recurring operating performance, clearly separating direct production costs (events, media production, prize pool) from fixed costs linked to teams or management. To put it simply, OverActive wants to change perceptions and no longer be seen as a cash-burning start-up, but as a disciplined structure capable of driving positive operating cash flow.

Despite a major strategic shift and promising financial signals, OverActive Media’s share price has shown only modest improvement. The announcement of the merger at the beginning of 2024 led to a slight rebound in the share price, buoyed by the enthusiasm surrounding the arrival of Ibai Llanos and the prospects for expansion in Europe. But this upturn was quickly absorbed by a cautious market, faced with widespread risk aversion on esports stocks still far from profitability.

The stock is still fluctuating in a narrow range, hovering around CAD 0.10 to 0.12 for several months, well below its 2022 levels.

This sluggish market reaction reflects several factors:

To sum up, the stock market has not yet “priced” the new OverActive, but the reduction in losses, the management discipline, and the European momentum could, eventually, rekindle the interest of specialized investors.

For regular readers, the question remains: Are losses of $453K on nearly $20M in revenue acceptable, or even indicative of a “balanced” model, if sustainable?

However, a few major and exceptional facts skew this brilliant result:

2025 will be crucial in confirming the transformation initiated in 2024. Expectations are high, and the challenge for OverActive is no longer to seduce sponsors with promises of an audience, but to demonstrate its ability to build a viable, scalable, and sustainable esports ecosystem. According to the Sheep Esports valuation model, Overactive Media Group is now valued at around $90 million.