Venatus has signed a deal to take over direct sales duties for in-game ads from fellow video game monetization company Bidstack.

Bidstack provides in-game ad inventory for more than 400 mobile and PC games, with a monthly reach of 100 million players globally. It works with major game publishers such as Ubisoft and Sports Interactive (maker of the Football Manager series), as well as mobile-focused studios like MiniClip (which makes Subway Surfers, 8 Ball Pool and Golf Battle).

Venatus already provides similar in-game advertising services for the likes of EA, Futbin, Rovio and Roblox. Its other services are focused on gaming-adjacent spaces, such as video game websites.

With the new partnership, Venatus will exclusively handle direct sales of Bidstack’s in-game inventory in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Australia and South Korea.

James Draper, CEO and co-founder of Bidstack, says the opportunities for in-game advertising are “crystallizing too quickly for Bidstack to capitalize on alone.” The partnership will allow it to combine Bidstack’s programmatic capabilities with Venatus’ 40-person global sales team.

Globally, the in-game advertising market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11% to 2030, from its current estimated valuation of $8.4 billion, according to figures from Allied Market Research. To provide more certainty for advertisers in the space, in 2022, the IAB and Media Rating Council released official measurement standards for in-game advertising, with DoubleVerify adding its support earlier this year.