Catena Media is now relying solely on revenue from North America operations, officially bringing its reorganisation to an end.

The Stockholm-listed gaming affiliate company started transitioning to a new operating model with a focus on US growth a little over a year ago, with the venture spearheaded by Catena CEO Manu Stan and CFO Michael Gerrow.

Resulting headwinds such as currency fluctuations led to dormant but lower revenues YoY in the first two quarters of 2025, but Adjusted EBITDA not only stabilised but also skyrocketed – and still rose in Q3.

North America now sole contributor

Q3 results put North America revenue at 96% from the total group revenue of continuing operations – against the 89% in Q3 2024. This was supplemented by an 18% growth in localised revenue, with €11.2m compared to €9.5m in Q3 2024.

Total Q3 revenue from continuing operations was €11.6m, up 9% from the same period last year (Q3 ‘24: €10.7m).

Adjusted EBITDA went up 119% YoY for a total of €2.9m against the €1.3m for Q3 in the previous year. EBITDA increased by 300%, totalling €2.7m (Q3 ‘24: negative €1.4m).

Still some catching up to do

Although progression was clearly evident on paper, zooming out to look at the rest of this year does make it clear that Catena has some catching up to do.

For the period between January and September, total revenue was €31m – down 21% from the €39.5m for the same period last year.

Revenue from North America decreased by 18% YoY for a total of €28.6m (January-September 2024: €35m). 

There was also a 36% drop YoY in the total number of new depositing customers, with 66,146 for January-September against the 102,894 for the same period in 2024.

Progression was still present in Adjusted EBITDA, with an increase of 35% YoY to €5.2m compared to €3.9m in January-September last year.

EBITDA managed to break through the previous year’s negative balance, going from -€1m to €5.5m, an increase of 645%.

Management confident on long-term profitability

Manuel Stan, Catena CEO, focused on Q3 developments and addressed some of the challenges the company continues to face in the US market.

For one, sports turned out to be a high risk venture, with Stan saying that market nuances combined with product underperformance to deliver undesired results.

Hopes remain high, Stan added, given that Missouri is launching regulated sports betting on 1 December and that six of the eight of its bordering states already have regulated online sports betting in place.

“A long-term plan is in place to improve delivery, but improvements are likely to be slow and incremental.”

Tightening regulations around social sweepstakes casino are also something on Catena’s radar, Stan said, but the vertical remains “a positive revenue driver and a way to acquire user data ahead of future online casino regulation by new states.”

SEO-focused efforts will keep targeting customer retention and maximising the customer base value, Catena’s CEO further highlighted, with results “holding well through the quarter after the Google Core update in June”. Caution remains about the impact of AI on traditional SEO search.

Online casino also performed well, with Stan adding that work continues on the integration of Catena’s premier casino sites into its central platform.

“Given the industry headwinds from generative search and social sweepstakes casino, I remain cautious in our short-term outlook but am confident in the progress we are making. 

“The combination of diversified revenue, disciplined operations and stronger search performance creates a platform for sustainable growth.”