Affiliate marketing firm Raketech has reported a challenging start to 2026, but light may be able to be seen at the end of the restructuring tunnel.

The business saw underlying improvements in EBITDA and strategic positioning in Q1 2026, although revenue from continuing operations fell 36% year-on-year to €5.3m (£4.6m), down from €8.3m in Q1 2025. 

This decline was primarily driven by the ongoing phasing out of the company’s Paid Publisher Network within its SubAffiliation segment. The move, whilst weighing on top-line performance, reflects a deliberate shift toward higher-quality and more sustainable revenue streams.

Despite this drop, Raketech delivered a 15% YoY increase in reported EBITDA, reaching €1.17m, with margins improving significantly to 22.1% (up from 12.3%). Adjusted EBITDA came in slightly lower at €1.21m, down 7.5% YoY, but showed sequential improvement from Q4 2025, when it came in at €1.1m.

Raketech’s changing revenue streams

Raketech’s transformation is evident in its evolving revenue make-up. Affiliation Marketing now accounts for nearly 75% of total revenue, up from 54.6% a year earlier. 

Although this segment declined 12.4% YoY from €4.5m to €4m, it grew modestly quarter-on-quarter from €3.9m, supported by new media-driven initiatives.

Key product launches such as Casinofeber Media and expanded sports content on TVMatchen have contributed to improved engagement and traffic quality, particularly in Nordic markets, which remain both the company’s base and strongest region.

“Affiliation Marketing (Raketech owned assets) revenues increased quarter-on-quarter despite Q1 being seasonally weaker than Q4 and having two fewer days in the period,” said Johan Svensson, Chief Executive Officer at Raketech.  

“We view this as an encouraging sign that the underlying quality of our Nordic portfolio is improving, supported by stronger product positioning, deeper content, and increased user engagement.”

The company did also sell its Japanese arm Casumba Media in September 2025 for €12m due to “ongoing challenges” and “regulatory exposure”. Raketech asserts that this sale has made room to “unlock resources for growth opportunities”. 

By contrast, SubAffiliation revenue dropped 61% YoY to €1.34m from €3.4m, reflecting the intentional wind-down of lower-margin paid traffic partnerships.

While this has significantly reduced scale, it has also improved cost efficiency, with publisher costs falling sharply from €2.7m to €800,000.

Profits take another hit

Despite cost reductions, profit declined 65.5% to €272,000, while adjusted operating profit fell 70.8% to €316,000, highlighting just how much of an impact reduced volumes and restructuring has had on a firm which was reporting a quarterly operating profit of €3.8m this time three years ago.

Operational restructuring has led to a leaner organisation, with full-time employees reduced from 102 to 59 and contractors from 38 to 24. As part of this workforce shake-up, Victoria Darmanin will tomorrow take on the role of interim Chief Financial Officer, replacing outgoing CFO Måns Svalborn and looking to further consolidate a financial stabilisation. 

Raketech by region

Geographically, the Nordics accounted for 73.8% of total revenue, reinforcing their role as the Stockholm-listed firm’s core market, even though revenue in the region declined 26.2% YoY.

Elsewhere, the company faced steeper declines, particularly in the US (-48.4%) and the Rest of the World markets (-58.1%), where challenges in scaling organic publisher networks and weaker partner performance weighed on results. 

Rest of Europe revenue also dropped by 38% to €254,000.

Affiliation Marketing providing promising signs?

Central to Raketech’s strategy is its AffiliationCloud platform, which integrates owned and external publishers with operator partners into a unified ecosystem. The company said it is continuing to invest in this “platform-first” approach, aiming to enhance scalability, data utilisation and commercial efficiency.

Looking ahead, early April data suggests a slight improvement in Affiliation Marketing performance, while SubAffiliation trends remain stable. A newly signed exclusive organic publisher agreement in the Nordics is expected to be a “meaningful contributor“ over time.

Svensson described the quarter as a “solid start,” emphasising improved EBITDA and strengthening fundamentals despite revenue headwinds.

“We will continue to strengthen our Nordic Affiliation Marketing portfolio, scale the successful media and sports content concepts into additional markets and products, and improve execution within the Organic Publisher Network,” he continued.

“With improved EBITDA, stable development across our Nordic core, and a clearer operating structure, we believe Raketech is entering 2026 with a stronger foundation for gradual improvement.”

Raketech’s outlook remains closely tied to developments in the broader gambling regulatory landscape. As a performance marketing partner rather than an operator, the company is indirectly exposed to a plethora of regulatory changes affecting its clients across Europe, North America and beyond.

Ongoing tightening of gambling regulations, particularly across Europe, combined with evolving search engine algorithms and compliance requirements, continue to impact the business. 

Renewed market confidence

However, a slightly more stable Q1 may pave the way for a comeback as the business continues to restructure. Raketech has had a torrid time on the Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market in Stockholm over the past few years, but investor confidence seems to have grown – albeit only slightly – after today’s results, with shares up by over 3% to 1.82 SEK (14p). 

Coupled with Kambi’s stock rocketing by over 20% today on the back of its own hugely positive Q1 results, the duo seeing their shares rise is a welcome boost for Stockholm-listed PLCs in the industry, which have all in one way or another encountered market difficulties in recent times.

While Raketech still clearly has a way to go to return to its former glory, a relative stabilisation, despite huge drops in revenues and profits, is starting to appear, giving it some glimpses of hope amid what has been a challenging few years for the business.