Catena Media revenue falls 30% amid “ongoing challenges” in core markets
Affiliate suffers slumps across key metrics as CEO Manuel Stan reveals firm has discontinued its AI-based content generation platform after being deemed suboptimal
Catena Media has posted Q4 2024 revenue of €10.2m (£8.5m), marking a 30% year-on-year (YoY) slump, with CEO Manuel Stan citing “ongoing challenges” in core markets as a factor for the decline.
However, there was a marginal uptick in adjusted EBITDA for the final quarter of last year, which climbed 2% YoY to €1.5m, alongside a corresponding margin of 15% – a five percentage point rise since Q4 2023.
Catena’s operating expenses in the final three months of 2024 totalled €11.6m, a drastic decrease compared to the €50.8m spent in the corresponding quarter a year prior.
Despite the reduction in operating expenses, the affiliate still posted a loss of €1.4m for the reporting period.
There was a fall in the amount of Catena’s new depositing customers (NDCs), with the firm attracting 25,806 in Q4 2024, a decline of 19% when pitted against the 32,032 secured in the final three months of 2023.
Analysing Catena’s topline figure by vertical, the company’s casino segment contributed €7.6m, down 15% YoY on 2023’s figure of €9m.
Bosses explained that the “termination of several media partnership agreements in response to the Google policy update earlier in the year negatively affected revenue”, alongside a slight decline in NDCs for the division.
Sports betting revenue took a more significant hit, falling 54% to sit at €2.5m, a steep decline from the €5.4m generated in the corresponding reporting period the previous year.
This YoY slump was attributed to the absence of state launches in the run up to Q4 2024, whereas Kentucky’s legalisation of sports betting in September 2023 played a pivotal role in the Q4 2023 performance.
Management also cited “continued underperformance and competitive pressures” in North America as a reason behind the revenue slump in the vertical, which saw 29 redundancies in October.
Breaking Catena’s Q4 display down by region, North America was comfortably the largest contributor generating €8.9m in revenue, but down 28% YoY against the fourth quarter of 2023.
Revenue from the rest of the world division totalled €1.2m, a steep fall of 41% YoY.
Reflecting on his second full quarter as CEO, Stan said: “The Q4 results reflected the ongoing challenges we face in our core markets.
“For the second consecutive quarter, profitability improved following the measures taken since mid-year to streamline the cost structure. These actions reduced the cost base by 33% from Q4 2023, lifting our adjusted EBITDA margin from 5% in Q2 to 15% in Q4.
“This represents a significant improvement, but reaching higher profitability will also require a return to top-line growth. In Q4, revenue remained under pressure as measures to focus the group on the new strategic priorities set by management gained traction more slowly than anticipated.”
Stan went on to note that in the past, Catena has “spread its resources too thinly across multiple markets” and will now shift its focus firmly to the affiliate’s top-performing sites and products.
In terms of the firm’s full-year performance from January to December 2024, revenue amounted to €49.6m, a YoY decrease of 35% on the €76.7m posted for FY 2023.
Adjusted EBITDA across the entirety of the year saw an even greater decline, falling 79% to €5.4m, corresponding to a margin of 11%.
The opening exchanges of 2025 have seen Catena discontinue its AI-based generation content platform, with the affiliate acquiring 100% of the business last January before now shuttering it and recouping just €0.7m of its original investment in the process.
Stan said: “We continue to see AI as an important business enhancer, for example in scaling up content output and quality. However, the new board and management did not deem this venture to be an optimal way to realise the opportunity.”
In early morning trading today,11 February, Catena’s shares had fallen by 12.7% to SEK4.20 (£0.30).
The CEO conceded that the final quarter of 2024 left plenty to be desired but issued an optimistic update for 2025, adding: “Catena Media enters 2025 as a more focused organisation. While Q4 results continued to disappoint, we significantly improved our profitability through cost optimisation.