Catena Media promotes US chief to CEO role
Online gaming veteran and North America VP Michael Daly to take control from March 2020
Catena Media has promoted North America VP Michael Daly to the overall CEO role.
Daly will officially take charge of the affiliate on March 1, picking up from interim CEO Göran Blomberg, who will resume his position as chairman of the board.
Blomberg was placed in temporary charge following the firing of Per Hellberg in January amid a transformation process to improve operational efficiency.
Daly joined Catena Media in April 2018 as US general manager and is largely responsible for the affiliate’s surging US growth while based in Las Vegas.
He is an igaming veteran, having started out as a shuffle master in 2003 before a six-year spell with Bally Technologies until 2012.
Michael Daly
He has also served as North America VP for solutions provider GAN and even formed his own igaming consultancy in 2018.
“It has been exciting working with Catena Media’s US growth engine these last few years,” said Daly.
“The opportunity to work directly with all our global teams is even more exhilarating, as it is a much bigger growth engine,” he added.
Interim CEO Blomberg commented: “I have great trust and confidence in Michael as the new CEO of the company.
“He is a true leader with a deep knowledge of the company as well as the business. His achievement in developing the US market speaks for itself and I am convinced he is the right person to take Catena into the next development phase.”
In November 2020, former CEO Per Hellberg said the firm was looking to lean on its US-facing brands to drive revenue in the future, with the market representing 30% of total revenue in Q3.
Hellberg said: “We see a potential for our US business to generate the same amount of revenue as the entire Catena Media group does today. But it’s up to state legislators to decide when such potential is unlocked for us, so the timing is unpredictable.
Catena Media will report its Q4 financial results on February 24.