Catena Media cuts five roles in latest layoff round

Catena Media has cut five roles across its technology, marketing and regional sites teams, the affiliate group confirmed, in another round of redundancies coming days before it reports second-quarter results.

The cuts were first reported by NEXT.io on 6 August. Catena confirmed that five positions were affected after the regional sites team was dissolved and its responsibilities redistributed to other groups inside the business. The company described the move as part of its continuous streamlining of operations and said it was consistent with a strategy to sharpen focus on core products. Catena added that affected staff are being supported directly.

Regional sites team folded into other units

The regional sites operation covered Catena’s geographically targeted publishing assets, a legacy of the sprawling multi-market portfolio the group ran before its retreat to North America. Its dismantling completes a structural direction the company set out in its Q1 2026 interim report, which confirmed the closure and liquidation of Catena entities in several geographic markets. At the time, the company said that exercise would reduce administrative and organisational complexity with no expected impact on headcount or costs.

The five roles cut in August are separate from that liquidation programme and do carry a headcount impact, however small relative to earlier rounds.

A pattern running back to 2024

Catena has run repeated redundancy programmes since its revenue and EBITDA fell sharply, a decline driven by Google search algorithm updates that damaged its organic traffic and by heavy dependence on new US state launches. Sources cited by NEXT.io put the number of layoff rounds in 2024 alone at three.

The largest reduction came in the second quarter of 2025. Catena’s Annual Report disclosed roughly 50 departures in that quarter, equivalent to about 25% of total staff. Those cuts reached senior management and removed one management layer entirely, with expected annual savings of €4.5m to €5.0m.

In November 2024, chief executive Manuel Stan told analysts on the Q3 earnings call that no further staff cuts were foreseen in the near future following the restructuring completed at that point. Three subsequent rounds of reductions have followed that statement.

The cost base is doing the work

The layoffs sit against a set of quarterly results that have improved on every headline measure. Revenue from continuing operations in Q1 2026 reached €12.3m, up 26% from €9.8m a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA rose 191% to €2.7m, lifting the margin to 22% from 9% in Q1 2025 and marking the third consecutive quarter above the 20% threshold management has set as a target. EBITDA from continuing operations increased 318% to €2.6m.

Personnel expenses fell 18% year-on-year in the quarter, or 32% on a normalised basis excluding a €0.8m accrual for the 2026 staff bonus programme. Direct costs rose 110% as the group shifted traffic generation toward cost-per-acquisition channels rather than relying on organic search, though total expenses fell 11% quarter-on-quarter. Operating cash flow reached €4.4m, up 38% year-on-year. New depositing customers from continuing operations totalled 34,573, against 21,918 in Q1 2025.

Stan framed the improvement in terms of distance travelled rather than the quarter itself.

“We’ve returned to growth, diversified our revenue sources, and moved from single-digit EBITDA margins to consistently exceeding 20%,” Stan said on the Q1 earnings call.

Shares rose about 70% in February after a Q4 2025 report that set out a strategic reset. The Q1 result beat consensus on both revenue, forecast at €11.8m, and adjusted EBITDA, forecast at €2.4m, yet the stock fell afterwards as investors weighed continued exposure to Google algorithm risk.

North America concentration remains the constraint

North America generated €11.7m in Q1, or 95% of group revenue from continuing operations, up from 89% a year earlier. Casino accounted for 88% of group revenue and grew 43% year-on-year. Sports fell 34% following the sale of the esports segment, though the remaining sports business held a 30% EBITDA margin.

That concentration makes provincial and state launches disproportionately important to the revenue line. Catena has pointed to the Alberta market opening on 13 July as its first combined casino and sports launch since Ontario in 2022, with surrounding unregulated provinces offering lower-cost acquisition. Ontario iGaming revenue reached C$4bn in 2025, giving some indication of the ceiling a mature Canadian market can reach.

The group carries no outstanding bank debt after repaying its bond loan, but holds €44m in hybrid capital with €5.4m in deferred interest accrued.

Wider affiliate and operator pressure

Catena is not alone in reducing headcount. Redundancies have been announced across operator and supplier functions during 2026, and several businesses have gone further, with Rivalry suspending betting operations pending a strategic review in February. Affiliates in particular face compressed organic search visibility and rising paid acquisition costs, the same combination now reshaping Catena’s channel mix and its cost line.

Catena Media is scheduled to publish its Q2 2026 interim report on 11 August. The disclosure to watch is whether the 20% adjusted EBITDA floor held through a quarter in which direct costs continued rising and the Alberta launch landed only in the final weeks of the period.

Source: Catena Media