Catena Media promotes Edward Midolo to CTO
As part of its ongoing organizational changes, Catena Media has announced the promotion of Edward Midolo to Chief Technology Officer.Following Michael Gerrow's...
Catena Media publishes Q4 results and praises US advancement
Catena Media has published the results for its progress in the United States and had indeed applauded the results, believing that it is a great way to alleviate the weight of the crisis-like situation in the European market during 2020.
It published the results of the last quarter of 2020, which ended in December, and revealed operating revenues worth €26.6 million, which brought on a 0.3% improvement from the corresponding period in 2019. In the meantime, there was another 9% increase in the company’s EBITDA reaching €12.3 million, which corresponds to an adjusted margin of 46% once compared to Q4 of 2019.
Catena Media also mentioned that this growth was due to the large surge of popularity in the sports sector during the last few months of 2020, and the number of newly depositing customers also increased largely, which boosted profits. For the fourth quarter, NDCs rose from 113,283 to 124,959, which means a 10% increase.
The affiliate also grew thanks to many improvements in the US market, since it saw ‘all-time high’ revenues in Q4, which includes a 31% share in total revenues. Michigan and Virginia are two states that opened up during Q4 of 2020, so the increase does make a lot of sense.
The company also stated that its presence in the United States has ‘been a success story throughout the year’ when the share of this business went from 18% in 2019 to 30% in 2020, along with a noticeable growth of 43% in the last quarter.
Catena is looking to keep its high investment in the post-PASPA market so that it can keep its ‘top ranked position’, as well as have a ‘strong start in January 2021’ with a revenue increase worth 56% year-on-year. Its operations in the Japanese market also added onto its revenues, since it recorded a rise of 38% in Japan, with a 23% boost in the AskGamblers brand which surely also contributed to its overseas improvement.
Commenting on Catena Media’s performance, Göran Blomberg, Acting CEO, said:
“The Group has shown resilience this year in facing the challenges of the ongoing pandemic. The Sports segment has been most negatively affected due to cancelled events, while other parts of our business were impacted positively, as people spent more time at home. We had a soft start to Q4 in October and November, but ended the year with strong momentum that carried on into 2021 – and we are now heading well above double-digit growth.”
The company also mentioned that ‘the pre-regulatory tolerance period’ in the German market, and the ‘headwinds in Germany for both sports and casino’ heavily impacted the trading scene, and the company expected to be ‘continuously negatively impacted by this in the first half of 2021’. Its revenue from sports in Germany have dropped to half of what they used to be in Q4 of 2020 alone.
Casino operations made up 60% of the total revenues, worth €16.0 million with an adjusted EBITDA of €9.3 million for Q4. But for the whole trading year, the division acquired 66% of total revenues, which comes up to a total of around €69.6 million and an adjusted EBITDA of €42.8 million. Aside from that, the sports division brought in 35% of overall revenues marked at €9.3 million, with an EBITDA of €2.5 million, which reveals a 27% margin.
And even though the sports division acquired significantly less revenue than the casino segment, however it still was able to bring in €30.6 million for the whole trading year, which makes up for 29% of total revenue and adds onto an annual EBITDA €7.9 million with an apparent 26% margin.
Catena has mentioned as well that the smaller amount brought in by the sports segment is largely due to the halting of most sports events and live tournaments and competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced a large chunk of events to completely be terminated for the year. The company estimated that around 20% of tournaments were delayed or cancelled across the world.
When taking a look at the company’s full-year performance in 2020, it is noticeable that operating revenue came up to €106 million, a 3% increase from the €102.8 million recorded in Q4 of 2019.
Blomberg later also mentioned:
Even though COVID-19 has impacted our Sports business negatively, business was back to normal by the end of the year. Catena Media has a very strong market position and good momentum in most business areas. The transformation programme within our legacy business will increase efficiency and enable future revenue growth. After a very good start to 2021, I have every reason to believe in positive developments for the entire year. Last but not least, it is with great pleasure that I welcome our new CEO Michael Daly, who has built our US entity into a fast-growing and profitable business in a very successful way. Michael assumes his position on 1 March, and I am confident that with him we have the right person in command to move Catena Media into the next phase of growth and profitability.
Michael Gerrow: Catena Media’s new CFO
Michael Gerrow has been appointed as Catena Media's new Group Chief Financial Officer.Gerrow takes on his new responsibilities on the fifteenth of April of this year.
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