On the latest episode of iGaming Daily, SBC’s Content Director, Ted Menmuir, was joined by SBC Americas’ Editor, and ex-Catena employee, Jessica Welman, to discuss the challenges faced by Catena Media in the US media landscape.

Last month, the company dismissed approximately 10% of its workforce and subsequently reported a 40% decline in adjusted EBITDA year-over-year, down to $1.4m from $3.5m in the same period last year.

Jess noted that during the company’s earning call, Catena’s CEO, Manuel Stan, highlighted a lack of “future-proofing” after the initial sports betting rush in the US post the repeal of PASPA.

“You are at the point where all of the people who are Googling new sign-up bonuses have kind of dried up,” said Jess. 

“I think Stan and the others realise that none of the content sites in the [Catena’s] portfolio have a particularly committed audience and none of the brands have been built for the purpose of bringing people back over and over again.”

Despite this, Jess explained that there is hope for affiliates in the US as a large section of the population is still an untapped market.

“If you look at the percentage of the population in these states that are playing, it’s still in the teens, so there’s room for affiliates to go find new customers,” explained Jess. 

“They have to go about finding them now that the ones that are motivated to seek out affiliates have dried up. I think that’s where the shift is going to happen. 

“That’s why Stan was so big on building brands and that editorial reorganisation was towards making sure that the assets that do have the closest thing to a following like the Legal Sports Report and Play USA have the support that they need because those people are going to be the ones paying the bills.”

To end the episode, the duo considered what’s next for Catena as the firm looks to bounce back from its poor Q3 performance.

“For Catena, I’m going to see where they’re putting their resources,” said Jess. “They have a wide range of networks. As a content person, it’s going to be interesting to see which brands they believe have the most longitude and which ones have the most ability to create an audience around themselves.

“I think what’s going to be, on the business side, most interesting is that all of these big affiliate companies seem to be addressing these issues in a different way. Catena went heavy on AI, which has been a major project of theirs, whereas Jonas Warrer, [CEO] of Gentoo Media, made fun of the idea that content AI is going to do anything for anybody. 

“So I’m going to be curious how much the portfolio diversifies because the groups that have been hit the hardest were just pure SEO plays.”