Catena Media Reports Strong Q2 2026 Growth as Manuel Stan Expands Marketplace Infrastructure Strategy

A 1% revenue dip is the least interesting thing about Catena Media’s quarter. The pivot underneath it is the real story.

Catena Media reported Q2 2026 revenue of EUR 9.5m, down 1% on the same quarter last year, with the affiliate group naming organic search headwinds as the drag on its traditional business. Adjusted EBITDA fell 11% to EUR 1.2m. Yet the half-year numbers point the other way, and the company used the results to set out a clear shift away from search-dependent affiliation toward a B2B marketplace. The Catena Media Q2 2026 results, published on 11 August, are a pause quarter wrapped around a strategic reboot.

What the Catena Media Q2 2026 results actually show

Start with the tension in the numbers. Q2 revenue was flat. But over the first half, revenue rose 12% to EUR 21.8m and adjusted EBITDA jumped 70% to EUR 3.9m. New depositing customers climbed 23% in the quarter to 24,781. North America now accounts for 97% of group revenue, up from 90% a year ago.

So the quarter was soft. The half was not. The gap between those two facts is the whole point, and management was open about the cause: a search-dependent model produces exactly this kind of volatility.

Why organic search headwinds are reshaping the gambling market

Here’s the structural problem, in the company’s own framing. A given search ranking now generates fewer clicks, and less revenue, than it did a year ago. Rankings themselves were softer in Q2 than the year before, with a recovery noted after quarter-end.

For any affiliate, that’s the uncomfortable truth. You can hold your position and still earn less from it. Traffic discovery is changing, and no amount of SEO discipline fully offsets it. Catena has decided the answer isn’t to fight harder for rankings. It’s to depend on them less.

What Catena Media’s marketplace pivot involves

The plan is to evolve from affiliation and lead generation into a technical infrastructure provider, running a next-generation, automated marketplace that connects publishers and advertisers across more verticals, with analytics at its core. Investment began in Q2, which is why capital expenditure rose. Testing is due to complete in late 2026, ahead of a commercial launch in the first half of 2027.

The proof point already exists. The MRKTPLAYS platform now contributes more than a third of group revenue, according to CEO Manuel Stan. That single fact is what makes the pivot credible rather than aspirational. Management’s own thesis is that Catena’s highest-value role is not just generating affiliation leads, but building the connective infrastructure between publishers and operators. In one part of the business, that’s already happening.

The operator read for B2B gaming

So what does a platform head or operator do with this? Watch the marketplace terms when they land. If Catena builds a genuine publisher-to-advertiser marketplace with real analytics, it changes how traffic is bought and measured across the sector. That feeds into acquisition budgets and partner conversations directly, not in theory.

The caveat worth naming is disclosure. Catena is holding back operational detail “for competitive reasons,” so the platform’s economics remain unproven until launch. Separately, the group announced a planned share buyback of up to 5.98% of shares, tied solely to employee incentives, and a voluntary offer to buy back its hybrid capital securities at 20.00 percent of the nominal amount (SEK 20 for every SEK 100 of nominal value). Both are finance-desk items rather than operator ones, but they colour the capital-allocation picture, and the low buyback price for the hybrid is a detail the market will read in more than one way.

What Comes Next for the B2B iGaming Market?

The next 12 months will test whether affiliation can become infrastructure. Catena’s bet is that owning the connective layer between publishers and advertisers is worth more than renting search traffic, and MRKTPLAYS gives that bet a foundation most rivals can’t point to. For operators, the practical takeaway is simple: an established affiliate is trying to reposition as a platform, and the H1 2027 launch will show whether the model travels. If it works, expect others to follow. If it stalls, the sector’s search-dependence problem doesn’t go away.

Source: Catena Media