Catena Media, the igaming lead-generation brand, has cited significant progress in its US operations in its Q2 update for the period ended June 2020. The company said that its US business, with its key markets Pennsylvania and New Jersey, saw its best-ever quarter. 

Looking at the firm’s overall performance in the quarter revealed operating revenue ahead by 17% to $33.2m versus $28.3m year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 56% to $18.8m compared with $11.3m year-on-year.

CEO Per Hellberg told investors: Our US business, with its key markets Pennsylvania and New Jersey, saw its best-ever quarter, with casino and social casino turning into key drivers during the Covid-19 shutdown. For the first time ever in the history of the US, all 900-plus land-based casinos were closed, which provided an additional push for their online counterparts. 

“We believe this will have a lasting impact on online penetration as well. Furthermore, we originally thought the pandemic might negatively impact state regulatory processes, but we witnessed the opposite: Tennessee and Michigan are all preparing to launch, and we are well prepared for them, since we have had a long and active presence in all states that are not yet regulated.

“As a part of our growth strategy, we have continued to transform our business and invested in future growth regions such as the US, Latin America, and Asia. This quarter we launched our sports brand BettingPro in Latin America, with very encouraging early results in traffic. Investments predominantly relate to staff who manage brands and content, as well as marketing expenses, to ensure we establish leading positions.” 

In the report, the firm noted that the second quarter continued on last quarter’s strong casino performance in the key states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, out-performing expectations with triple-digit growth. That performance, it added, more than offset the decrease in sports, partly due to much higher player values in casino than in sports. 

It said: “Noteworthy also was a strong performance from social casino, which further mitigated the lack of sports betting offers, supported by our work with influencers and other media channels.”