Part 1: Analysis of results from second quarter
Company “clearly not happy” with NDC numbers and
“will do better in second half”
Per Hellberg – Catena CEO
Yet NDCs are an important measure of the
The company was, of course, built on
health of any affiliate organisation and Catena’s acquisitions; as of last November it said it had
relative decline in this area is worthy of some completed 34 deals and had collected more than
analysis. 1,200 website brands. This strategy of pursuing an
affiliate space land-grab had achieved results and
NDC focus between the first quarter of 2017 to the second
During the second quarter results analyst call, quarter of 2018, NDCs soared 74% from more than
Catena Media repeated the message from its 80,000 to about 140,000.
capital markets presentation from last November
However, in the four subsequent quarters this
that it was quality rather than quantity that metric has gone into reverse. Since Q318 the
mattered when it came to NDCs. As chief quarter-on-quarter NDC trend has been negative,
executive Per Hellberg stated at the time, the with an average decline over the past four
company “doesn’t talk about NDCs internally” and quarters of 8% and a hefty 19% drop between the
“volume is not the key”. first and second quarters of this year. In year-on-
Yet the NDC number still represents as good
a measure as any for the health of any gambling
affiliate’s business. The business is a funnel and
year terms, meanwhile, the drop in the second
quarter is worse at nearly 30%.
The company has cited, variously, the effects
whether the affiliate’s revenues are dependent on of regulation in key territories including the UK,
CPA or revenue share, the number of NDCs will be Sweden and, perhaps surprisingly France, where it
the determinant for future revenues. said the regulator had asked that it separate two
As such, the trend for Catena Media’s NDC
products, lead generation and paid-for betting
count will likely be the cause of some headaches
within the company.
tips, onto separate sites.
In the UK, the company said that the KYC
Chart 2: Catena Media’s NDCs rise and fall
Chart 3: The quarter-on-quarter NDC
performance at Catena Media
160000
25
140000
20
120000
15
100000
10
80000
5
0
60000
-5
40000
-10
20000
-15
0
80421 91222 100741 113258 133322 140154 138194 127805 124007 99981
Q117 Q217 Q317 Q417 Q118 Q218 Q318 Q418 Q119 Q219
-20
Q117
Q217
Q317
NDCs
Source: Catena Media
iGaming Business • Affiliate Monitor • October 2019
Q417
Q118
Q218
Q318
Q418
Q119
Q219
QUARTERS
Source: Catena Media
4