Raketech revenue down 36% in Q1, yet margin improves
29 APR 2026
The affiliate reported its Q1 2026 revenue from continued operations at €5.3 million (£4.6 million / $6.2 million), down 36% year-on-year, though minor improvements were seen in the affiliation marketing segment.
Reported EBITDA increased 15.1% to €1.2 million, while the EBITDA margin expanded to 22.1%, up from 12.3% in the prior-year period. Adjusted EBITDA came in at €1.2 million, broadly stable year-on-year and higher than Q4 2025.
New depositing customers declined by 38.2% to 11,907, with management attributing the drop primarily to reduced paid traffic activity. Employee benefit expenses amounted to €1.0 million, down €1.1 million from Q1 2025, reflecting a reduction in headcount from 102 to 59 full-time employees.
Nordic resilience
Commenting on the performance, Johan Svensson, Raketech CEO, said the quarter “marked a solid start to the year” for the group. He highlighted that the development was driven by “strong performance” in its Nordic affiliation marketing portfolio as well as favourable post-December Google Core Update momentum. Several media-led product initiatives launched in February, including Casinofeber Media and the pre-game content section on TVMatchen/sport, have also “started well and are contributing positively to engagement and overall performance”.
Overall, affiliation marketing remained Raketech’s primary income source, generating €4.0 million during Q1, equivalent to 74.7% of total group revenue, up from 54.6% a year earlier. While the segment was down 12.4% year-on-year, it delivered approximately 1.5% growth compared to Q4, despite Q1 being seasonally weaker and two days shorter.
Going forward, Svensson described the model as scalable beyond Sweden, with plans to roll out five additional media-driven and event-led products across Nordic markets during 2026. This includes two new pre-game content sections linked to the TVMatchen sports guide ahead of the FIFA World Cup.
Subaffiliation shift
Subaffiliation revenue fell sharply to €1.3 million, down 61.2% year-on-year, reducing the segment’s share of group revenue to 25.3%, compared with 41.7% in Q1 2025. The decline was driven primarily by the wind-down of the Paid Publisher Network, a strategic transition Raketech flagged in Q4 2025.
Publisher costs fell year-on-year from €2.7 million to €0.8 million in parallel, helping cushion the impact on profitability, while gross profit within subaffiliation declined 25.3% to €0.5 million.
The quarter also saw mixed results in the organic publisher network. While Svensson said one larger US organic publisher underperformed expectations, the Nordic organic network delivered 8% growth compared to Q4, supported by traffic bundling with Raketech-owned assets.
In addition, the group continued its platform-first strategy through its AffiliationCloud platform, integrating owned publishers, external organic publishers and operators into a single commercial ecosystem.
Upcoming events and outlook
Looking ahead, Raketech’s preliminary April 2026 data indicates that revenues from its Affiliation Marketing portfolio were slightly stronger than the Q1 average, while subaffiliation performance remained broadly in line with the first quarter. The group has also signed a new exclusive organic publisher agreement in the Nordics in late April, which it expects to become one of its largest regional partners over time.
Svensson reiterated the company’s focus on strengthening its Nordic affiliation portfolio, scaling proven media concepts into new markets and improving execution within the organic publisher network.
“With improved EBITDA, stable development across our Nordic core and a clearer operating structure, we believe Raketech is entering 2026 with a stronger foundation for gradual improvement,” he said.