Allwyn reported its earnings for the second quarter of 2026, revealing that the company’s net revenue jumped by 27% year-on-year to €1.2 billion.Adjusted EBITDA also...
The second quarter of 2026 made one thing harder to ignore: the biggest iGaming affiliates aren’t playing exactly the same game. AffPapa explains what Q2 brought for Grandstand, Genius Sports, Better Collective, Catena Media, Raketech, and Gentoo Media, and where each company is headed next.
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Overview of the affiliate market in Q2 2026
The biggest iGaming affiliates in Q2 2026 are all taking different approaches to a market where Google traffic is less predictable, customer acquisition is getting more expensive, and affiliates need more than rankings to keep growing. Some are building sports data businesses, some are investing in prediction markets and direct audiences, while others are cutting back to their strongest brands and markets.
That split became much clearer in Q2. Grandstand and Genius Sports continued to build businesses around data and technology, while Better Collective used prediction markets, sponsorships and its media portfolio to push revenue higher. Catena Media, meanwhile, saw the pressure on traditional organic search become harder to ignore, and Raketech continued reducing its exposure to weaker parts of the business.
Q2 2026 was the quarter when diversification stopped looking like a long-term idea and started showing up directly in affiliate results.
Q2 2026: Affiliate market at a glance
| Category | Takeaway |
| Biggest Winner | Better Collective delivered stronger revenue, EBITDA, and customer value, with prediction markets and North America adding another growth channel. |
| Biggest Growth Story | Genius Sports posted 65% revenue growth after bringing Legend into the business and raised its full-year guidance again. |
| Biggest Turnaround | Grandstand is moving away from its old SEO-heavy identity, with non-SEO revenue now making up two-thirds of marketing revenue. |
| Most Challenging Segment | Traditional SEO affiliate marketing continued to face pressure as search traffic became less predictable. |
| Most Important Trend | Affiliates are building revenue outside organic search through sports data, paid media, sponsorships, prediction markets and direct audience products. |
| Market Outlook | The rest of 2026 will show whether these new revenue sources can become large enough to replace traffic lost from traditional search. |
Grandstand: The Gambling.com rebrand comes with a bigger change
Grandstand’s Q2 iGaming results are interesting because the company’s rebrand was not just a new name. The former Gambling.com Group is trying to change what the business actually is.
Revenue fell 5% year-on-year to $37.8 million and adjusted EBITDA dropped 44% to $7.7 million. On the surface, that does not look like a strong quarter, but looking only at those numbers misses the main change happening inside the company.
The old affiliate model depended heavily on SEO and turning search traffic into depositing customers. Grandstand is now trying to reduce that dependence. In iGaming Q2, non-SEO sources already accounted for two-thirds of marketing revenue. Marketing revenue itself fell 10%, largely because organic search was weaker, but partner and paid channels helped offset part of the decline.
The other side of the business is becoming increasingly important. Sports data revenue grew 12% to $11.2 million, with enterprise data services making up the majority of that revenue. OpticOdds, in particular, is growing faster than the wider data business.
That is important because data contracts behave very differently from search traffic. Grandstand is selling infrastructure and services directly to businesses, rather than waiting for a user to find one of its sites through Google.
The May restructuring should also start showing its effect in the second half of the year. The company expects around $6.5 million in fixed-cost savings in H2, while management expects quarterly revenue and EBITDA to increase sequentially.
So, the Grandstand story is not really about a weak iGaming Q2. It is about a company accepting short-term pressure while trying to build a business that is less dependent on where Google sends traffic.
Full Grandstand Q2 2026 report
Raketech: Smaller business, clearer direction
Raketech entered Q2 with a much smaller business than it had a year earlier, but that was mostly the result of decisions made before this quarter.
Revenue from continuing operations fell 17.6% to €5.6 million. Yet adjusted EBITDA declined by only 1.8% to around €1.3 million, meaning profitability held up much better than revenue. The EBITDA margin improved to 22.6% from 18.9% a year earlier. That difference is the important part.
Raketech has been removing weaker assets and reducing its exposure to areas that were no longer producing enough value. In iGaming Q2, Affiliation Marketing revenue fell 14.7% to €4 million, while SubAffiliation revenue also declined. The company linked part of the decline to the phase-out of its Paid Publisher Network and weaker non-core markets.
The result is a smaller company, but one where the remaining business is easier to understand. Nordic assets now make up a much larger share of the group, with the region accounting for 75.2% of Q2 affiliate revenue.
That makes Raketech an interesting example of the industry’s push toward constant diversification. While Grandstand and Genius are adding new business lines, Raketech is doing almost the opposite: cutting back, concentrating resources, and trying to get more from a smaller core.
The big question is whether this smaller base can eventually return to growth. For now, Q2 suggests that Raketech is getting better at protecting profitability, even if the revenue recovery has not arrived yet.
Catena Media: Google pressure is getting harder to ignore
Catena Media had a much tougher Q2 than its Q1 recovery suggested. Affiliate revenue from continuing operations fell 1% year-on-year to €9.5 million, while adjusted EBITDA dropped 11% to €1.2 million. The bigger problem was the 23% sequential revenue decline from Q1, but in reality, the reason matters more than the percentage.
Catena says user behavior around organic search is changing. The same search ranking does not necessarily deliver the same number of clicks it used to, meaning a strong position in Google is becoming less reliable as a source of traffic and revenue. That is especially important for a company whose traditional model has depended heavily on organic search.
The business is also becoming increasingly concentrated. North America generated 97% of group revenue, while casino remained the main source of income at €8.5 million, up 8%. Sports revenue, by comparison, fell 43% to €1 million.
Rather than abandoning its existing sites, Catena is trying to build additional ways of reaching and monetizing users. The company increased investment in paid media, CRM, and other performance channels, launched PlayPicks in beta, and is developing an automated marketplace that is expected to launch commercially in the first half of 2027.
That makes iGaming Q2 less of a simple bad quarter and more of a warning about the old affiliate model. Catena still has valuable casino brands and a strong North American position, but the company now has to prove that its new channels can compensate for weaker organic search traffic.
Full Catena Media Q2 2026 report
Better Collective: More ways to make money from the audience
Better Collective had one of the cleaner Q2 stories among the major affiliates.
Affiliate revenue reached €89 million, up 9% year-on-year at constant currency, while EBITDA before special items increased 20% to €27 million. New depositing customers rose 24%, but the more interesting number was the value of deposits, which reached a record €836 million, up 17%. That difference matters because Better Collective is getting more value from its audience rather than simply trying to increase its audience.
North America was very important. CPA revenue in the region increased 50% to €5 million, with prediction markets contributing heavily to the growth. Better Collective had invested in this segment early, and Q2 showed that those investments are now producing actual revenue rather than simply being future bets.
The company is also changing how it sells advertising. Sponsorship revenue jumped 39% to €16 million, while CPM revenue fell slightly. That is a deliberate trade: Better Collective is choosing fewer, higher-value advertising deals instead of relying as heavily on traditional volume-based advertising.
The FIFA World Cup was another huge part of the strategy. Better Collective had spent the previous year preparing its products, media operations, and technology for the tournament, while expanding Playbook in Brazil and its broader media portfolio.
Regulation still created pressure. Changes to the UK’s Remote Gaming Duty and Brazilian regulation created an estimated €4 million combined headwind. Even so, underlying growth more than offset those losses.
So, Better Collective’s Q2 gives one of the clearest examples of where larger affiliates can go next: fewer advertising dollars tied to basic traffic volume, more money coming from valuable audiences, direct partnerships, and new betting categories.
Full Better Collective Q2 2026 report
Genius Sports: Data is becoming the real growth engine
Genius Sports had arguably the strongest growth quarter of the group as Q2 affiliate revenue jumped 65% year-on-year to $195.5 million, while adjusted EBITDA increased 54% to $52.6 million. The company also beat its own Q2 revenue and EBITDA guidance and raised its full-year outlook to $1.005 billion-$1.025 billion in revenue and $285 million-$295 million in adjusted EBITDA.
The Legend acquisition is a huge reason behind the numbers, particularly in Media. Media revenue jumped 193% to $78.2 million, helped by the addition of Legend and growing demand for Genius Sports’ products. Betting Technology revenue also grew by 28% to $117.4 million, supported by existing customer expansion, contract renewals, and new services.
But the more interesting part is what Genius is building around that data.
The company is moving further into fan engagement, media, advertising, and prediction markets instead of remaining a business that only supplies sports data to bookmakers. During and after Q2, Genius announced partnerships with both Polymarket and Kalshi, extending its infrastructure into prediction markets. It also expanded its technology partnership with Liga MX and the Swiss Football League.
The Legend acquisition also shows why this strategy matters. Rather than building every new audience and media capability from scratch, Genius can combine its existing sports data with Legend’s media assets and sell more services in the same system.
However, there’s a cost to this approach. The company reported a $76.7 million net loss in Q2, mostly because of acquisition and financing costs related to Legend. But those costs don’t tell the whole operating story. Revenue and adjusted EBITDA both beat guidance, while the company raised its full-year expectations.
This means that Genius Sports is following a very different path from traditional SEO affiliates. It is trying to own more of the infrastructure behind sports, betting, and media rather than compete for the same search traffic as everyone else.
Full Genius Sports Q2 2026 report
Gentoo Media: Stronger margins, but revenue still under pressure
Gentoo Media’s Q2 results add an important twist to the affiliate market story. Revenue fell 9% year-on-year to €22.9 million, but adjusted EBITDA increased 5% to €8.9 million, pushing the margin from 34% to 39%. At the same time, first-time depositors reached 101,900, and the total value of player deposits hit a record €207 million, up 6%.
That combination is difficult to ignore. Gentoo is sending more players and generating a higher volume of deposits, but that activity is not yet translating into higher revenue. In other words, the audience is there, but monetization is lagging behind it.
This is important because Gentoo spent 2025 simplifying its portfolio and cutting lower-value activities. The cost base is now much lower, which is why EBITDA can rise even when revenue falls. The company also generated €6.4 million in operating cash flow during Q2 and reduced net interest-bearing debt to €112.2 million from €122.8 million a year earlier.
The problem is that cost-cutting cannot solve the revenue issue forever. Gentoo lowered its 2026 guidance to €97-100 million in revenue and €44-47 million in adjusted EBITDA, with management specifically pointing to weaker-than-expected revenue in the first half of iGaming 2026 and the slower rollout of commercial initiatives.
That makes the second half of the year quite important, as Gentoo now needs to prove that the record deposit levels and stronger player intake can eventually turn into higher affiliate revenue. If that happens, the company could have a much stronger earnings base than its current revenue figures suggest. If it does not, Q2 will look more like a margin-protection story than an actual recovery.
Full Gentoo Media Q2 2026 report
Affiliate performance in Q2: Metrics in comparison
| Company | Q2 2026 Revenue | YoY Growth | EBITDA |
| Grandstand | $37.8M | -5% | $7.7M adjusted |
| Raketech | €5.6M | -17.6% | €1.3M adjusted |
| Catena Media | €9.5M | -1% | €1.2M adjusted |
| Better Collective | €89M | +9%* | €27M before special items |
| Genius Sports | $195.5M | +65% | $52.6M adjusted |
| Gentoo Media | €22.9M | -9% | €8.9M adjusted |
*Better Collective’s reported growth was 9% at constant currency.
Q2 2026 closing analysis: The affiliate model is splitting
iGaming Q2 2026 made the divide inside the affiliate market much easier to see, making it clear that getting players through the door is only half the job now.
Gentoo Media is the clearest example. The company generated a record €207 million in player deposits and brought in more than 100,000 first-time depositors, yet revenue still fell 9%. That means the problem is no longer simply finding users; affiliates also need to convert that activity into higher-value revenue.
On one side are companies still heavily exposed to the old traffic equation: rank in search, attract visitors, convert them, and send them to operators. Catena Media’s results show how quickly that equation can become harder when search behavior changes. Raketech is dealing with a different version of the same problem by cutting weaker assets and concentrating on the parts of its business that still make money.
On the other side are companies trying to own more than the traffic itself. Better Collective is monetizing audiences through sponsorships, prediction markets and paid media. Grandstand is building a larger sports data business and reducing its dependence on SEO. Genius Sports is going even further, combining official data, media, technology and prediction-market infrastructure.
That does not mean SEO is disappearing. Catena itself is still investing in its organic brands. The bigger change is that SEO can’t be the whole business plan anymore.
The rest of 2026 will be important for one reason: we will start seeing whether these alternative channels can become large enough to replace the traffic and revenue that traditional search used to provide. The FIFA World Cup, the growing prediction-market sector, stronger sports data demand, and new direct-to-consumer products will give the biggest affiliates plenty of opportunities to test their new models.
For now, iGaming Q2 points in one clear direction: the affiliates with more than one way to reach and monetize an audience have more room to grow, while those still tied too closely to a single traffic source have much less space for error.
The affiliate market will have a lot more to watch as Q3 unfolds, and AffPapa will continue following the quarterly results, acquisitions, traffic changes, and new strategies shaping the industry. If you want to stay fully up-to-date, check out AffPapa’s Q2 2026 operator report to get the full picture.
