Q1 2025: Driving Long-Term Value Through a Platform-First Strategy, and Enhanced Financial Flexibility

TRIQ I-IMSIDA IL-GZIRA, MT / ACCESS Newswire / May 7, 2025 /Raketech (STO:RAKE) - Quote from Johan Svensson, CEO "Q1 2025 marked a period of strategic consolidation and operational focus for Raketech. Despite a year-on-year revenue decrease we have made good progress in aligning the business around our platform-first model and long-term growth priorities. With AffiliationCloud now at the core of how we operate, and a strengthened financial position following key decisions, we are confident in our ability to scale efficiently and deliver sustainable value."

Q1 2025 FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Free cash flow before earnouts totalled EUR 1.7 million in Q1 2025. EUR 6.0 million of the earnout was settled during the quarter, with EUR 2.0 million due in Q2. The remaining earnout of EUR 20.6 million has been extended to March 2028.

OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

• As part of our previously announced review of our operating model, we achieved cost savings of 34% in Q1 2025 (excluding publisher costs) compared to the first quarter of last year.

SUBSEQUENT EVENTS AFTER THE END OF THE PERIOD

• Revenues for our Affiliation Marketing assets in April 2025 remains consistent with Q1 2025. However, the lower margin Paid Network (SubAffiliation) continues to face headwinds.

CEO COMMENT

Q1 2025 marked a period of strategic consolidation and operational focus for Raketech.Despite a year-on-year revenue decrease we have made good progress in aligning the business around our platform-first model and long-term growth priorities.

With AffiliationCloud now at the core of how we operate, and a strengthened financial position following key decisions, we are confident in our ability to scale efficiently and deliver sustainable value.

Financial Overview
Q1 2025 revenues amounted to EUR 9.8 million compared to a strong Q1 2024 of EUR 19.0 million (including EUR 0.8 million from the divested advisory business). Adjusted EBITDA of EUR 2.4 million (EUR 5.1 million), with reported EBITDA of EUR 2.1 million (EUR 4.3 million). The adjustments include restructuring costs related to the strategic shift towards working with entrepreneurial partnerships.

We 're in the final stage of the strategic review of our non-core US tipster and subscription assets. These assets and related US operations had a negative EBITDA impact of EUR 0.3 million in Q1.

Strategic Execution & Direction
Platform-First / AffiliationCloud - Building a leading commercial platform: Raketech continues to strengthen its position as a platform first performance-based marketing company by focusing on what we do best: enabling scalability and long-term growth through a structure built on commercial and operational expertise. Through AffiliationCloud, we integrate assets managed in-house and via entrepreneurial partnerships (Affiliation Marketing), along with our Paid and Organic Publisher Network (SubAffiliation), into a single, unified system. This structure supports more efficient operations, better use of data, and greater predictability across all areas.

Entrepreneurial Partnerships - Decentralizing Affiliation Marketing Assets: Our entrepreneurial partnership model remains a core pillar of this approach. In Affiliation Marketing, approximately 50 percent of revenue now comes from these partnerships, and a strategic focus for us is to grow this further during 2025. The partnerships allow Raketech to retain ownership while leveraging its centralized capabilities in commercial agreements, finance, reporting, data, and technology. Our partners contribute deep expertise in areas such as SEO, content, and product development, creating a structure that fosters scalability and efficiency.

Win-Win for Operators and Publishers - SubAffiliation: In SubAffiliation, we apply the same principle by delivering high-quality traffic to operators and offering publishers the best possible commercial terms through AffiliationCloud.

The strategic focus within this area is expanding exclusive network commercial agreements with operators, onboarding new publishers, and investing in our platform infrastructure. These initiatives are laying the foundation for long-term value creation while enhancing daily execution across our network.

Business Area Updates

Affiliation Marketing
Keeping Momentum: Affiliation Marketing generated EUR 6.0 million in revenue during the quarter with continued decline for the Casumba assets. Adjusted for Casumba, the remainder of the Affiliation Marketing portfolio decreased only marginally compared to Q4, reflecting stability despite softer seasonal trading and the shorter reporting period in February. Activity levels in the latter part of the quarter were more in line with Q4, reinforcing our view of a stable and resilient portfolio.

Entrepreneurial Partnership Gaining Ground: Entrepreneurial partnerships now represent approximately 50 percent of revenues in this business area. Operational momentum for the new partnerships, most of which commenced in March, has been strong. While it is too early to see a material financial impact in Q1, we are optimistic that these partnerships will play an increasingly important role during the remainder of the year.

Moving Beyond SEO: Additionally, we continue to focus on diversifying our traffic streams to reduce dependency on SEO. Key initiatives include expanding CRM activities and investing in products with a higher proportion of returning visitors, such as the TV sport guides.

SubAffiliation - Organic Publisher Network and Paid Publisher Network

Navigating Paid Network Headwinds: SubAffiliation generated EUR 3.4 million in revenue during the quarter. The Paid Publisher Network faced a marked decline from March due to external factors like algorithm changes. This volatility has made traffic volumes and monetization less predictable. We do not expect a meaningful recovery in the near term and are putting continued focus on the more stable Organic Publisher Network, but we remain prepared to scale up again should volumes return.

Organic Publisher Network Gaining Ground : The Organic Publisher Network made solid progress. We have onboarded new publishers and expanded our pipeline of exclusive commercial network agreements with operators. The number of active revenue-generating publishers increased to over 80, up from around 50 last year, demonstrating strong interest. As of today, we have four exclusive network commercial operator agreements in place, and expanding this base remains a top priority.

This business area mirrors our partnership model in Affiliation Marketing, with Raketech managing commercial structures and partners providing high-quality traffic. This ensures scalability, value creation, and compliance.

Conclusion & Next Steps

Q1 2025 reflects strategic progress. In Affiliation Marketing, our entrepreneurial partnerships gained traction, and in SubAffiliation, the Organic Publisher Network showed promising growth. Simultaneously, challenges in the Paid Publisher Network reinforced our decision to focus on more stable, predictable sources of lead generation.

The revised Casumba terms have improved our financial flexibility, enabling us to invest in areas with the highest long-term potential.

By aligning commercial strength with operational efficiency across both internally managed assets and those run through entrepreneurial partnerships within Affiliation Marketing, we deliver measurable results and drive sustainable growth. With a growing base of trusted publishers and exclusive network commercial agreements with operators within SubAffiliation, we are well positioned to drive traffic, convert leads, and create long-term value for shareholders.

Johan Svensson, CEO

LINK TO REPORT

The full Interim Report is available on https://raketech.com/investors/

REPORT PRESENTATION

CEO Johan Svensson and CFO Måns Svalborn will present the report in a conference call on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, at 09:00 CEST.

The presentation can be followed via both a conference call and an online audio cast, including a Q&A session open to all listeners at the end of the presentation.

If you wish to participate via webcast, please use the link below. Via the webcast you are able to ask written questions.

https://raketech.events.inderes.com/q1-report-2025

If you wish to participate via teleconference, please register on the link below. After registration, you will be provided with phone numbers and a conference ID to access the conference. You can ask questions verbally via teleconference.

https://conference.inderes.com/teleconference/?id=5001600

For more information, please contact:

investor@raketech.com

About Raketech Group

Raketech is a leading online affiliate and content marketing company, with expertise in delivering comparison services for sports and gaming, online guides, communities, and social media products. Raketech guides sports and gaming enthusiasts to the best possible services, while also delivering high-quality traffic and leads to its partners. Raketech grows both organically and via acquisitions and operates its business in accordance with a clear framework for responsible affiliate marketing services. The company 's shares are listed in Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market with ticker RAKE. Carnegie Investment Bank AB (publ) is the company 's Certified Adviser. For more information, visit www.raketech.com .

This information is information that Raketech is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at 2025-05-07 08:00 CEST.

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Q1 2025 Driving Long Term Value Through A Platform First Strategy, And Enhanced Financial Flexibility

SOURCE: Raketech

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