Peter Messner to step down as Catena Media CFO

Peter Messner is leaving his role as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Catena Media plc, the company announced on Wednesday.

He will be handing over within six months to pursue a career outside the sports betting and casino industry.

“Given our closer focus on the North American market, we have agreed that this is the right time to make a transition in our financial leadership,” CEO Michael Daly said.

He added that Dr Messner has contributed “hugely” to the company’s “recent successes”, before thanking him for his efforts since he joined in 2020.

The online sports betting and casino company shared that the process of recruiting a new CFO will be initiated.

Dr Messner joined Catena Media during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and he worked remotely during the three years he was at the Malta-based company. During that time, he was responsible for its finance, financial planning and analysis, tax, treasure, financial operations, investor relations, enterprise risk management, and sustainability functions.

Prior to his time at the company, he worked as CFO and Finance Director MTGx at Modern Times Group, Visiting Researcher at Stockholm School of Economics, and CFO and Director Corporate Development at Ongame Network, all based in Stockholm, Sweden. He also worked at bwin Interactive Entertainment AG for over four years, initially as Product & Portfolio Manager and then as Integrated Business Planning Manager. He was also Managing Consultant and Usability Engineer, Project Manager at USECON and Centre for Usability Research and Engineering, respectively.

He holds a Doctorate in Social and Economic Sciences from University of Vienna and a Master in Economics and Computer Science from Vienna University of Technology.

Catena Media is a global leader in generating leads for operators of online sports betting and casino platforms, with a large portfolio of web-based affiliation brands that guide online users to customer websites and aims to “enrich” players’ experience worldwide. It employs over 450 people in Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, and Oceania. Last November, the online lead generation company recorded a €0.8 million decrease in revenue during the third quarter of 2022, despite Mr Daly describing it as a “healthy quarter”, particularly for its North American operations.