SEO PR Specialist
Catena Media is looking for an SEO PR Specialist to secure media coverage and links across the US media landscape. Reporting to the SEO Off-Page Team Lead, the role involves transforming data, legislative agendas, and the American sports calendar into compelling stories that national, regional, and industry journalists want to publish to build brand authority.
The remit includes bringing new legislation and regulation to a wider audience, organising interviews with industry leaders, and partnering with industry associations, advocacy groups, publishers, and operators on topics that matter in their markets. Sports will be a significant part of the job, but not the entirety. This is a role for someone who already has the contacts, knows what lands on a news desk, and understands the difference between a placement that looks good in a coverage report and one that moves the needle in search.
- Plan and deliver the digital PR calendar across Catena Media's US brands, mapped against the legislative and regulatory calendar, major industry events, and the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL seasons.
- Turn legislation and regulation into stories: explain new bills, state launches, court rulings and regulatory changes across online casino, sweepstakes, sports betting and prediction markets for national, regional and trade audiences.
- Organise interviews with industry leaders, from operator executives to policymakers and analysts, and turn them into coverage, features and expert content.
- Partner with industry associations, advocacy groups, publishers and operators on joint research, campaigns and commentary across the topics that matter in their markets.
- Develop data-led story angles from proprietary and public data: state handle and revenue figures, market and player trends, odds movement, and original survey research.
- Pitch directly to journalists, editors and producers across national and regional news, business and policy desks, sports media, gaming trade press, and podcasts.
- Build, maintain and grow a working network of media relationships, and be the person the team comes to when a story needs to be placed quickly.
- Position Catena Media’s writers and analysts as expert sources on legalization, regulation and the US gaming market, and manage inbound media requests.
- Run the reactive newsroom: monitor breaking regulatory, industry and sports news and turn commentary around while the story is still live.
- Commission and brief the assets a campaign needs - data pulls, visuals, landing pages - working with content, design and analytics.
- Manage press release drafting, wire distribution and syndication where it genuinely adds value, and recognize when it doesn’t.
- Secure placements that carry SEO value, and be able to make the case for a followed, in-context link when negotiating with a publisher.
- Monitor unlinked brand mentions and convert them into links where possible.
- Work with the Off-Page Specialist to align campaign targets, target pages and anchor text with the wider off-page plan.
- Track and report on coverage volume, link quality, referring domains, share of voice and brand mentions, and feed the results back into the next campaign.
- Ensure all outreach and coverage meets responsible gambling, state-level advertising and affiliate disclosure requirements.
- Support campaigns in new markets as the team’s remit grows.
- Perform any other ad hoc tasks which may be assigned by management from time to time.
- 4+ years experience in digital PR, media relations or communications, in-house or agency side (required).
- An established network of US journalist and editor contacts across news, business, policy and sports desks and the gaming trade press, with placements personally secured that can be pointed to (required).
- A clear understanding of the compliance sensitivities of promoting gambling products in the US, and the judgment to know where the lines are (required).
- Strong working knowledge of the US gaming landscape across online casino, sweepstakes, sports betting and prediction markets: state-by-state regulation, the legislative process, the major operators and the industry bodies that shape the debate (required).
- A natural instinct for what makes a story, whether it starts in a state legislature, a boardroom or a stadium, paired with the discipline to check whether the data actually supports it (required).
- Comfortable with data analysis, survey design and data storytelling (required).
- Understanding of how PR creates SEO value - link quality, anchor text, followed versus nofollowed links, and why placement on the page matters (required).
- Experience with media databases and monitoring tools such as Muck Rack, Cision, Prowly or Roxhill, alongside SEO tools such as Ahrefs (required).
- Exceptional written English, with a natural command of US news, business and sports idiom (required).
- Comfortable balancing shifting priorities while under deadline, maintaining attention to detail (required).
- Able to work US business hours and flex around the news and sports calendar, including occasional evening and weekend moments around major events and legislative deadlines (required).
- Direct experience doing PR for an online gambling, sports betting or affiliate business (preferred).
- Experience with broadcast or podcast placements (nice-to-have).
- Experience working with industry associations, advocacy groups or public affairs teams on policy-led campaigns (nice-to-have).
- Experience running creator or influencer partnerships alongside traditional media (nice-to-have).
Catena Media is a performance-based online marketing and lead-generation company focused on the iGaming, sports betting and esports industries. It connects operators with new customers through a portfolio of affiliate websites and content across multiple markets, with a particular strength in North America. Headquartered in Gżira, Malta, the company employs a globally distributed workforce of more than 200 people. Catena Media is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.