Allied Gaming & Entertainment Inc (AGAE) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Allied Gaming & Entertainment, Inc. third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

大家好，歡迎參加 Allied Gaming & Entertainment, Inc. 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）提醒一下，本次會議正在錄音。

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host. Tyler Drew, within Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

現在我很高興介紹您的主持人。泰勒‧德魯 (Tyler Drew)，投資者關係部。謝謝。你可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, and welcome to the Allied Gaming & Entertainment's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Speaking on the call today are Allied Gaming & Entertainment's Chief Executive Officer, Yinghua Chen; and Chief Financial Officer, Roy Anderson.

謝謝您，接線生。下午好，歡迎參加 Allied Gaming & Entertainment 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。今天參加電話會議的有 Allied Gaming & Entertainment 執行長陳英華和財務長 Roy Anderson。

Before I turn the call over to management, please note that our prepared remarks may contain forward-looking statements. Words such as may, will, expect, intend, plan, believe, seek, could, estimate, judgment, targeting, should, anticipate, goal and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those implied by such forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors discussed in the company's public filings, including the risk factors discussed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

在我將電話轉交給管理層之前，請注意，我們準備好的評論可能包含前瞻性陳述。可能、將要、預期、打算、計劃、相信、尋求、可以、估計、判斷、目標、應該、預期、目標等詞語以及這些詞語的變體和類似表達旨在識別前瞻性陳述。由於公司公開文件中討論的各種因素，包括提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中討論的風險因素，實際結果可能與此類前瞻性陳述所暗示的結果有重大差異。

Although the company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be attained. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

儘管公司認為此類前瞻性陳述所反映的預期是基於合理的假設，但無法保證其預期能夠實現。本公司不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務，無論其是否出現新資訊、未來事件或其他原因。

In addition, certain of the financial information presented in this call represents non-GAAP financial measures. The company's earnings release, which was issued this afternoon and is available on the company's website, presents definitions of such non-GAAP financial measures, reconciliations to the appropriate GAAP measures and an explanation of why the company believes such non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors.

此外，本次電話會議中提供的某些財務資訊代表非公認會計準則財務指標。該公司的收益報告於今天下午發布，可在公司網站上查閱，其中介紹了此類非 GAAP 財務指標的定義、與相應 GAAP 指標的調節，並解釋了公司為何認為此類非 GAAP 財務指標對投資者有用。

And with that, it is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Allied Gaming & Entertainment's CEO, Yinghua Chen. Yinghua?

現在，我很高興將電話轉給 Allied Gaming & Entertainment 的執行長陳英華。英華？

Thank you, Tyler, and thank you all for joining us this afternoon. It was a strong quarter for us, both operationally and financially as we achieved 93% revenue growth and continue to push our strategic initiatives forward, including the launch of World Mahjong Tour, which we believe will accelerate our growth.

謝謝你，泰勒，也謝謝大家今天下午加入我們。對我們來說，這是一個強勁的季度，無論從營運還是財務角度而言，我們實現了 93% 的收入成長，並繼續推進我們的策略舉措，包括推出世界麻將巡迴賽，我們相信這將加速我們的成長。

Our world-class HyperX Arena was in high demand throughout the third quarter, hosting 61 event days, 34 of which were third-party events. Highlights include our multiyear returning HackerOne Live Hacking Event, where top hackers from around the globe collaborated to strengthen organizational security. We also hosted Global Gaming League?s' inaugural event, everybody games, a private gathering that brought together celebrities, fashion and entertainment to celebrate gaming's widespread appeal.

我們世界一流的 HyperX Arena 在整個第三季需求量很大，舉辦了 61 天的活動，其中 34 天是第三方活動。亮點包括我們多年回歸的 HackerOne 現場黑客活動，來自世界各地的頂級黑客齊聚一堂，共同加強組織安全。我們也主辦了全球遊戲聯盟的首屆活動「人人遊戲」是一場私人聚會，匯集了名人、時尚和娛樂界人士，以慶祝遊戲的廣泛吸引力。

Other notable events included the Southern Glazer's product launch party, a team outing for the Charlotte Hornets and an Esports with the Air Force event. On Labor Day, we hosted a Netflix live special event featuring an unforgettable hot dog eating contest between world famous competitors, Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi, co-hosted by actor Rob Riggle and WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Garcia.

其他值得注意的活動包括南方格雷澤的產品發布會、夏洛特黃蜂隊的團隊郊遊以及與空軍的電子競技活動。勞動節當天，我們舉辦了一場 Netflix 直播特別活動，其中有一場令人難忘的熱狗吃比賽，參賽選手是世界著名選手喬伊·切斯特納特 (Joey Chestnut) 和小林尊 (Takeru Kobayashi)，由演員羅伯·里格爾 (Rob Riggle) 和 WWE 名人堂成員尼基·加西亞 (Nikki Garcia) 共同主持。

Our Oman mobile arena experienced its busiest quarter since 2023, kicking off with 2 of the 15 scheduled stops in the Rally Cry Championship Tour, a hybrid tournament based on the highly anticipated return of EA College Football 2025.

我們的阿曼移動競技場經歷了自 2023 年以來最繁忙的一個季度，拉開了 Rally Cry 冠軍巡迴賽 15 個預定站點中的 2 個的序幕，這是一項基於備受期待的 EA College Football 2025 回歸的混合錦標賽。

Additionally, our mobile arena (inaudible) launch its Pro Leon peripherals in San Jose, California and conducted a very popular CS2 Supergirl tournament in Oceanside, California, featuring some of the world's most competitive all female (technical difficulty) teams. It is exciting to see global brands and major productions like Netflix make full use of our unique space, fully equipped with streaming and production capabilities for diverse events beyond Esports.

此外，我們的行動競技場（聽不清楚）在加州聖荷西推出了 Pro Leon 外圍設備，並在加州歐申賽德舉辦了一場非常受歡迎的 CS2 Supergirl 錦標賽，其中匯集了一些世界上最具競爭力的全女子（技術難度）團隊。令人興奮的是，看到像 Netflix 這樣的全球品牌和主要製作公司充分利用我們獨特的空間，為電子競技以外的各種活動提供串流媒體和製作能力。

We are very optimistic about expanding our target market and audience even further. Now let's dive into the exciting progress we've made with the World Mahjong Tour, WMT, as we further developed its schedule and format. The first season will kick off with two satellite events, one in Los Angeles and the other in Beijing, where we expect significant interest building up to the finale. Winners of this event will earn a coveted spot in the WMT Las Vegas finale to be held at the HyperX Arena in early February, featuring a $100,000 price pool, the largest ever for Mahjong in North America. This grand finale will coincide with the Lunar New Year festival in Las Vegas. Any partnership with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, will highlight WMT as one of the festival's star attraction.

我們對進一步擴大我們的目標市場和受眾非常樂觀。現在讓我們深入了解世界麻將巡迴賽 (WMT) 所取得的令人興奮的進展，我們進一步製定了其時間表和形式。第一季將以兩場衛星活動拉開序幕，一場在洛杉磯，另一場在北京，我們預計屆時將引起人們極大的興趣。本次賽事的獲勝者將獲得 2 月初在 HyperX Arena 舉行的 WMT 拉斯維加斯決賽的令人垂涎的資格，該決賽的獎金池為 100,000 美元，是北美麻將賽事中獎金最高的一次。這場盛大的壓軸演出將與拉斯維加斯的農曆新年慶典同時舉行。與拉斯維加斯會議與遊客管理局的任何合作都將凸顯 WMT 是該節日的明星景點之一。

Allied Experiential Entertainment, AEE, is thrilled to announce that we will be cohosting our proprietary RhythmMax music festival in Macau in partnership with the renowned Strawberry Music Festival, a 15 year music festival brand in October 2025. This three day event will feature global music artists and our goal is to develop this festival into a landmark event that will be recognized as the Summer Sonic of Macau, attracting audiences and artists from around the world. We anticipate making this festival an annual event moving forward.

Allied Experiential Entertainment（AEE）非常高興地宣布，我們將與擁有 15 年歷史的音樂節品牌——著名的草莓音樂節合作，於 2025 年 10 月在澳門聯合舉辦我們專有的 RhythmMax 音樂節。為期三天的活動將匯聚全球音樂藝術家，我們的目標是將這個音樂節打造成一個具有里程碑意義的活動，被譽為澳門的“夏日音波”，吸引來自世界各地的觀眾和藝術家。我們期望將這個節日打造成一項年度盛事。

Let's move on to Allied Mobile Entertainment, AME. Our strategic investment in Z-Tech, a leading developer and operator of casual mobile games continues to gain traction. The progress has been slightly slower than anticipated.

讓我們繼續討論 Allied Mobile Entertainment（AME）。我們對領先的休閒手機遊戲開發商和營運商 Z-Tech 的策略投資繼續獲得青睞。進展比預期稍慢一些。

During this quarter, we launched two new casual mobile games to expand our gaming portfolio. For the remainder of the year, our focus will be on maintaining and refining our existing mobile games with a primary emphasis on card and margin games, which are showing strong user retention. We also have an exciting development post quarter end that we'd like to speak to you as well.

本季度，我們推出了兩款新的休閒手機遊戲，以擴大我們的遊戲組合。在今年剩餘的時間裡，我們的重點將放在維護和改進現有的手機遊戲上，主要專注於卡牌遊戲和邊緣遊戲，這些遊戲表現出很高的用戶保留率。我們在本季末還有一個令人興奮的發展，我們也想與您談談。

In October, we were thrilled to announce a substantial investment by Yellow River Global Capital, a leading alternative private equity firm specializing in development-focused investments in digital technologies, telecommunications, new energy and entertainment.

十月份，我們很高興地宣布獲得黃河全球資本的一筆巨額投資，黃河全球資本是一家領先的另類私募股權公司，專門從事數位技術、電信、新能源和娛樂領域的開發性投資。

Yellow River is highly synergistic with AGAE and the agreement demonstrates their belief in our strategic priorities moving forward. In addition to the financial investments, Yellow River will provide us with strategic resources, networking opportunities and industry expertise that will be extremely valuable as the company advances its strategic initiatives forward. As part of the investment, Yellow River received warrants that will highly incentivize them to partner with us on different initiatives that will help accelerate our growth.

黃河與 AGAE 具有高度的協同作用，該協議表明了他們對我們未來戰略重點的信心。除了金融投資之外，黃河還將為我們提供策略資源、網路機會和行業專業知識，這些對於公司推進其戰略舉措將非常有價值。作為投資的一部分，黃河獲得了認股權證，這將極大地激勵他們與我們合作不同的計劃，有助於加速我們的成長。

I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Roy Anderson, to provide updates on our Q3 financials.

現在，我將把電話轉給我們的財務長羅伊·安德森 (Roy Anderson)，以提供有關我們第三季財務狀況的最新資訊。

Thank you, Yinghua. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Total revenues for the third quarter of 2024 were $2.2 million, up 93% from the third quarter of 2023. The increase in year-over-year revenue was primarily due to higher casual mobile gaming revenues with Z-Tech integrated into the business as well as an increase in in-person revenues following strong demand at both our HyperX and Oman mobile arenas.

謝謝你，英華。大家下午好，感謝大家今天的參與。2024 年第三季總營收為 220 萬美元，較 2023 年第三季成長 93%。營收年增主要由於 Z-Tech 融入業務後休閒手機遊戲收入增加，以及 HyperX 和 Oman 手機競技場需求強勁導致現場收入增加。

Total cost and expenses for the third quarter were $3.3 million, an increase from $1.8 million in the prior year period. The increase in costs and expenses were also primarily driven by our investment in Z-Tech in the fourth quarter of 2023, along with an employee retention credit that was received and recorded as a reduction of payroll tax expense in the prior year period. These increases were partially offset by a D&O insurance reimbursement and professional fees related to prior year M&A activities.

第三季的總成本和費用為 330 萬美元，比去年同期的 180 萬美元增加。成本和費用的增加也主要由於我們在 2023 年第四季度對 Z-Tech 的投資，以及收到並記錄為上年期間工資稅費用減少的員工保留抵免。這些成長部分被董事及高階主管保險補償和與上一年併購活動相關的專業費用所抵銷。

Our net loss was $4.0 million for the third quarter of 2024 compared to net income of $0.1 million in the third quarter of 2023. The result was impacted by a $3 million loss on our settlement of a 2020 escrow agreement with BPR Cumulus LLC, as well as a $1.2 million net unrealized loss on loans payable and receivable in a foreign currency. These charges were partially offset by a $0.3 million increase in interest income.

2024 年第三季我們的淨虧損為 400 萬美元，而 2023 年第三季的淨收入為 10 萬美元。該結果受到我們與 BPR Cumulus LLC 達成的 2020 年託管協議結算損失 300 萬美元以及以外幣支付和應收貸款的 120 萬美元淨未實現損失的影響。這些費用被 30 萬美元的利息收入增加部分抵銷。

Almost all of the net unrealized foreign currency transaction loss was recovered or reversed in October 2024. Our adjusted EBITDA loss was $0.1 million and improved from a loss of $0.3 million in the third quarter of 2023. Our adjusted EBITDA includes adjustments for the depreciation and amortization of fixed and intangible assets, stock-based compensation, nonrecurring legal fees, unrealized foreign currency transaction losses and interest income.

幾乎所有未實現外幣交易淨損失已於2024年10月收回或轉回。我們的調整後 EBITDA 虧損為 10 萬美元，較 2023 年第三季的 30 萬美元虧損有所改善。我們的調整後 EBITDA 包括固定和無形資產的折舊和攤銷、股票薪酬、非經常性法律費用、未實現外匯交易損失和利息收入的調整。

Now moving on to our balance sheet. At September 30, 2024, our cash and short-term investments position totaled $80.2 million compared to $78.6 million at December 31, 2023. The company's working capital surplus, defined as current assets minus current liabilities, was $62.8 million at September 30, 2024, compared to $66.4 million at December 31, 2023.

現在來看我們的資產負債表。截至 2024 年 9 月 30 日，我們的現金和短期投資總額為 8,020 萬美元，而 2023 年 12 月 31 日為 7,860 萬美元。該公司的營運資本盈餘（定義為流動資產減去流動負債）截至 2024 年 9 月 30 日為 6,280 萬美元，而 2023 年 12 月 31 日為 6,640 萬美元。

Our cash and working capital positions were impacted by the aforementioned settlement agreement with BPR under which $5 million of escrowed funds under a 2020 share purchase agreement were redistributed. With BPR receiving $3 million of these funds and AGA receiving the remaining $2 million.

我們的現金和營運資金狀況受到上述與 BPR 達成的和解協議的影響，根據該協議，2020 年股份購買協議下的 500 萬美元託管資金被重新分配。其中，BPR 獲得 300 萬美元，AGA 獲得剩餘的 200 萬美元。

I will now turn the call back over to Yinghua.

現在我將把電話轉回給英華。

Thank you, Roy. We continue to lay the foundation for our business to capitalize on the significant assets available to us. As we gear up for the premier season of the World Mahjong Tour starting next month, launch more new mobile game titles and generate growing demand at our HyperX Arena and Oman Mobile Arena, we're poised to see substantial progress impacting both the top and bottom lines of our company. Thank you for your time today. We look forward to speaking with you again when we release our fourth quarter and full year 2024 results in March.

謝謝你，羅伊。我們將繼續為我們的業務奠定基礎，以充分利用我們現有的重要資產。隨著我們為下個月開始的世界麻將巡迴賽的首賽季做準備，推出更多新的手機遊戲，並在我們的 HyperX Arena 和阿曼行動競技場產生不斷增長的需求，我們有望看到對公司營收和利潤產生重大影響的重大進展。感謝您今天抽出時間。我們期待在 3 月發布 2024 年第四季和全年業績時再次與您交談。

That concludes today's conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.

今天的會議到此結束。感謝您加入我們。現在您可以斷開線路了。