Bragg Gaming Group Inc (BRAG) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. My name is Kale Baker, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Bragg Gaming Group's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

I would now like to turn the call over to Chief Strategy Officer, Yaniv Spielberg. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining our first quarter of 2023 Earnings Conference Call. I'm Yaniv Spielberg, Chief Strategy Officer for Bragg Gaming Group. I'll be hosting today's call alongside my colleague, Chief Executive Officer, Yaniv Sherman, who will comment on our first quarter's performance; and Ronen Kannor, our CFO, who will review and discuss our first quarter results. If you've not already done so, you can follow our earnings call presentation from our website at investors.bragg.group in the section called Latest Presentation.

On this call, we'll review Bragg's financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2023. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the conference call to a question-and-answer period. I'll start the call with some brief cautionary remarks regarding certain statements that may be made on this call. Certain statements made on this conference call and our responses to various questions may constitute forward-looking information or future oriented financial information within the meaning of applicable securities law.

Statements about expected growth, perspective result, strategic outlooks and financial and operational expectations, opportunities and projections rely on a number of assumptions concerning future events, including market and economical conditions, business prospects or opportunities, future plans and strategies, technological developments and anticipated events, trends and regulatory changes that may affect the Corporation and its subsidiaries and their respective customers and industries.

While we believe these assumptions to be reasonable, they are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the company's control and which could cause the actual results, performance or achievement of the company to be materially different. There can be no assurances that these assumptions or estimates are accurate or there any of these expectations will prove accurate. For a complete discussion of these factors, please refer to our recently filed press release and other publicly available disclosure.

With that behind us, I'd like to turn the call now to our CEO, Yaniv Sherman. Yaniv?

Thank you, Yaniv. Good morning. I'm Yaniv Sherman, Bragg's CEO, and I'm very happy to welcome you all to our first quarter presentation. Our first quarter of the year marked another successful step in our digital quest. We continue to execute against our mission and strategic plan, complementing our award-winning iGaming proposition, with a growing number of premium Bragg developed game titles, offered to players around the world through our operating partners.

Our execution is driving persistent top line and cash flow growth. Consistent with our previously presented game plan, we continue to expand in new markets with new customers. So far, this year has been no exception as we're excited to welcome new partners in Mexico, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and the UK. Our US rollout is progressing well and we recently marked another key milestone with the launch of our newest tech stack and games launch in Pennsylvania, our fourth US state to date.

I'll share more business and operational detail shortly, but first I'd like Ronen to elaborate about our recent financial key performance indicators. Ronen?

Thank you, Yaniv, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin my comments on Slide 6. As Yaniv indicated earlier, the first quarter of 2023 was another successful step in our digital journey. We continue to execute against our mission and strategic plan and we can see that in our financial and operational results.

In the first quarter, total revenue were up by 18.1% year-over-year to EUR 22.9 million. The growth was mainly derived organically through our existing customer base launched in financial year 2021 and 2022, which performed better-than-expected on the content segment. The new onboarded customers in various jurisdictions in particular the Netherlands with 3 new PAM customers, turnkey solutions and content offering and a solid revenue performance from the vast re-gaming studio and spin games existing US customer mix.

From an operational KPI perspective, total wagering generated by the games and content offered by the Group during the quarter was up by 35.7% from the same period in the previous year to EUR 5.2 billion. As you can see from the wagering chart on the right-hand side, Bragg saw positive momentum since the effect of the inception of the German regulator restrictions on gameplay in the third quarter of 2021, which demonstrates our ability to transform and diversify our operations.

In addition, the total number of unique players using our games and content in the period should excluding Wild Streak and Spin were up by 42.8% from the same period in the previous year to 2.8 million unique players. The increase is associated with significant improvement to our core content offering, including recent technical developments, giving us a powerful competitive advantage.

Gross profit for the quarter increased by 22% to EUR 12.2 million, with gross profit margins increasing by 170 basis points to 53.5%. The margin increase is a direct effect of a change in the composition of revenue derived from PAM, managed services and proprietary game studios, which have no cost of sale compared to third-party games and content which had associated third party costs.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was up by 28.1% to EUR 3.9 million, with adjusted EBITDA margin reaching 17%, an improvement of 130 basis points from the same period in the previous year. The change in margin was mainly as a result of scale, a change in product mix and higher profitability that come with alongside with higher salaries cost as part of the Group's strategy to expand its software development and product portfolio, all with a focus to margin control.

Operating profit for the quarter amounted to EUR 0.5 million, an improvement of EUR 0.6 million from the previous year, operating loss of EUR 0.1 million and as a result of improved underlying performance and more efficient cost-control. We are pleased that in the start of the second quarter, we have seen a strong trading in line with our expectations. As a result, we're reiterating our 2023 guidance of revenue in the range of EUR 93 million to EUR 97 million, with a midpoint of EUR 95 million, implying 12% growth from 2022 levels. And adjusted EBITDA of EUR 14.5 million to EUR 16.5 million, with a midpoint of EUR 15.5 million, implying 28% growth and adjusted EBITDA from 2022 levels.

As you can see on Slide 7, the gross profit margins on a growing trajectory in the third quarter of 2021 due to the shift in Bragg's product mix. We continue to execute against our mission and strategic plan, we are scaling up our business in-line with both our revenue growth and the continuing movements in product mix, as indicated in the right hand side of the slide.

Product mix has changed noticeably since last year's third quarter, while the revenue scaling, it is also trending towards proprietary content, PAM and turnkey solutions by leading to improvement in gross profit margins and overall profitability. Gross profit increased by 22% to EUR 12.2 million in the first quarter of 2023, with margin improving by 170 basis points to 53.5%. The first quarter of 2023 revenue performance was driven mainly from the content which is aggregated in third-party, exclusive content and proprietary content where PAM and turnkey solution was slightly lower proportion.

In the first quarter of 2023, the total games and content revenue segment amounted to EUR 17.6 million and represented 76.8% of total revenue, compared to EUR 13.9 million and 71.6% last year. Proprietary content deployment is positively progressing both in the US and EU markets by increasing both distribution and gaming performance. And as Yaniv indicated, we have recently marked another key milestone with the launch of a newest Tech Stack launch in Pennsylvania, our fourth US state to date. As we indicated in the previous quarters, we are targeting gross profit margin improvement to reach 60% by the full-year of 2024, mainly by increasing the proportion of revenue which comes from proprietary content, PAM and turnkey solutions.

Moving to Slide 8, adjusted EBITDA amounted to EUR 3.9 million against an operating profit of EUR 0.5 million. The gap was driven by the following non-cash and exceptional items. Depreciation and amortization, the increase of intangible amortization, part of the Wild Streak and Spin acquisition in June 2021 and June 2022 respectively and the increase of capitalized software development costs.

Share-based payment and reduction in the charge for awards granted to senior management during the period composed of DSUs and RSUs and share options. Exceptional cost, costs mainly associated with the discontinued contract relationship of several employees. In gain of re-measurement of deferred consideration, this is costs mainly associated with the acquisition of Spin in June 2022 on total outstanding deferred liability.

As you see on Slide 9, we ended the quarter with a cash balance of EUR 15.1 million compared to EUR 11.3 million as of December 31st, 2022, with outstanding liability of USD 8.5 million in convertible debt. As of May 2023, the total outstanding liability is USD 7.5 million after several conversions and a cash repayment of USD 0.5 million in April 2023.

Our net working capital at the end of March 2023 is approximately EUR 7.7 million excluding deferred consideration. This is compared to EUR 6.6 million at the beginning of the year. From a cash flow perspective, a total of EUR 6.4 million generated from the operating activities with underlying performance reaching to EUR 3.4 million and a movement in working capital and income taxes of EUR 3 million, a total of EUR 1.9 million investment in intangible assets related to the capitalization of software development costs in the period.

Looking-forward, management projecting a positive free-cash flow from operations, while there is no CapEx or technology debt required in the business. In addition, management is confident that there are no immediate refinancing of further debt requirement needs for the business.

And with that, I will turn the call back to Yaniv.

Thanks, Ronen. I wanted to use this opportunity and spend a few minutes talking about the general state of the markets. In the big picture, 2022 was one of the most volatile and challenging years in recent memory, from a macro and financial perspectives. In 2023, at least to date, while some markets and sectors seem to be turning a corner, it remains to be seen whether we are at the end of this cycle. High interest rates and general uncertainty means companies must operate prudently with a clear focus on their businesses' fundamentals. Specifically, in our sector, the global growth of online gaming continues with digital surpassing physical gaming in many territories.

However, increased regulation as we've recently seen with the publication of the white paper in the U.K. and different restrictions in Holland and Italy, just to name a few, requires a different playbook, one where we need to be nimble. I'm pleased that we have established a foundation of Bragg with this exact state of mind and we are better positioned than ever to compete in a marketplace of regulated gaming, diversification, prudence in capital deployment and operational excellence are no longer the proverbial [extramustard]. There are preconditions for navigating in these stormy waters and to continue to grow as we have and expect to continue doing so in the near and long term.

Moving to Slide 12, we've been busy ramping up our Bragg Studios and powered by Bragg outputs and we're starting to see the results. As I stated in the past, building Bragg into a must-have game provider is a marathon. We're already considered a partner of choice for turnkey and game aggregation offerings, but at scale game production requires building and honing additional capability, such as game design, creative and math development, just to name a few.

I'm very pleased about the progress we've made in a relatively short amount of time. This is an incredibly competitive and exciting landscape and we aim to create a healthy balance between quality and quantity. Bragg Studios are now working under the guidance of our new Las Vegas content hub, headed by industry-leading talents. We expect our production and rollout cadence to increase through 2023, as we continue to develop market specific titles with additional features and functions built into our tech stack.

In Slide 13, we can see the manifestation of the growing number of exclusive and proprietary titles in our partner network, through their share in gross profit. A continued expansion of our share of wallet in gross gaming revenues across different markets underpins the business rationale behind this effort and gets us closer to our long-term margin and profitability targets.

Moving on to the next slide, game production is built on a robust product and technology based, developed by our amazing baggers across Europe and India. We continue to show growth on our turnkey vertical and our ability to partner with proven operating partners and power their digital growth in regulated markets makes Bragg more than a one-trick pony. Diversification and scale are 2 critical aspects we continue to drive towards. They are fundamental components in our resilience and something Bragg's management are extremely focused on.

And in my last slide, just to cap things off, we're marking another strong revenue and adjusted EBITDA quarter. Game production is firing on all cylinders, complementing our expansion with new and existing partners across several key markets, including the U.S. and Western Europe. We remain focused on long-term value creation, incredibly exciting and dynamic sector, powered by our amazing team members around the world.

Thanks again for joining and listening in. We're happy to take your questions now.

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Gianluca Tucci with Haywood Securities.

Could you provide an updated rollout time line for the U.S., the company just entered Pennsylvania. So just wondering what your near-term expectations are for the U.S. market?

Yes, we've just launched our new tech stack in Pennsylvania. Just to clarify, we are live in all 4 states with -- through the Spin and in Ontario through the Spin acquisition and the legacy tech stack and games. The relaunch is basically introducing our latest Bragg RGS into those states, Pennsylvania, marking the fourth one. So we essentially are now -- we have our new foot in every state that we were looking to do so. And now we are basically ramping up in both additional operators and additional gains with each operator. The game plan right now is to have few more operators live this quarter next in Pennsylvania, as well as in New Jersey and Michigan. And we're working down that list, but the idea is to have at least the first and second set of Bragg developed games in each one of these states with the top, call it, 5 to 8 operators by year's end.

And we're working towards that and we're making good progress, but that, that is the idea. We are modernizing and including new content as we go forward.

And on your cash flow generation impressive in the quarter there, how do you plan to kind of deploy the excess cash flow that you guys internally are generating now? Are there any M&A opportunities out there or perhaps buying back stock at these depressed valuations. Maybe if you can comment on that?

Right now and then we're happy to make progress there naturally. This is sort of the base or the foundation everything that we do at this point. We have -- we're quite proactive in mapping out the options, what's the best value creation opportunities in terms of redeploying that cash. Right now, it is redeploying it back into the business to make sure we further accelerate and bolster our content and tech development capabilities, as well as sales and account management, so basically redeploying the business so far.

And in the near-term, I believe that will bring the best return on investment. Looking into the second half of the year into next, naturally, there are some interesting acquisition opportunities out there maneuver on content that we're constantly evaluating. But I'd like -- personally you've seen a business sort of consistently generate the cash in this cadence and then we can address both potential buybacks, refinancing or M&A further down the field, but I want to make sure that this is consistent and that we deliver against our expectations.

And just lastly, in terms of seasonality, how should we be thinking about that for the balance of the year, given that the company is in an onboarding phase right now. So does that mean that traditional seasonality is to be thrown out the window for this year?

Well, we do live at the shareholders or at the stream of our partners. So activity is always a function of B2C operators performance. This year, I think that we can expect more seasonality. If you remember last year was '21 and '22 were sort of odd years because of the post-COVID effect and then the World Cup into the fourth quarter. This year, I think we can expect a bit more seasonality, especially around travel season in terms of activity, performance, but I hope to be able to sort of curtail that with more content deployment that may compensate. But I think it will be a more traditional year with no major global sports events on the calendar.

And the next question comes from the line of Matthew Lee with Canaccord Genuity.

This is Betty Yang for Matt Lee. So my first question is that, yes, you had a great quarter with 18% revenue growth, which looks like it's driven by every segment of the business. But your unchanged guidance sort of suggest a slowdown throughout the year. Can you talk to we're expecting on that front? Or what could cause revenue growth to stall a little bit throughout the year?

Well, I'd say that again, when we provided guidance, sort of 2 tranches lately last year and to this one, we felt that was reflected sufficient growth. We did take into account that a big portion of at least in the first half of the year would be dedicated to distribution and deployment. We're happy to see that other segments of the business and the diversity is performing well and helping us exceed those expectations.

At this point, I wanted to again because there are some seasonality and relatively short amount of time since we reported last, we wanted to get a bit more runway under our feet for this year before we revisit it recent guidance especially between now and summer to see how the business performs, but the trend is very encouraging.

And then margin looks very strong this quarter. Is that entirely due to the shift to proprietary? Or are there other factors driving that profitability gain?

Actually, from a proprietary perspective, the proprietary segment because we're focused on deployment, technical deployments, mostly in game development through the first and second quarter has grown, but the other segments have even grown even faster. So from a margin perspective, it's a combination of propriety, but also some cost control measures that we started to implement with -- in regards to our commitment to shareholders that margin will continue to expand. So we want to make sure that, that progress is consistent. So this is on both end of the spectrum, both the revenue mixture is trending in the right direction and also margin protection on cost control is also starting to give its signs and we're continuing to focus on that to be as cost efficient as possible without naturally jeopardizing the growth.

And my last question is on Mexico. What are you expecting in terms of contribution from Mexico and which appears to be in a duplication market for you?

I just to make sure I understand the question here correctly around Mexico, contribution expected from Mexico?

Yes.

I think Mexico will be an interesting additive contribution from -- for our overall business. I think the market has grown consistently. So we're definitely -- we launched with a market leader and we're looking to launch with additional operators. I think it will be definitely additive and from the Latin American markets right now, Mexico is by far the biggest regulated market. So I think it will definitely be additive. I don't think it will be a takeover or become bigger than the U.S. states or any of our major European countries, but this is a good example of smaller. We're working on a very low base in Mexico.

So I think anything we will be able to generate with our content and our operators there will be additive both to revenues and contribution. So we're very excited about the prospects there and it's also a very effective gateway to Latin America regulated gaming with the larger economies. They are toyed for regulation, hopefully in the near term. So again, both on a P&L and a strategic aspect, Mexico has been an important deployment for us.

And our next question comes from the line of Edward Engel with ROTH MKM.

I've seen the presentation, it looks like you're targeting 15 game launches by Bragg Studio in the first half of 2023. And then in the press release, you talked about ramping that further in the second half. I know quality over quantity, but any idea of how many titles you're hoping to launch in the second half of the year? And I guess to that point, I guess, what's kind of the target number of proprietary titles you would hope to launch on a kind of normalized basis?

So broadly speaking and again, this is -- I don't want to get in too many details, but the way we count title is on a unique basis and then titles based on territory mostly because in some cases the titles that we are adjusting them per market almost. But for unique titles, we're looking at total numbers of the year around 50 to 55 titles. We're comfortable with that pace with an even balance between proprietary and exclusive. We're making good progress at this point. So we're pretty comfortable being able to produce that amount of titles.

Having said that, the balance between proprietary and inclusive may change during the course of the year because when exclusives are concerned, we're also dependent on our partners working with us on specific games and titles, but we've been very focused on ramping up the development, the production and development capabilities out of Las Vegas and Europe.

And right now, I think the machine is in a much better shape to meet those numbers and hopefully exceed them that we understand the balance between quantity and quality. We need to get too critical mass with all of our operating partners.

And then you talked about or you announced a bunch of interesting, I guess, content dealers throughout, I guess, this year so far in a couple of different markets. Just curious, I guess, what studios have you kind of found are a bit -- have more traction with some of these international markets? Is Wild Streak still working kind of a broad? Or is it more so that content coming from your studios in Europe?

No, I mean, Wild Streak, the rents that we operate in Wild Streak, Atomic Slot Lab and Indigo Magic, Indigo Magic was built and ramping up in Europe as a European-focused content production, Atomic Slot Lab is North America focused. And those 2 -- that when I talk about bolstering up is making sure that each one of these studios have enough resources to self-sustain and produce its own content.

Having said that, we've already seen some very interesting cross-prong relation between the 2 using each other's titles, adjusting math, developing different themes with derivatives. So it's definitely been a cross-section, but generally speaking, content specifically to file for the U.S. or North America does better there than in Europe and vice versa. But some title, I mean, we recently launched one of our partners, Blueberi, Devil's Lock is a title that is a very well-known game in the U.S., has been doing well in Europe. It was launched in Europe first.

It's now being rolled out in the U.S. So that's a good example of a title that enjoys headline awareness, but also very good gain conduction and performance and we hope to get more of those out the door in both -- on both side of the Atlantic.

And the next question comes from the line of Jack Vander Aarde with Maxim Group.

I have a question on the PAM side of the business. Can you just provide an update on recent PAM customer growth? I think I heard something about 3 new PAM customers added in the prepared remarks. Can you just talk about what other markets you're adding new PAM customers? And then just for the outlook of the year, how you expect that to ramp?

PAM has been naturally an important vertical of the business. We added new PAM customers in Europe, Central Europe, mostly in Holland and additional territory. We are now looking at expanding that into additional market. I'm saying we're considering each one very carefully because from a new market perspective, as we all know, PAM requires a different set-up and deployment. So we're very selective in our approach.

That has been -- having said that, as you can see from the numbers, PAM has been very effective, both from a revenue, but also from a content delivery perspective. So that has been an important pillar of the business, helping us sort of underpin growth for the other areas of the business. But as we've stated in the past, the overall strategy is content-led. So we are looking to deploy our PAM into additional European within existing markets. We've launched it in Holland, Czech Republic, the last 2 markets that we've deployed in and we're looking to expand in those.

And also new territories during, I believe, sorry, the second half of the year, but that again would be on a more selective basis with strategic partners to allow us to put enough focus behind it because having said that turnkey in general requires a different set of resources and focus from the business. So we are very much focused on allowing our partners the best tools to succeed.

And then just one follow-up separately. I think you touched on the German market briefly in the prepared remarks. Can you just provide an update there? I didn't quite catch that? And just remind us again, if it's a de minimis contributor to your current guidance for the year and if there's upside to that number from the German market?

Sure. I mean that's a fair analysis of where we are. I mean it is a de minimis contribution and it's pure upside and having said that, I think we've been following that market carefully. The new regulating body is now looking to deploy or to issue more licenses in the marketplace and we see more operators -- local operators applying for those.

Having said that, I think one of the major challenges right now for the operators in the market is still the tax structure and the contribution that it brings with a turnover tax and additional restrictions, both the casino and sport that makes it very challenging with the current state of affairs to operate a profitable business in the marketplace. And so that I think that once this is revisited both from a lender or a state and then the federal perspective, I think we'll see much better chances in seeing tangible and consistent growth there.

We are keeping our product up to speed, the content suite that we offer still I think is second to none in terms of its Central European and German compatibility. We want to make sure that we don't drop to follow on that. And when growth is more material, we'll be able to monetize on it. But right now, from a regulated perspective, we haven't seen the inflection point. Hopefully, we'll see it later this year or next. But I have little visibility at this point about the operator's ability to change the current circumstances. But I know they are very much focused on it. So this is a really targeted, we're very much involved.

And the next question comes from the line of David McFadgen with Cormark.

Just a couple of questions. I was wondering if you could give us an update on how the new games performed? I would imagine there's probably one or 2 that have performed a lot better than the other one, but if you could just kind of give us an update and maybe call out what those games are? And then secondly, on the intangible asset spend as shown in the cash flow statement under the investing section. I was wondering if you could give us your outlook on how much you think you'll be spending this year?

I'll take the first one and then let Ronen answer the second one in terms of the game performance. As we've seen, we've been very focused on game development and deployment of the games that we have deployed late last year and this year. We've seen a couple of outstanding performers mostly in the U.S. market, (inaudible) Michigan, which a couple of the new games have performed well. I don't want to get into specifics of because we haven't provided that breakdown, but the title in Michigan has performed well over time.

In Europe, a few of the newer titles that we deployed in both the U.K. and Holland, talking about both Atomic Slot Lab and Indigo Magic games have shown some very good initial results. And again, we're measuring those over time. So one of the key parameters outside of initial performance both on wagers and in rounds play is also how fast they churn because we know games churn relatively quickly. The games have been holding up quite nicely so far. So we are very encouraged by -- not all games performed that way naturally, of all the game sets that we've deployed, but generally speaking, we see more hits than misses at this point. And we are looking now -- we're very focused on further distributing so we can get these games and the new one effectively distributed.

Our goal, as we've outlined in the past, is to have a constant predictable cadence of games that will go to the widest possible network at any given moment. And we still have some work to do to make that happen, right now the deployment is still a bit staggered and that's where the financial effect is not as dramatic as we want it to be, but that is one of our major focus points for the remainder of the year, to get the games out faster and more streamlined and that's on game performance and deployment.

I will let Ronen take the second question.

So we always indicated that our investment, especially on the cash flow side is predominantly software development costs. As we know, we are capitalizing the cost of our dev team, especially on the areas which are revenue enhancing a new product, new games especially the design now go some new games, the new design of games, which is very, very revenue enhancing and it's very clear to just give an information about that.

In this quarter, it was EUR 1.9 million. We are targeting over the year between EUR 9 million to EUR 10 million. It's also developed or how many developers we have, what type of projects we're working, but that's our rough estimation as part of the year-end guidance. On top of that, we just need to remember there's also certification of games with -- as Yaniv mentioned, we have 55 different games to launch over the year. So we're talking about certification costs everything in jurisdiction, location have different certification costs, which also we're capitalizing it. And we also registered IPs and I trademarks. So roughly that's what I think is the best way or the best way to estimate where we're going to be by the end of the year.

And I will now turn the call back over to Yaniv Sherman.

Thanks, operator and thank you all for attending the first quarter presentation and questions. I encourage everyone to further review the materials on our investor website and looking forward to seeing you over the upcoming yearly calls for '23. Thank you and have a great day.

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.