Sciplay Corp (SCPL) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the SciPlay First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Robert Weiner, Vice President, Investor Relations, SciPlay Corporation. Please go ahead.

早上好，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 SciPlay 2023 年第一季度收益電話會議。 （操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。我現在想把會議交給今天的發言人，SciPlay 公司投資者關係副總裁羅伯特·韋納 (Robert Weiner)。請繼續。

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. During today's call, we will discuss our first quarter 2023 financial results and operating performance, which will be followed by a question-and-answer period. With me today are Josh Wilson, CEO; and Daniel O’'Quinn, Interim CFO.

謝謝接線員，大家早上好。在今天的電話會議中，我們將討論 2023 年第一季度的財務業績和經營業績，隨後將進行問答環節。今天和我在一起的有首席執行官 Josh Wilson；和臨時首席財務官 Daniel O''Quinn。

Our call today will contain remarks that include forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed during the call. For more information regarding these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our earnings release issued yesterday and our filings with the SEC.

我們今天的電話會議將包含一些評論，其中包括根據《1995 年私人證券訴訟改革法案》做出的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述涉及某些風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與電話會議期間討論的結果存在重大差異。有關這些風險和不確定性的更多信息，請參閱我們昨天發布的收益報告以及我們向 SEC 提交的文件。

We will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures and certain key performance indicators, which are based on in-app purchases only. A description of each non-GAAP measure and a reconciliation of each non-GAAP measure to the most directly comparable GAAP measure can be found in our earnings release as well as in the Investors section on our website.

我們還將討論某些非 GAAP 財務指標和某些關鍵績效指標，這些指標僅基於應用內購買。您可以在我們的收益報告以及我們網站的投資者部分找到每項非公認會計準則衡量標準的描述以及每項非公認會計準則衡量標準與最直接可比的公認會計準則衡量標準的調節。

As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. A replay of this webcast will be archived in the Investors section of our website at sciplay.com. Now I am pleased to turn the call over to Josh.

謹此提醒，本次電話會議正在錄音中。該網絡廣播的重播將存檔在我們網站 sciplay.com 的投資者部分。現在我很高興將電話轉給喬希。

Good morning, and thanks so much for joining us. I'm excited to report that SciPlay continued its industry-leading performance with a strong first quarter. Our games again outperformed, hitting tremendous numbers and again setting multiple records. For 5 consecutive quarters, our year-over-year growth has outperformed the entire social casino market.

早上好，非常感謝您加入我們。我很高興地向大家報告，SciPlay 繼續保持行業領先的業績，第一季度表現強勁。我們的遊戲再次表現出色，創下了巨大的數字並再次創造了多項記錄。連續 5 個季度，我們的同比增長跑贏了整個社交賭場市場。

We accomplished this because we are innovative, focused and driven by our passion to win. Our SciPlay teams consistently deliver engaging and entertaining experiences that our players enjoy and demand. We know what is happening and when it is happening all the time. We evaluate and manage the business with precision and real-time KPIs. We invest wisely with discipline and financial rigor.

我們之所以能取得如此成就，是因為我們具有創新精神、專注力以及對勝利的熱情。我們的 SciPlay 團隊始終如一地提供玩家喜歡和需要的引人入勝的娛樂體驗。我們一直都知道正在發生什麼以及何時發生。我們通過精確、實時的 KPI 來評估和管理業務。我們以紀律和財務嚴謹進行明智投資。

All of this is made possible by our global team of over 800 SciPlayers strong. We are united in our mission to be a player-first focus and just win. We began the year with significant momentum, focused execution, winning strategies and smart investments.

所有這一切都得益於我們由 800 多名 SciPlayer 組成的強大全球團隊。我們團結一致，肩負著“以玩家為中心，只為勝利”的使命。我們以強勁的勢頭、專注的執行力、致勝的戰略和明智的投資開始了這一年。

Our current achievements are phenomenal and are driving us to push beyond mere success. Our passion to win is deeply rooted in our culture and in everything we do. SciPlay is delivering value to our players and our shareholders, and we are investing in our future from a position of strength.

我們目前取得的成就是驚人的，並推動我們超越單純的成功。我們對勝利的熱情深深植根於我們的文化和我們所做的一切之中。 SciPlay 正在為我們的玩家和股東創造價值，我們正在憑藉實力投資我們的未來。

Now here are the details of Q1's results. Revenue grew to $186 million, up from $158 million in Q1 last year. This is 18% growth year-over-year, driven by the enduring strong performance of our game franchises. Net income attributable to SciPlay was $5.5 million or $0.24 per diluted share in the first quarter, increasing by 25% and 33%, respectively, compared to the first quarter of 2022.

現在是第一季度結果的詳細信息。收入從去年第一季度的 1.58 億美元增至 1.86 億美元。得益於我們遊戲系列的持久強勁表現，這一數字同比增長 18%。第一季度歸屬於 SciPlay 的淨利潤為 550 萬美元，攤薄後每股收益為 0.24 美元，較 2022 年第一季度分別增長 25% 和 33%。

Our Q1 AEBITDA grew to $54 million, up from $44 million compared to last year's first quarter. This is year-over-year AEBITDA growth of 21%. We are growing profitability at a faster pace than revenue growth, illustrating the leverage we are gaining from our investments. Combined, our investments in the SciPlay Engine and the platform scalability are setting us up for long-term growth.

我們第一季度的 AEBITDA 增至 5,400 萬美元，高於去年第一季度的 4,400 萬美元。 AEBITDA 同比增長 21%。我們的盈利能力增長速度快於收入增長速度，這說明我們從投資中獲得的槓桿作用。我們對 SciPlay 引擎的投資和平台可擴展性相結合，為我們的長期增長奠定了基礎。

In the first quarter, our payer base grew, and we increased monetization from existing payer cohorts. These 2 points are very important. It forecasts the value of our games and their sustainability. Our games attract, retain and grow players and then convert them to payers. We have 6 million active customers, and just over 10% are currently payers. This gives us enormous opportunity to continue expanding our payer base.

在第一季度，我們的付款人基礎有所增長，並且我們增加了現有付款人群體的貨幣化程度。這2點非常重要。它預測了我們遊戲的價值及其可持續性。我們的遊戲吸引、留住和培養玩家，然後將他們轉化為付費玩家。我們擁有 600 萬活躍客戶，其中超過 10% 目前是付款人。這為我們提供了繼續擴大付款人基礎的巨大機會。

We are proving these points by achieving several record KPIs, resulting in strong sequential growth in Q1. We had high-performing payer conversion rate of 10.3%, up 16% year-over-year. In fact, we hit our highest number of payers again this quarter to more than 600,000, growing 6% over Q4 and up 12% year-over-year.

我們通過實現多項創紀錄的 KPI 來證明這些觀點，從而實現第一季度的強勁環比增長。我們的高績效付款人轉化率為 10.3%，同比增長 16%。事實上，本季度我們的付款人數再次達到最高水平，超過 600,000 人，比第四季度增長 6%，同比增長 12%。

We achieved Q1 ARPDAU of $0.89, an increase of 20% year-over-year. Our average monthly revenue per paying user increased by 5% year-over-year to $97.43 compared to $92.45 in Q1 last year.

我們第一季度的 ARPDAU 為 0.89 美元，同比增長 20%。我們每個付費用戶的平均月收入同比增長 5%，達到 97.43 美元，而去年第一季度為 92.45 美元。

Q1 was a very strong quarter and exceeded our expectations. Our game franchises continue to provide compelling entertainment to our players. Jackpot Party Social Casino had strong double-digit growth. The game set its third consecutive quarterly revenue record and maintained its #1 ranking amongst all social casino games in the U.S.

第一季度是一個非常強勁的季度，超出了我們的預期。我們的遊戲特許經營權繼續為我們的玩家提供引人入勝的娛樂。 Jackpot Party Social Casino 實現了兩位數的強勁增長。該遊戲連續第三個季度創下收入紀錄，並在美國所有社交賭場遊戲中保持第一名。

Quick Hit Slots posted its fifth consecutive quarterly revenue record. The game hit a new record with the highest number of DAU in its history. Quick Hit Slots is now one of the fastest growing games in social casino. During Q1, we launched a Winning Day campaign with Jerry O'Connell for Quick Hit Slots. The ads were run live on national TV, including major networks, cable and streaming devices.

Quick Hit Slots 連續第五個季度創下收入紀錄。該遊戲創下了歷史最高DAU記錄。 Quick Hit Slots 現在是社交賭場中增長最快的遊戲之一。在第一季度，我們與 Jerry O'Connell 一起針對 Quick Hit Slots 發起了“Winning Day”活動。這些廣告在國家電視台直播，包括主要網絡、有線和流媒體設備。

The campaign was integrated in game, on Facebook and other digital channels creating continuity, and it yielded great returns. Quick Hit Slots was ranked #1 in the free casino games category on the Google Play Store during a majority of the campaign's period.

該活動被整合到遊戲、Facebook 和其他數字渠道中，創造了連續性，並產生了巨大的回報。在活動期間的大部分時間裡，Quick Hit Slots 在 Google Play 商店的免費賭場遊戲類別中排名第一。

The results were impressive. We continue to attract new players and new payers. As a result, we have extended the campaign into the second quarter. Overall, we continued to significantly outpace the social casino market.

結果令人印象深刻。我們繼續吸引新玩家和新付費者。因此，我們將活動延長至第二季度。總體而言，我們繼續顯著超過社交賭場市場。

Our 3 main investment pillars, the SciPlay Engine, ad tech and talent, are driving our industry-leading performance. The SciPlay Engine is a centralizing force. It is instrumental as both the portal and a unifier of data, cross-platform learnings, and as a stealth provider of resources across our organization.

我們的三大投資支柱：SciPlay 引擎、廣告技術和人才，正在推動我們取得行業領先的業績。 SciPlay 引擎是一股集中力量。它作為數據、跨平台學習的門戶和統一者，以及作為整個組織資源的隱形提供者，都發揮著重要作用。

Whether it's data science, economy, features or game mechanics, the SciPlay Engine is a scalable and robust solution. It provides real-time insights into player behavior, enabling us to offer improved segmentation, specialization and game performance. The players' experience is enhanced and is heightened. This leads to increased playing time and increased spending.

無論是數據科學、經濟、功能還是遊戲機制，SciPlay 引擎都是一個可擴展且強大的解決方案。它提供了對玩家行為的實時洞察，使我們能夠提供改進的細分、專業化和遊戲性能。玩家的體驗得到增強和提高。這會導致遊戲時間增加和支出增加。

Payer conversion rates remain high. Our players are more inclined to pay and pay more often. This is due to our team's improving player analytics and the introduction of new content and features into our games. Our live ops teams have developed dynamic game road maps that increase engagement and monetization. The teams leverage the SciPlay Engine's real-time learnings to optimize our player relationships and deliver unique, personalized experiences. This improved segmentation and specialization has yielded positive results. We are growing our payer base by converting existing cohorts.

付款人轉化率仍然很高。我們的玩家更願意付費，而且付費的頻率更高。這是由於我們團隊不斷改進玩家分析以及在遊戲中引入新內容和功能。我們的實時運營團隊開發了動態遊戲路線圖，可以提高參與度和貨幣化。團隊利用 SciPlay 引擎的實時學習來優化我們的玩家關係並提供獨特的個性化體驗。這種改進的細分和專業化已經產生了積極的成果。我們正在通過轉變現有群體來擴大我們的付款人基礎。

SciPlay effectively adapted to the changes in the mobile gaming landscape by investing in our ad tech. Our teams develop proprietary ad tech that includes new retention retargeting tools and optimized ASO models. Player-focused content marketing and creative base segmentation are incorporated to improve engagement, retention and conversions, all factors that drive revenue growth.

SciPlay 通過投資我們的廣告技術，有效地適應了移動遊戲領域的變化。我們的團隊開發專有的廣告技術，包括新的保留重定向工具和優化的 ASO 模型。以玩家為中心的內容營銷和創意基礎細分相結合，以提高參與度、保留率和轉化率，這些都是推動收入增長的因素。

This year, we are evolving our marketing activities into mature growth spaces by focusing on reactivation, audience expansions, amplified brand awareness, all of which increase traction and further propagate our growth. We invest in our talent and provide the tools and support to cultivate professional development and growth.

今年，我們將營銷活動發展為成熟的增長空間，重點關注重新激活、受眾擴展、增強品牌知名度，所有這些都增加了吸引力並進一步促進了我們的增長。我們投資人才並提供工具和支持來培養專業發展和成長。

Internal initiatives, programs and structuring have further invigorated our teams. Our teams are more productive than ever before, and our games are greater than ever. For example, we strategically manage our games portfolio from a holistic view across the entire organization, monitoring, adapting, pivoting and maximizing the capabilities of our agile platform.

內部舉措、計劃和結構進一步激發了我們團隊的活力。我們的團隊比以往任何時候都更有生產力，我們的遊戲也比以往任何時候都更精彩。例如，我們從整個組織的整體角度戰略性地管理我們的遊戲組合，監控、調整、調整和最大化我們敏捷平台的功能。

Our teams evaluate KPIs in relation to specific revenue and both fixed and variable costs. This enables the implementation of real-time initiatives in our game. This mindset is embedded in our culture and in the SciPlay DNA. We live and breathe this very hands-on approach every day, melding great data with great innovation and great execution to achieve our outcomes.

我們的團隊根據特定收入以及固定和可變成本評估關鍵績效指標。這使得我們能夠在遊戲中實施實時舉措。這種心態已融入我們的文化和 SciPlay DNA 中。我們每天都生活在這種實踐方法中，將大量數據與出色的創新和出色的執行力相結合，以實現我們的成果。

At SciPlay, we continue to invest to drive long-term growth, competitive advantages, profitability and market expansion. We set stringent objectives and put each investment through rigorous financial evaluation and gauge each stage of the investment life cycle. When we see wins, we reinvest based on ROI. When we don't see the expected returns, we realign capital investments. We are disciplined in our execution and capital deployment and remain ROI-focused every step of the way.

在 SciPlay，我們繼續投資以推動長期增長、競爭優勢、盈利能力和市場擴張。我們設定嚴格的目標，對每項投資進行嚴格的財務評估，並衡量投資生命週期的每個階段。當我們看到勝利時，我們會根據投資回報率進行再投資。當我們看不到預期回報時，我們會重新調整資本投資。我們在執行和資本部署方面嚴格遵守紀律，並在每一步中始終注重投資回報率。

For example, first, DTC platform, which is currently in the evaluation and testing phase. We are now in the cross-stage of our crawl, walk and run release process, ensuring we have maximum protection of all of our valuable customers.

例如，首先是DTC平台，目前正處於評估和測試階段。我們現在正處於爬行、步行和跑步發布流程的交叉階段，以確保我們為所有有價值的客戶提供最大程度的保護。

Second, we are broadening our scope to find new players with new marketing initiatives, ad tech and brand awareness efforts, allowing us to continue increasing our marketing spend ROI. And finally, our global operations footprint is expanding into areas of known for engineering prowess.

其次，我們正在擴大範圍，通過新的營銷舉措、廣告技術和品牌知名度努力尋找新參與者，從而使我們能夠繼續提高營銷支出投資回報率。最後，我們的全球運營足跡正在擴展到以工程實力聞名的領域。

This quarter's performance is a clear reflection of our team's strong execution and unwavering passion to win. Our SciPlayers around the world are responsible for our success. Our teams build the technology, develop the games and are continuously innovating to provide the greatest entertainment experience possible.

本季度的表現清楚地反映了我們團隊強大的執行力和堅定不移的求勝熱情。我們世界各地的科學玩家對我們的成功負有責任。我們的團隊構建技術、開發遊戲並不斷創新，以提供盡可能最好的娛樂體驗。

We are so proud and grateful of each SciPlayer's contribution. We remain committed to our players, our teams and our shareholders. Our dynamic growth plans, our player-first focus and the resilience of our game franchises are the key elements to our success. And now to you, Daniel.

我們對每位 SciPlayer 的貢獻感到非常自豪和感激。我們仍然致力於我們的球員、我們的團隊和我們的股東。我們充滿活力的增長計劃、玩家至上的關注點以及遊戲系列的韌性是我們成功的關鍵因素。現在輪到你了，丹尼爾。

Thanks, Josh. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. SciPlay posted strong financial results in the first quarter. This reflects the progress of our key objectives: delivering great entertainment experiences to our players; investing in our game franchises; growing market share in social casino; and prudently allocating capital.

謝謝，喬什。大家早上好，感謝您今天加入我們的電話會議。 SciPlay 第一季度公佈了強勁的財務業績。這反映了我們關鍵目標的進展：為玩家提供出色的娛樂體驗；投資我們的遊戲特許經營權；社交賭場的市場份額不斷增長；並審慎配置資本。

Our Q1 results continue to illustrate our path of overperformance compared to the overall social casino market. We're benefiting from the investments we made in our game franchises, our proprietary technologies, our systems, and organizational scalability. By continuing to invest in our game franchises, we're delivering great player experiences.

我們第一季度的業績繼續表明，與整個社交賭場市場相比，我們的業績表現優異。我們受益於我們在遊戲特許經營權、專有技術、系統和組織可擴展性方面的投資。通過繼續投資我們的遊戲特許經營權，我們正在提供出色的玩家體驗。

This comes through customization and segmentation from the SciPlay Engine's improved data science and analytics. Investments in people, product and process surrounding the SciPlay Engine have increased the speed, collaboration and the effectiveness of our teams while sparking increased creativity and innovation. These are reflected in our sustained overperformance and continuing robust growth.

這是通過 SciPlay 引擎改進的數據科學和分析的定制和細分實現的。對圍繞 SciPlay 引擎的人員、產品和流程的投資提高了我們團隊的速度、協作和效率，同時激發了更多的創造力和創新。這些都反映在我們持續的優異表現和持續強勁的增長中。

Now here are the key highlights for Q1. First, we continued to deliver strong financial performance with our game franchises. We set new records, achieving the highest number of payers based on increased player engagement. Second, our team's industry-leading performance is reflected in the quality of our revenues and profitability growth, which is organically driven and sustainable.

以下是第一季度的主要亮點。首先，我們的遊戲系列繼續提供強勁的財務業績。我們創造了新的記錄，通過提高玩家參與度實現了最高的付費人數。其次，我們團隊行業領先的業績體現在我們的收入質量和盈利增長，這是有機驅動和可持續的。

Third, we grew year-over-year net income and AEBITDA at a faster pace than revenue while expanding margins. We're also investing in our assets and future growth opportunities. And fourth, we have the liquidity, flexibility and financial strength provided by a high cash-generating business. We generated $42 million in operating cash flow in Q1, and we completed the $60 million share repurchase program.

第三，我們淨利潤和 AEBITDA 的同比增長速度快於收入，同時擴大了利潤率。我們還投資於我們的資產和未來的增長機會。第四，我們擁有高現金產出業務提供的流動性、靈活性和財務實力。第一季度我們產生了 4200 萬美元的運營現金流，並完成了 6000 萬美元的股票回購計劃。

Now let's get into some of the financial performance details. We generated strong first quarter revenue of $186 million, an all-time record, up 18% year-over-year, with our social casino games significantly outperforming the market. We generated first quarter net income of $42 million or a 22% margin and diluted earnings per share attributable to SciPlay of $0.24. We grew AEBITDA by 21% year-over-year to $54 million, achieving a 29% margin.

現在讓我們了解一些財務業績細節。我們第一季度的收入強勁，達到 1.86 億美元，創歷史新高，同比增長 18%，我們的社交賭場遊戲表現明顯優於市場。我們第一季度淨利潤為 4200 萬美元，利潤率為 22%，稀釋後歸屬於 SciPlay 的每股收益為 0.24 美元。我們的 AEBITDA 同比增長 21%，達到 5,400 萬美元，利潤率達到 29%。

We continue to set records in several of our key performance indicators. In the first quarter, we grew our payers 12% year-over-year to a record 625,000. We also saw increases in payers on a sequential basis, which began in Q1 of last year.

我們的多項關鍵績效指標繼續創下記錄。第一季度，我們的付款人數量同比增長 12%，達到創紀錄的 625,000 人。我們還看到，自去年第一季度開始，付款人數量環比增加。

Our average monthly revenue per paying user was $97.43, marking the 12th consecutive quarter above $90. We also set a record ARPDAU of $0.89, an increase of 20% year-over-year. We firmly believe strong revenue growth and even faster AEBITDA growth, combined with strong cash flow, are the key drivers of shareholder value.

我們每個付費用戶的平均月收入為 97.43 美元，連續第 12 個季度超過 90 美元。我們還創下了 0.89 美元的 ARPDAU 記錄，同比增長 20%。我們堅信，強勁的收入增長和更快的 AEBITDA 增長，加上強勁的現金流，是股東價值的關鍵驅動力。

SciPlay is executing all 3 of these objectives. They are driving increased scalability and efficiencies, enabling key investments, and building on our competitive advantages. We continue to operate from a position of strength, generating $42 million in operating cash flow in Q1, ending the quarter with strong liquidity of $358 million in cash and total liquidity of $508 million.

SciPlay 正在實現所有這 3 個目標。他們正在推動提高可擴展性和效率，實現關鍵投資，並鞏固我們的競爭優勢。我們繼續保持強勢運營，第一季度產生 4200 萬美元的運營現金流，本季度結束時現金流動性強勁，流動性達 3.58 億美元，流動性總額達 5.08 億美元。

We have the financial strength and flexibility to deploy excess capital to drive increasing shareholder value. Currently, we're deploying capital in 2 areas. We're investing in our game franchises, which are driving profitable growth and translating into increasing shareholder value. We're also driving additional shareholder value by returning capital to shareholders through our execution of our share repurchase program.

我們有足夠的財務實力和靈活性來部署多餘的資本來推動股東價值的增加。目前，我們正在兩個領域部署資金。我們正在投資我們的遊戲特許經營權，這正在推動利潤增長並轉化為不斷增加的股東價值。我們還通過執行股票回購計劃向股東返還資本，從而推動額外的股東價值。

I'm pleased to report that in less than 1 year, we fully completed our $60 million share repurchase authorization, buying approximately 4.1 million shares through May 9. Our Board and our team view repurchases as a good use of capital, boosting returns to shareholders, particularly in the current market environment. Our Board last week authorized a new $60 million share repurchase plan, which we plan to execute in the same manner as the last plan.

我很高興地向大家報告，在不到一年的時間裡，我們完全完成了 6000 萬美元的股票回購授權，截至 5 月 9 日購買了約 410 萬股。我們的董事會和團隊認為回購是資本的良好利用，可以提高股東的回報，特別是在當前的市場環境下。我們的董事會上週批准了一項新的 6000 萬美元的股票回購計劃，我們計劃以與上一個計劃相同的方式執行該計劃。

Now I'd like to talk about 2 topics to add perspective to our fiscal discipline and our anticipated performance throughout the year. As I mentioned, our capital is being deployed wisely with a high focus on organic growth, the element within our greatest control. Of course, we see the macro environment, just like everyone else. We'll watch it closely and manage our business with a firm focus on both operating environments, the macro external and the micro within our direct markets.

現在我想談談兩個主題，以加深對我們的財政紀律和全年預期業績的看法。正如我所提到的，我們的資本正在明智地部署，高度關注有機增長，這是我們最大控制範圍內的因素。當然，我們和其他人一樣，也看到宏觀環境。我們將密切關注這一情況，並堅定地關注運營環境、宏觀外部和直接市場內的微觀來管理我們的業務。

And to date, we've not seen adverse macro trends impact our business. Our philosophy is fiscally responsible capital management. This is particularly prudent in the current macro environment. And this is why we hold a significant portion of our cash and equivalents in government-backed money market securities, offering a high level of safety and security. This enables us to operate confidently in all environments.

迄今為止，我們尚未看到不利的宏觀趨勢影響我們的業務。我們的理念是對財務負責的資本管理。這在當前的宏觀環境下顯得尤為審慎。這就是為什麼我們將很大一部分現金和等價物持有政府支持的貨幣市場證券，從而提供高水平的安全保障。這使我們能夠在所有環境下自信地運作。

We're a data-driven company and always have been. Our decision-making continues to be predicated on ROI. We plan growth investment each year, including deploying capital appropriately. We have the financial strength and flexibility to invest in multiple future growth initiatives at the same time. We have the data, expertise and financial strength to make informed ROI-driven decisions. And we continue to see long-term growth opportunities.

我們是一家數據驅動的公司，而且一直都是。我們的決策仍然以投資回報率為基礎。我們每年都會規劃增長投資，包括適當部署資本。我們擁有足夠的財務實力和靈活性，可以同時投資於多個未來增長計劃。我們擁有數據、專業知識和財務實力，可以做出明智的投資回報率驅動的決策。我們繼續看到長期增長機會。

Now let me discuss the anticipated full year performance and point out the differences we expect compared to last year. While we've not communicated specific financial guidance for 2023, we've committed to continuing to grow our business at a faster rate than the estimated social casino market.

現在讓我討論一下預期的全年業績，並指出我們預期與去年相比的差異。雖然我們尚未傳達 2023 年的具體財務指引，但我們致力於繼續以比預計的社交賭場市場更快的速度發展我們的業務。

In Q1, we posted our fifth consecutive quarter of doing just that. We remain committed to this objective and are on track to achieve it this year. As a reminder, the summer months are historically slower in our business as the weather gets warmer, as schools let out and vacation plans begin. We generally see less daily gameplay as people are outside enjoying the season.

在第一季度，我們連續第五個季度做到了這一點。我們仍然致力於實現這一目標，並有望在今年實現這一目標。提醒一下，隨著天氣變暖、學校放假和假期計劃開始，夏季月份我們的業務歷來進展緩慢。我們通常會看到較少的日常遊戲玩法，因為人們都在外面享受這個季節。

I'd also like to point out that we will incur additional expenses in 2023 over the run rates we had in 2022. The incremental expense began in Q1 of 2023 and will continue in the next 3 quarters of this year. Specifically, we grew our headcount last year in key areas to execute our growth strategy.

我還想指出，與 2022 年的運行率相比，我們在 2023 年將產生額外費用。增量費用從 2023 年第一季度開始，並將在今年接下來的 3 個季度繼續。具體來說，我們去年在關鍵領域增加了員工人數，以執行我們的增長戰略。

In aggregate, we anticipate incremental spend of $14 million for the remainder of the year. Additionally, as we've previously noted, we expect incremental legal expenses of approximately $5.5 million to defend state allegations and legal matters. We just began to incur these expenses in Q1, leaving about $1.7 million per quarter for the next 3 quarters.

總的來說，我們預計今年剩餘時間將增加 1,400 萬美元的支出。此外，正如我們之前指出的，我們預計將增加約 550 萬美元的法律費用，以捍衛國家指控和法律事務。我們在第一季度才開始承擔這些費用，為接下來的 3 個季度每季度留下約 170 萬美元。

Marketing spend timing is different this year as compared to last year. Our anticipated offline marketing expense of approximately $12 million will be spread more evenly across the year as compared to the $11 million we spent last year, which was predominantly weighted in Q3. To sum it up, we anticipate incremental expense of approximately $6.5 million in each of the next 3 quarters, totaling roughly $20 million.

今年的營銷支出時間與去年不同。與去年我們花費的 1100 萬美元（主要集中在第三季度）相比，我們預計約 1200 萬美元的線下營銷費用將更均勻地分佈在全年。總而言之，我們預計未來 3 個季度每個季度的增量費用約​​為 650 萬美元，總計約為 2000 萬美元。

SciPlay is a disciplined and focused company with an industry-best team. We're benefiting from our investments in scalable and proprietary systems that our people are leveraging for sustainable growth and market leadership. We generate a high percentage cash flow yield from our revenues. We invest our resources prudently for both the near and long term.

SciPlay 是一家紀律嚴明、專注的公司，擁有業界最佳的團隊。我們受益於對可擴展和專有系統的投資，我們的員工正在利用這些系統來實現可持續增長和市場領導地位。我們從收入中產生高百分比的現金流收益率。我們對近期和長期的資源進行審慎投資。

Our team is aligned and focused on achieving 3 primary goals: one, outpace the growth in social casino market and take share; two, expand margins prudently, not at the expense of making investments in future growth; and three, generate significant and growing operating cash flows.

我們的團隊一致致力於實現 3 個主要目標：一、超越社交賭場市場的增長並佔據份額；第二，謹慎擴大利潤率，不以犧牲對未來增長的投資為代價；第三，產生大量且不斷增長的經營現金流。

These are SciPlay's goals that we focus on every day. They are the keys to winning in the market, growing our business and increasing shareholder value. We're off to a great start in Q1 and look forward to continuing on our path of sustainable, profitable growth.

這些是我們每天關注的 SciPlay 目標。它們是贏得市場、發展業務和增加股東價值的關鍵。我們在第一季度有了一個良好的開端，並期待繼續走可持續、盈利增長的道路。

Operator, you can open it up for questions now.

接線員，您現在可以打開提問。

(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Ryan Sigdahl with Craig-Hallum.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自 Ryan Sigdahl 和 Craig-Hallum。

This is [Will] on for Ryan. First, I wanted to touch on SpellSpinner. So testing is ongoing, plays a little differently when we compare it to your other titles. That said, what does the target audience -- how does it differ from your existing demographic? And what does the customer acquisition strategy look like going forward?

這是瑞安的[威爾]。首先，我想談談 SpellSpinner。因此，測試正在進行中，當我們將其與其他遊戲進行比較時，其玩法略有不同。也就是說，目標受眾是什麼？它與您現有的受眾有何不同？未來的客戶獲取策略是什麼樣的？

Thanks, Ryan -- sorry, thanks, [Will]. Yes, it's -- as you know, you've played it and you see it the way is. It is significantly different as far as the rest of the portfolio goes. And therefore, it does go after a little bit different target demographic. It tends to skew a little bit more into RPG overlapping with casual than most of our games, which all fall into the more casual, casual or social casino as a whole.

謝謝，瑞安——抱歉，謝謝，[威爾]。是的，正如你所知，你已經玩過它並且你看到了它的樣子。就投資組合的其餘部分而言，這是顯著不同的。因此，它的目標人群確實有點不同。與我們的大多數遊戲相比，它更傾向於與休閒重疊的角色扮演遊戲，而我們的大多數遊戲整體上都屬於更休閒、休閒或社交賭場。

So it would tend to have a little bit younger demographic. Therefore, the marketing strategy as a whole would be a little bit different because you're going to look at different pockets where those individuals are going to keep playing and where they're going to be able to see ads.

因此，它的人口結構往往會更年輕一些。因此，營銷策略作為一個整體會有點不同，因為你會看到這些人會繼續玩遊戲以及他們能夠在哪裡看到廣告的不同領域。

The strategy around it right now is just understanding what the cost is overall, so doing just light market testing, continuing to do early testing on early KPIs. So to really comment on what a scaling would look like, we're way, way too early to talk about that because it's really still in the crawl phase of our crawl, walk, run process. But to your original question, it would be a much -- no, I shouldn't say much younger, but definitely younger demographic.

目前圍繞它的策略只是了解總體成本是多少，因此只進行少量市場測試，繼續對早期 KPI 進行早期測試。因此，要真正評論縮放會是什麼樣子，我們現在談論這個還為時過早，因為它實際上仍處於我們的爬行、行走、跑步過程的爬行階段。但對於你最初的問題，這將是一個非常——不，我不應該說更年輕，但絕對是更年輕的人口。

Great. And then maybe as a quick follow-up, does this greater expansion into casual categories to make the content partnership with Light & Wonder less critical going forward? Or how do you think about that?

偉大的。那麼，也許作為一個快速的後續行動，這種向休閒類別的更大擴張是否會讓與 Light & Wonder 的內容合作關係變得不那麼重要？或者你對此有何看法？

It's relatively interesting because when I think about it, I kind of don't think about it as, am I expanding into social casino or casual or -- I look at it as I am expanding into a place that has a group of people that behave in the way I need in order to grow a game or expand a game.

這相對有趣，因為當我思考這個問題時，我並沒有想到，我是要擴展到社交賭場還是休閒娛樂場，或者——我是在擴展到一個有一群人的地方，按照我需要的方式行事，以發展遊戲或擴展遊戲。

So when we look inside of the casual market, really, really what we're seeing is people who behave in the metagame and the live ops, very, very, very similar as social casino. So we kind of go around to saying like the same type of mechanics work around the simple product.

因此，當我們審視休閒市場內部時，我們確實看到的是人們在元遊戲和現場操作中的行為，與社交賭場非常非常相似。所以我們會說類似的機制圍繞著簡單的產品工作。

The content for Light & Wonder is important today as it's ever going to be because it is a big part of not only the branding of how we grow and how we actually advertise the games itself, but it is -- for better or worse, there are new simple mass models that get put into our games that are proven to work in casinos around the world, and we get free access to them. So at no point would I ever say it's less important. We will just have some games that don't use it.

《光與奇蹟》的內容在今天非常重要，而且永遠如此，因為它不僅是我們成長方式以及我們如何實際宣傳遊戲本身的品牌塑造的重要組成部分，而且無論好壞，它都是重要的組成部分。是新的簡單大眾模型，已被放入我們的遊戲中，這些模型已被證明可以在世界各地的賭場中使用，並且我們可以免費使用它們。所以我永遠不會說它不那麼重要。我們只會有一些不使用它的遊戲。

The next question comes from Ben Soff with Deutsche Bank.

下一個問題來自德意志銀行的本·索夫。

Really strong results this quarter. You guys talked a little bit more generally about the factors that led to that. I'm wondering if you have some more specific examples of kind of the segmentation and optimization that you guys are doing.

本季度的業績非常強勁。你們更籠統地談論了導致這種情況的因素。我想知道你們是否有一些關於你們正在做的細分和優化的更具體的例子。

And then maybe a housekeeping question. Can you guys talk about the growth for social casino versus ad revenue this quarter? And maybe how we should sort of think about milestones or evaluating the ad business as we go through the rest of the year?

然後也許是一個家政問題。你們能談談本季度社交賭場與廣告收入的增長情況嗎？也許在今年剩下的時間裡，我們應該如何考慮里程碑或評估廣告業務？

Ben, it's great to hear from you, and thank you so much for the compliment. We're really proud of everything we were able to accomplish. It's very difficult to look at the world and say, this segmentation or this specialization is what's driven the growth. Because the reality is execution across multiple pillars that are what are allowing us to be able to grow the way we are.

本，很高興收到你的來信，非常感謝你的讚美。我們對我們能夠完成的一切感到非常自豪。放眼世界，很難說這種細分或這種專業化是推動增長的因素。因為現實是跨多個支柱的執行，這使我們能夠以現在的方式成長。

And all of these pillars were fundamental in the investments that we've made in 2022 to build foundation for each of these. So when I look at the foundation, first is the SciPlay Engine, which really gives us these learnings around features, live ops, data, technology, which really gives us more information for being able to segment out users in a more finite level.

所有這些支柱都是我們在 2022 年進行的投資的基礎，為每個支柱奠定了基礎。因此，當我查看基礎時，首先是 SciPlay 引擎，它確實為我們提供了有關功能、實時操作、數據、技術的學習，這確實為我們提供了更多信息，以便能夠在更有限的級別上細分用戶。

And this really gets us the ability and if I would have said, hey, we go out there and we have 20 segments that people that bucket together and go, but being able to do this, we're actually able to go to an infinite number of segments because we segment them -- subsegment them down by adding in more metrics and more attributes to create a new localized for the group. And so it's really not easy to say it's this segment or this segment.

這確實讓我們有能力，如果我想說，嘿，我們出去，我們有 20 個部分，人們聚集在一起然後去，但是能夠做到這一點，我們實際上能夠進入無限細分的數量，因為我們對它們進行了細分——通過添加更多指標和更多屬性來對它們進行細分，從而為該組創建新的本地化。所以說是這個細分市場還是這個細分市場確實不容易。

Now what's worked really, really amazing with this is because of this, it flows right over to how do we run the live game. And running the live game, the most important thing is being able to get the right billboard or the right feature or the right task in front of the right person at exactly the right time. And this increases our odds of getting back in front of them. And so the 2 really work together in order to thrive.

現在，真正非常有效的就是因為這個，它直接轉移到我們如何運行實時遊戲。運行實時遊戲，最重要的是能夠在正確的時間將正確的廣告牌或正確的功能或正確的任務呈現在正確的人面前。這增加了我們重新回到他們面前的機率。因此，兩者真正共同努力才能蓬勃發展。

And the amazing part out of this is all this does is make the user more engaged. By becoming more engaged, they're worth more money. We see a higher LTV.

最令人驚奇的是，這一切都讓用戶更加投入。通過變得更加投入，他們可以賺更多的錢。我們看到更高的生命週期價值。

And then we couple all of that with the amazing investments that we are making in our ad tech/marketing team where we're doing everything we can to find the right users in the right place, no matter what channel it is, be able to get them for the right cost, and giving us, just adding all 3 together, the highest ROIs that we have seen in a really like as long as I can remember.

然後，我們將所有這些與我們在廣告技術/營銷團隊中進行的驚人投資相結合，我們正在盡一切努力在正確的地方找到正確的用戶，無論是什麼渠道，都能夠以合適的成本獲得它們，只需將所有 3 個加在一起，就能給我們帶來最高的投資回報率，這是我記憶中所見過的最高投資回報率。

So like I hope I'm doing a good job of answering it, but it's like it would do it non-justice to just the segmentation on itself.

所以就像我希望我能很好地回答這個問題一樣，但這就像它對本身的細分來說是不公平的。

Okay. Makes sense. And then on the ad side?

好的。說得通。那麼在廣告方面呢？

Yes. On the ad side, I think the way to think of it right now is we kind of expect our ad business to stay relatively flat over the next quarter or 2. But in the background, we're actually working on ways to kind of pivot and move out of what's happened in the market right now.

是的。在廣告方面，我認為現在的想法是，我們預計我們的廣告業務在下一個或兩個季度保持相對平穩。但在後台，我們實際上正在研究如何實現轉型並擺脫目前市場上發生的情況。

As we all know, the hyper games market has significantly changed over the last year, since about May last year, mainly driven by further pushing of IDFA and making the marketing or the advertise marketing much, much harder. So with this, you have to develop a way of getting what I would call a little bit higher, call it, day 30 retention.

眾所周知，從去年5月左右開始，超級遊戲市場在去年發生了顯著變化，主要是由於IDFA的進一步推動，使得營銷或廣告營銷變得更加困難。因此，你必須開發一種方法來獲得我所說的更高一點的第 30 天保留率。

And so our very talented Alictus team has been working on kind of a new system of games that is built on engaging people much sooner in their life cycle to keep them in multiple game -- sorry, keeping them in multiple days per week, which then will all add to that longer-term retention.

因此，我們非常有才華的 Alictus 團隊一直致力於開發一種新的遊戲系統，該系統旨在讓人們在生命週期中更早地參與到多種遊戲中——抱歉，每週讓他們玩幾天，然後都會增加長期保留。

So as far as looking model-wise, I would assume very, very flat over the next couple of quarters, but then heading towards the end of the year, kind of starting to creep up from there, but really having the momentum in 2024.

因此，就模型而言，我認為未來幾個季度會非常非常平穩，但到年底，就會開始緩慢上升，但到 2024 年才會真正出現勢頭。

The next question comes from Aaron Lee with Macquarie.

下一個問題來自麥格理的 Aaron Lee。

Congrats on another record quarter.

祝賀又一個創紀錄的季度。

Thank you so much, Aaron.

非常感謝你，亞倫。

Wanted to touch on marketing. Really strong sequential user growth and payer growth obviously. It seems like the marketing innovation campaigns continue to pay off and still an area where you continue to differentiate yourselves. Can you talk about what you learned from the latest round of marketing innovation and just how we should be thinking about marketing and UA spend for the balance of the year?

想接觸一下營銷。明顯強勁的用戶連續增長和付款人增長。營銷創新活動似乎繼續取得成效，並且仍然是您繼續脫穎而出的領域。您能否談談您從最新一輪的營銷創新中學到了什麼，以及我們應該如何考慮今年餘下的營銷和用戶獲取支出？

Yes. Thanks a lot, Aaron. And I'm also very, very proud of the team and everything they did in order to show the results. Really (inaudible) all of them. That is getting us to where we are as a company today.

是的。非常感謝，亞倫。我也為這個團隊以及他們為展示成果所做的一切感到非常非常自豪。真的（聽不清）他們全部。這使我們公司取得了今天的成就。

Like I kind of answered in the last question, to me, marketing is one of the pillars. You can't do any of the pillars great and the other 2 just okay or you will fail. So we kind of look at it as, as we grow the player the way we are, it gives us the luxury of being able to continue to invest in marketing.

就像我在上一個問題中回答的那樣，對我來說，營銷是支柱之一。你不能把其中任何一個支柱做得很好，而把另外兩個支柱做得還好，否則你就會失敗。因此，我們認為，隨著我們以現有方式發展玩家，它使我們能夠繼續投資於營銷。

Now what our team has been able to do, which is -- what I would say is best of market at the current moment, based on everything else that we're seeing, is they're able to take the user information that is coming in and be able to get a very accurate idea of the value.

現在，我們的團隊能夠做的——我想說的是，根據我們所看到的其他一切，目前市場上最好的就是他們能夠獲取即將到來的用戶信息並能夠非常準確地了解價值。

By being able to do this, we're able to ping more and more channels across the entire network and now being able to even expand it into, as you just mentioned, the innovation world. The innovation world, we're taking the exact same approach that we do with every other dollar we spend, which is we want to make sure that we're getting the right investment for the dollar. We're not spending our money to grow revenue. We're spending our money to eventually grow AEBITDA.

通過做到這一點，我們能夠在整個網絡中 ping 越來越多的渠道，現在甚至能夠將其擴展到，正如您剛才提到的，創新世界。在創新世界中，我們採取與我們花的每一美元完全相同的方法，即我們希望確保我們得到正確的投資。我們花錢不是為了增加收入。我們花錢是為了最終增加 AEBITDA。

And what the team has been able to do is put together a way of measuring this with a lot, very precise accuracy, which gives us a lot of confidence in spending, which would allow us to continue spending through the Q1 quarter, which led to, to be honest, our results that were of our own expectations.

團隊能夠做的是建立一種非常精確的衡量方法，這讓我們對支出充滿信心，這將使我們能夠在第一季度繼續支出，從而導致說實話，我們的結果符合我們自己的預期。

We're going to take those learnings, which is basically understanding what places, what channels, what times, what shows, where are the right places to do things and then when to invest the most into that area and then dive in deeper.

我們將吸取這些教訓，基本上是了解什麼地方、什麼渠道、什麼時間、什麼節目、哪裡是做事的正確地點，然後什麼時候在該領域投入最多，然後進行更深入的研究。

Now what we will say is it's not just an innovation of spending the dollars, also the integrating it into the game, integrating it into our social media world. It's really building an entire experience for the user. So they don't just see an ad and come in. They literally feel like they're walking into this environment that was driven by innovation spend, but the reality is the whole experience is being innovative.

現在我們要說的是，這不僅僅是花錢的創新，也是將其融入遊戲、融入我們的社交媒體世界的創新。它確實為用戶構建了完整的體驗。因此，他們不只是看到廣告就進來。他們確實感覺自己正在走進這個由創新支出驅動的環境，但現實是整個體驗都是創新的。

So we're super pleased with the results. And our plan is to do a couple of more runs at it by the end of the year as long as it's ROI-positive. And that's kind of how our approach is going to look.

所以我們對結果非常滿意。我們的計劃是在今年年底之前再進行幾次運行，只要它的投資回報率為正。這就是我們的方法的樣子。

Great. That's very helpful. I also wanted to touch on generative AI, which seems to be the topic of the hour. Any thoughts as to how you view this generative AI technology broadly and whether it can be something you incorporate into your business?

偉大的。這非常有幫助。我還想談談生成式人工智能，這似乎是當前的話題。您如何看待這種生成式人工智能技術以及它是否可以融入您的業務？

Yes. I mean AI is a really interesting one, right? And it feels like in the last quarter, it went from 10 miles an hour to 100 miles an hour, and like everyone is talking about it, everyone is going -- and there are so many -- what I would say is there's so much low-hanging fruit to it that can be really utilized across different departments inside of our company from fast generation of art in order to get multiple concepts done quicker through a concept art.

是的。我的意思是人工智能非常有趣，對吧？感覺就像在上個季度，速度從每小時 10 英里增加到每小時 100 英里，就像每個人都在談論它，每個人都在——而且有很多——我想說的是有太多這是一個唾手可得的成果，可以在我們公司內部的不同部門中真正利用，從快速生成藝術到通過概念藝術更快地完成多個概念。

So therefore, allowing us to do prototypes quicker. And really, really will be very, very innovative in the marketing art world where you need to make hundreds and hundreds of concepts in order to find the 1 or 2 that work. This is the low-hanging fruit that you just do right away.

因此，我們可以更快地製作原型。在營銷藝術世界中，真的、真的會非常非常創新，你需要製作成百上千的概念，才能找到其中一兩個有效的概念。這是您可以立即完成的唾手可得的成果。

Then there's the communication part. Is there a way that we can integrate it into our VIP/customer service, different ways that we message things, different techs that's used throughout the game, different ways of just making things quicker, faster. Then the long term is looking at like how do we use it in order to help make decisions.

然後是通訊部分。有沒有一種方法可以將其集成到我們的 VIP/客戶服務中，我們發送消息的不同方式，整個遊戲中使用的不同技術，以及讓事情變得越來越快的不同方式。然後，從長遠來看，我們會考慮如何使用它來幫助做出決策。

Now it sounds amazing and great. But the one thing to remember is in order for it to work, you have to feed it. And every time you're feeding it with information that is unique or IP that is unique to you and your company, you've now shared those learnings with everyone else who uses it.

現在聽起來很神奇而且很棒。但要記住的一件事是，為了讓它發揮作用，你必須餵牠。每次您向它提供您和您的公司獨有的信息或知識產權時，您現在就與使用它的其他人分享了這些知識。

So I think where companies are going to be really quick about just jumping in all in, they're not going to understand the ramifications of what it meant. Or the next person that says, write me a game like this, and now the AI has an example of what you did. And so for us, we're being a little bit more cautious about anything that we feel is our own secret sauce.

所以我認為，如果公司很快就全力以赴，他們就不會理解這意味著什麼。或者下一個人說，給我寫一個這樣的遊戲，現在人工智能有一個你所做的例子。因此，對我們來說，我們對任何我們認為是我們自己的秘密武器的事情都更加謹慎。

But for sure, we're going to continue evaluating ways that we can either bring the information or the AI internally where we own both sides of it or as we feel more and more comfortable that the data can be secluded off. But right now, we've already seen a couple of companies have breaches, and so you know what happens.

但可以肯定的是，我們將繼續評估如何將信息或人工智能引入內部，讓我們擁有它的雙方，或者當我們越來越覺得數據可以被隔離時。但現在，我們已經看到幾家公司存在違規行為，所以你知道會發生什麼。

Our next question comes from Franco Granda with D.A. Davidson.

我們的下一個問題來自 Franco Granda 和 D.A.戴維森。

Congrats on good results. I have a couple of questions for you this morning. You've done a really good job at growing your payer base from converting your existing cohorts. But I was wondering if you could speak to what you're seeing happen to the audience size -- to the overall audience size for social casino. And then I have a follow-up.

恭喜取得好成績。今天早上我有幾個問題要問你。通過轉換現有群體，您在擴大付款基礎方面做得非常好。但我想知道您是否可以談談您所看到的受眾規模（社交賭場的總體受眾規模）的情況。然後我有一個後續行動。

Yes. So I would say first -- I'm going to first answer it from what I see on our side and how we feel it's going, and then I'll give a hypothesis of what I think is happening. But I obviously don't have access to everyone's data, so I'm going to say it's a hypothesis. On our side, we had really, really good growth on the audience side in Q1, mainly driven from a few different things. The first quarter's seasonality.

是的。所以我首先要說的是——我將首先從我們這邊看到的情況以及我們對事情進展的感覺來回答這個問題，然後我會給出一個我認為正在發生的事情的假設。但我顯然無法訪問每個人的數據，所以我想說這是一個假設。就我們而言，第一季度觀眾方面的增長非常非常好，主要是由一些不同的因素推動的。第一季度的季節性。

A lot of installs come in. Organics go up pretty dramatically. With that, CPIs come down because the marketing competition also normally takes a break out of the fourth quarter. And then add on to that is a very tremendous performance that we got out of (inaudible). So like in this case, 1 plus 1 plus 1 kind of equals 4 for us.

大量安裝湧入。有機物增長非常顯著。隨之而來的是消費者物價指數（CPI）下降，因為營銷競爭通常也會在第四季度結束。除此之外，我們還獲得了非常出色的表現（聽不清）。就像在這個例子中一樣，1 加 1 加 1 對我們來說等於 4。

Now I don't just expect that growth to continue going because of seasonality where it's in and then the marketing comes in. But I do expect us to do what we've done in the past, which is be able to really close to maintain our audience growth -- our audience throughout the year, maybe a little degradation to it. But that degradation is mainly because of how we ROI focus our marketing more than it is anything else.

現在，我不僅僅期望這種增長會繼續下去，因為它存在季節性，然後營銷也介入。但我確實希望我們能夠做我們過去所做的事情，這能夠真正接近維持我們的觀眾增長——我們全年的觀眾，也許會有所下降。但這種下降主要是因為我們的投資回報率比其他任何事情都更關注我們的營銷。

Now what do I expect to see in the overarching market? Probably Q1, everything went -- everything probably went up a little over Q4 because seasonality would have went everywhere. I doubt majority of companies had the 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 4. I would say they're probably 1 plus 1 equals 2.

現在我期望在總體市場中看到什麼？可能是第一季度，一切都發生了——一切可能都比第四季度略有上升，因為季節性因素會無處不在。我懷疑大多數公司都知道 1 加 1 加 1 等於 4。我想說他們可能是 1 加 1 等於 2。

But as we continue getting into the rest of the year, what I would imagine is the payers and the markets stay relatively flat, but you see kind of MAUs across come down a little bit. And this has less to do with anything else other than how well do you maintain your paying group.

但隨著我們繼續進入今年剩餘時間，我想像的是付款者和市場保持相對平穩，但你會看到月活躍用戶數略有下降。這與你維護付費團隊的情況無關。

This is something we focus on. This is something that is 100% what we are aiming to do all the time. It is our mission as a player first-focused company. But I don't think everyone in the industry has that mentality. A lot of people have the mentality of give me money, not buy my games.

這是我們關注的重點。這是我們一直 100% 致力於做的事情。作為一家以玩家為中心的公司，這是我們的使命。但我不認為業內每個人都有這種心態。很多人抱著給我錢的心態，而不是買我的遊戲。

Yes. I know that makes a lot of sense. And I hope to one day be able to add 1 plus 1 plus 1 and get a 4 or 5 on my end, as you are right now. But my other question was around your monthly -- your revenue per monthly paying user. It keeps reaching new highs, nearing $100 now. How much more room for upside do you see from here, because it seems like it's quite high at this point?

是的。我知道這很有意義。我希望有一天能夠將 1 加 1 加 1 加起來，得到 4 或 5，就像你現在一樣。但我的另一個問題是關於你的每月收入——每月付費用戶的收入。它不斷創出新高，目前已接近 100 美元。您從這裡看到還有多少上漲空間，因為目前看起來相當高？

Yes. So I'll be honest, Franco. It's not my favorite KPI and it's honestly not one, as a company, we spend a lot of time focusing on. And the reason I say that is it is more important to me that I have more payers than it is how much payers pay.

是的。所以我說實話，弗朗哥。這不是我最喜歡的 KPI，老實說也不是，作為一家公司，我們花了很多時間專注於它。我這麼說的原因是，對我來說，有更多的付款人比付款人支付的金額更重要。

Now the reason ours continues to go up is that people who are later in their life cycle, people have been playing 3, 4 years, year-over-year, they've just become worth more and more as ours became -- becomes the one that they continue investing in and growing.

現在，我們的遊戲繼續上漲的原因是，那些處於生命週期後期的人，人們已經玩了 3、4 年，年復一年，他們的價值隨著我們的遊戲變得越來越值——成為他們繼續投資和發展的一個。

But if our growth and marketing team can bring in a whole bunch of new users at a great price, technically, that metric won't go up, but my payers will go up dramatically. So I think the best way to probably pay attention to this is like MAU payers and ARPDAU are probably really the things that show health in the business.

但是，如果我們的增長和營銷團隊能夠以優惠的價格引入一大堆新用戶，從技術上講，該指標不會上升，但我的付款人將會大幅增加。因此，我認為關注這一點的最佳方法是，MAU 付費者和 ARPDAU 可能確實是顯示業務健康狀況的東西。

How high do I think it can go? As long as we keep running the business like we are today, I expect it to continue rising year-over-year. But like I said, it's not a focus of ours.

我認為它能漲到多高？只要我們繼續像今天這樣經營業務，我預計它會繼續逐年增長。但就像我說的，這不是我們的重點。

Yes. No, that makes total sense. And if I could squeeze a last one in here. You obviously talked about a lot of different areas you're investing your capital line and how much more, I guess, availability you have for that. What is the appetite for M&A? Obviously, you're still absorbing the acquisition from last year and making changes to that. But are you seeing attractive opportunities in this space?

是的。不，這完全有道理。如果我能在這裡擠出最後一顆就好了。您顯然談到了您正在投資的許多不同領域，以及我想您還有多少可用的資金。併購的胃口如何？顯然，您仍在吸收去年的收購併對其進行更改。但您在這個領域看到了有吸引力的機會嗎？

Franco, it's Daniel. Yes, in terms of M&A, I mean, like we've talked about before, our capital allocation strategy is kind of 3 points of focus, which are investing in the business and talking about the investments that we've been making and the results we've been getting. And then we have the share repurchase program. And then lastly, we have M&A.

弗蘭科，我是丹尼爾。是的，就併購而言，我的意思是，就像我們之前討論過的那樣，我們的資本配置策略有 3 個重點，即投資業務並談論我們一直在進行的投資和結果我們一直在得到。然後我們有股票回購計劃。最後，我們有併購。

I mean we are consistently looking at opportunities, but we have a pretty high bar in terms of making sure we have the right strategic fit. We also look at making sure we have the right ROIs and if it's accretive for SciPlay. But yes, wouldn't rule anything out, but we're just looking constantly in the market. Do you want to add anything, Josh?

我的意思是，我們一直在尋找機會，但在確保我們擁有正確的戰略契合度方面，我們有一個相當高的標準。我們還會考慮確保我們擁有正確的投資回報率以及它是否能為 SciPlay 帶來增值。但是，是的，不會排除任何可能性，但我們只是不斷地關注市場。你想補充什麼嗎，喬什？

Yes, I'll add a little bit. And this is just more market dynamics than it is anything else. Where we have seen some of the market multipliers coming down, then we see something like what happened with Scopely that crazy changes that market dynamic all again.

是的，我會補充一點。這只是更多的市場動態。我們看到一些市場乘數下降，然後我們看到類似 Scopely 發生的事情再次瘋狂地改變了市場動態。

I don't think we've hit the bottom of the M&A market yet. I do think it's come down some. But right now, enough companies have enough cash that they're able to provide -- to be able to sustain. And I think they're trying to sustain long enough for the market growth to turn around and then get back to growth as a company and, therefore, add value to their business. The question is going to be, will the overarching market turn around before they run out of cash.

我認為我們還沒有達到併購市場的底部。我確實認為它已經下降了一些。但現在，足夠多的公司擁有足夠的現金，他們能夠提供足夠的現金來維持下去。我認為他們正在努力維持足夠長的時間，以便市場增長能夠扭轉，然後作為一家公司恢復增長，從而為他們的業務增加價值。問題是，在現金耗盡之前，總體市場會好轉嗎？

And if it doesn't happen, then I think we're going to have a lot of stuff come up at once, and it will be a very, very attractive multiplier. But at this point, as me looking at the world, I don't imagine that things will turn around for the masses unless Apple comes out with a solution for acquiring people from their network because majority of companies do not have the overarching game building and growth abilities we do. And this is why they're struggling to grow today.

如果它沒有發生，那麼我認為我們會立即出現很多東西，這將是一個非常非常有吸引力的乘數。但在這一點上，當我放眼世界時，我不認為大眾的情況會好轉，除非蘋果拿出一個從他們的網絡中獲取人才的解決方案，因為大多數公司沒有總體的遊戲構建和我們所做的成長能力。這就是他們今天努力成長的原因。

The next question comes from Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自高盛的埃里克·謝里丹。

If I could come back, I think you talked about the DTC platform being in the testing phase. And as we look out, not only to 2023, Josh, but beyond, help us better understand what's being built on the DTC platform.

如果我能回來的話，我想你談到了 DTC 平台正處於測試階段。 Josh，當我們展望 2023 年，甚至更遠的未來，幫助我們更好地了解 DTC 平台上正在構建的內容。

How would you be thinking about being deployed more widely within your array of your go-to-market strategies, not only just this year but on a multiyear view? And what are you sort of continuing to look for, for the DTC platform to go wider as we move a couple of quarters down the road?

您會如何考慮在您的一系列上市策略中進行更廣泛的部署，不僅是今年，而且從多年的角度來看？隨著我們向前邁進幾個季度，DTC 平台將變得更廣泛，您繼續尋找什麼？

Thank you, Eric. It's great to talk to you. The DTC platform is very interesting, and we're very excited for what it can do for our company and what it will bring. And during the script, I said we're at the crawl phase of it. And we're at this phase because every payer that we have inside of any platform that is already paying is part of who we are today and it's part of our success and growth.

謝謝你，埃里克。很高興與你交談。 DTC 平台非常有趣，我們對它能為我們公司做的事情以及它將帶來的東西感到非常興奮。在編寫劇本期間，我說過我們正處於爬行階段。我們正處於這個階段，因為我們在任何已經付款的平台內擁有的每個付款人都是我們今天的一部分，也是我們成功和成長的一部分。

So anytime you move them from what they're already doing, you have a risk. And the reason we're in the crawl phase is we want to make sure that if we try to move a payer from one platform to our DTC, we have like a 99.9% conversion rate, and we don't potentially lose someone. Because it's much better off to get them to purchase than not get them to purchase at all.

因此，只要你讓他們離開他們已經在做的事情，你就會面臨風險。我們處於抓取階段的原因是，我們希望確保，如果我們嘗試將付款人從一個平台轉移到我們的 DTC，我們的轉化率約為 99.9%，並且我們不會失去任何人。因為讓他們購買比根本不購買要好得多。

The worldwide is -- really you think about it less and probably worldwide and look at it as more of expansion through our games over time. We'll start with different games and ramp them up. The first will be talking to people through e-mails, introducing it to them because that's the least amount of risk.

全球範圍是——實際上，你很少考慮它，可能是全球範圍的，並將其視為隨著時間的推移通過我們的遊戲進行的擴展。我們將從不同的遊戲開始，然後逐步完善它們。第一種是通過電子郵件與人們交談，向他們介紹它，因為這是風險最小的。

Now with everything that Apple has come out and announced over the last couple -- last month or so, with everything that's happening to Epic, it's now opening up the door for potentially doing an option inside of the game and pushing them. Now the e-mail has almost 0 risk because they weren't in the game when they did it.

現在，隨著蘋果公司在過去幾個月（上個月左右）所發布和宣布的一切，以及 Epic 所發生的一切，它現在為可能在遊戲內部做出選擇並推動它們打開了大門。現在，電子郵件的風險幾乎為零，因為他們發送電子郵件時並不參與其中。

But the other one does have what I would call as an inherent risk to it, which is they're in the game, they have to leave the game and then come back to the game. And every time you add a friction point, there's a potential that someone could leave. And so this part will take us a long time to make sure that it's perfect.

但另一個人確實有我所說的固有風險，那就是他們在遊戲中，他們必須離開遊戲然後再回到遊戲。每增加一個摩擦點，就有可能有人離開。所以這部分我們需要很長時間才能確保它是完美的。

Our goal is to do it right, not to do it fast. Now I would expect to see toward the end part of this year, we're starting to probably push it up a little bit more, but still a very small percentage of the reach of our population. But in 2024, we're going to expect it to start hitting a larger population of our payers throughout at least our largest core games.

我們的目標是把事情做好，而不是做得快。現在，我預計到今年年底，我們可能會開始將其提高一點，但仍然只占我們人口覆蓋範圍的很小一部分。但到 2024 年，我們預計它將至少在我們最大的核心遊戲中開始影響更多的付費用戶。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference over to Joshua Wilson for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議交給約書亞·威爾遜 (Joshua Wilson) 發表閉幕詞。

We're off to a great start in 2023. We're hungry. We continue to charge forward. We have so much more things we want to do and accomplish. A big thank you to all of our awesome SciPlayers around the world. You're amazing, and every day, you prove it to us. I look forward to reporting on the progress in our second quarter call this summer. Thank you for participating.

2023 年我們有一個良好的開端。我們很飢餓。我們繼續向前衝鋒。我們還有很多事情想做和完成。非常感謝世界各地所有出色的 SciPlayer。你太棒了，你每天都在向我們證明這一點。我期待著在今年夏天的第二季度電話會議上報告進展情況。感謝您的參與。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連接。