Playtech plc

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for attending today. It's very good to see you all. On to slide two. I'll begin with the highlights before handing over to Chris McGuinness, our CFO, who will take you through the financials and the outlook. I'll then update you on our progress against our strategic priorities. Turning now to slide three. I'm pleased to report a strong financial performance in 2023, delivering adjusted EBITDA of 432 million euros, up 9% here or near, and ahead of previously raised expectations. Our performance was driven by good growth within regulated markets in B2B and Snytech within B2C. The B2B performance was led by the Americas, with very strong growth from CaliPlay in Mexico, Significant progress was made in the U.S. in 2023 across multiple fronts as we focused on developing relationships, deploying capital, and building out infrastructure to ensure we take advantage of the great opportunity Playtech has in this region. For B2C, the Snytech team continues to execute on their strategy with healthy growth seen across both retail and online. The online segment continues to perform strongly, while the retail segment showed good resiliency with sports betting in particular, showing very strong growth at the start of the year. And this good financial performance was achieved while we continue to invest in those areas that we deem core to growth such as the US, Italy, Brazil, and Canada on a regional basis, live from a product perspective, and SaaS from a business model angle. Given the strong financial performance in 2023, we remain on track to deliver on our medium-term EBITDA targets across both B2B and the B2C divisions. I will now hand over to Chris, who will take you through the financial performance and outlook.

Thanks, Mar. On slide five, please. Let me begin by giving an update on CaliPlay and how this has been recognized in our 2023 accounts. As you are aware, we have ongoing legal processes, which are now principally in the UK. Please bear in mind, due to the sensitive nature of the situation, we're limited in what we can say today, but I'll now provide a brief update. Firstly, Playtech is seeking to clarify a point of disagreement in relation to the Caliente call option, and this is currently due to be heard in English courts in October of 2024. Secondly, in the second half of last year, the situation then evolved to include a dispute in relation to fees contractually owed by CaliPlay to Playtech, principally the B2B license fees and the additional B2B services fees. CaliPlay has to date not paid B2B license fee amounts due from August 2023 onwards, nor additional B2B services fee amounts due from July 2023. The financial impact on our 2023 accounts is as follows. We have recognized the full outstanding amount of 86.5 million euros within total revenue and adjusted EBITDA for the year, as we have assessed that it is highly probable that this will be collected in a subsequent period. However, as we have not yet received the cash we are contractually owed, we have a material increase in debtors for 2023 and our 283 million euro net debt position as at the end of the year, as well as our adjusted operating cash flow, both reflect the reduced cash generation into the year due to CaliPlay withholding our fees. As you will see in the coming slides, our cash flow generation was still very strong despite this situation. Finally, because our definition of free cash flow does not include changes in working capital, the free cash flow numbers within this presentation include the amount owed to us by CaliPlay in the year in the same way revenue and adjusted EBITDA do. CaliPlay remains a highly important customer for Playtech, and we have been in dialogue with them to discuss resolving this situation, but there can be no certainty on the outcome. Now on to the financial highlights, the underlying Playtech's strong performance in 2023. Group revenue grew 7%, surpassing €1.7 billion, with adjusted EBITDA also increasing 9% to €432 million, ahead of previously raised expectations. Cash generation was robust, with adjusted operating cash flow of €383 million. At the same time, our balance sheet remained resilient, with an average of 0.7 times flat on the prior year. This was achieved whilst absorbing €170 million of investments, as well as the CaliPlay-related working capital swing. Moving to slide 6, delving deeper into the divisional results, you can see that both the B2B and B2C divisions contributed to the strong performance in the year. B2B revenues were up 8%, with adjusted EBITDA growing 14%, driven by strong growth within regulated markets. The B2B margin expanded 130 basis points due to the high operating leverage inherent in the B2B business model, and was achieved despite increased investment into strategic areas. Within B2C, revenues grew 5% and for the first time exceeded the 1 billion euro threshold, driven by good performance from Snytec across both retail and online. Following a strong H1, H2 was affected by customer-friendly sporting results as has been well-flagged by industry peers. Free cash flow generation was strong in the year, despite absorbing higher Italian concession payments in 2023 compared to 2022. Turning to slide seven, looking at B2B in more detail, total B2B revenue was 684 million euros, representing 6% growth in constant currency. Within B2B, regulated markets continue to display a strong growth profile with revenue growth of 15% in constant currency and revenue within all regions of regulated markets seeing growth in the year on a constant currency basis. The Americas region remains the standout region, growing 35% in constant currency, driven by the continued success of Cali Play in Mexico, with increasing contributions from W Play in Colombia. As you can see, we've broken out the U.S. and Canada as a separate line item for the first time, as we expect this region to be an increasingly large contributor to growth within B2B going forward. This region saw excellent growth in the year, up 82% in constant currency compared to 2022, with growing contributions from parks in the US and North Star in Canada. We are laying strong foundations in this region, and after further execution this year, you can expect to see this revenue line become much more material in 2025 and beyond. In Europe, there was good growth in the year, driven by strong performances in several countries, including Poland and Spain. The UK business, which is now less than 20% of B2B revenues, saw revenue growth of 1% in constant currency as it continues to be impacted by our customers adapting to the well-publicized regulatory changes. Revenue from unregulated markets was down 17% in constant currency, with growth in Brazil more than an offset by a decline in Canada, South Africa, and Asia. Brazil continues to grow in advance of upcoming regulation. While part of Canada and South Africa revenues are now included and regulated, certain provinces within these countries are now regulated. While B2B revenues increased 8%, B2B adjusted EBITDA grew faster at 14% due to the operating leverage inherent in the B2B business model and our tight control on costs. As you can see with further detail in the appendix, operating costs and G&A only grew 4%, which is largely due to inflation-related salary increases, while we continue to invest in strategic important areas, which can be seen by the increase in the R&D costs of 14%. Turning to slide 8, I'll talk you through the highlights from the B2C division. We saw another good performance from Snytech, driven by both online and retail. We discussed this in more detail on the next slide. Happy Bets saw revenues decline 9% in 23, driven by a rationalization of retail sites in Germany. Adjusted EBITDA losses narrowed to 9.8 million euros when we excluded 2 million one-off litigation settlement. We expect to see these losses narrow further as we move through 2024. Elsewhere, Sunbingo and other B2C delivered a strong performance with revenue up 12% year-on-year, while adjusted EBITDA increased to $6 million in 2023 from $2 million in the prior year, driven by more effective marketing spend, higher retention of customers due to improved user experience. Moving to slide 9, where I'll look at the performance of Snytech in more detail. Both the retail and online segments continued to show strong growth, although the overall performance saw different dynamics across the period. We had a very strong start to the year, partly driven by pent-up demand following the World Cup, while the second half of the year was negatively impacted by customer-friendly sporting results that affected most of the industry. The online segment saw strong growth, with both sports betting and online casino performing well. The underpenetration of the online segment continues to be a structural tailwind for this business, with Nitech ideally placed a benefit given the strength of its brand, the continuous improvement to apps and technology, and a broadening of its content offering. Retail betting saw solid growth, while gaming machines' revenue was stable year over year as it continued to normalize post-pandemic. Free cash flow generation of 193 million euros in a year was strong despite absorbing a higher Italian concession payment compared to the prior year. Now to slide 10, I'll look at the net debt bridge. Playtec delivers strong cash generation throughout 2023 with adjusted operating cash flows of 367 million euros. We continued to invest in both organic and inorganic growth opportunities, resulting in a cash outflow of 150 million euros in capital expenditure and 170 million euros through investments and acquisitions. Our largest investment in 2023 was the 85 million US dollar purchase of a low single digit percentage equity position in Hard Rock Digital. Even when absorbing these investments, net debt remained broadly flat at the end of the year at 283 million euros compared to 275 million euros a year ago, with leverage also remaining unchanged at 0.7 times. Again, to remind you, our 283 million net debt position does not include the outstanding cash balance owed to us from Caldeplay. As at the end of 23, CaliPlay owes Playtech 86.5 million euros. Given the timing differences between invoice and cash collection, with cash from December invoice not typically received until January, this results in a pro forma working capital cash impact of the situation of 66 million euros. Adjusting for this cash impact, our pro forma net debt position at the end of the year would have been equal to €217 million, implying leverage of 0.5 times. The resolution of the CaliPlay situation is a key priority for us, but we're also taking a prudent approach to cash management. to mitigate the impact on cash flow that the company faces. I would also highlight that on a free cash flow basis, we remain positive on an ongoing basis without any cash being collected from CaliPlay. On to slide 11. A year ago at the 2022 full year results in March, I outlined three immediate areas where I saw room for improvement. I believe we have made progress on each of these, although further work remains to be done. First, I wanted to increase the focus on cash generation and started by providing further disclosures on free cash flow and operating cash flow. Notwithstanding the working capital swing from CaliPlay, Playtech improved its free cash flow generation within the B2B division and will continue to focus on this area in 2024. Secondly, I said I thought that the B2B division was too complex and that there were room for opportunities for efficiencies. Throughout the year, there was increased focus on cost management and part of the impact can be seen in the margin improvement within B2B in 2023, particularly in the second half of the year. In 2024, cost efficiency remains a priority and we are currently evaluating underperforming business units with the potential to either restructure, discontinue or dispose of such assets. Finally, I outlined that I wanted to provide additional disclosures to improve transparency. As you might recall, at the end of 2022 full year results, I provided additional KPIs for the Snytech business. And at the H1 results, I extended this further to include HappyBet and also provided further detail on the B2B cost base. Today, we continue to implement these improvements and these KPIs are available in the appendix. Going forward, we'll continue to reevaluate additional disclosure to further improve transparency. As part of our additional disclosure, I'd like to provide guidance on CapEx and the effective tax rate. We expect CapEx, including capitalized development, to be in the 160 to 170 million euro range for the year, and this includes 45 million euros expected for Italian concession payments. And we anticipate that the effective tax rate for 2024 for the group to be circa 30%. Finally, moving to slide 12 and the outlook. We've had a solid start to 2024, reflecting the strong underlying growth trends in Latin America within the B2B business and Snytech within B2C. We've remained focused on taking advantage of the significant growth opportunities across a number of our target markets while we successfully execute on our strategy as more we'll detail in more detail in a few minutes. As a result, I'm pleased to reaffirm our medium-term EBITDA targets of 200 to 250 million euros for B2B and 300 to 350 million euros for the B2C division. Given our strong financial performance in 2023, our resilient balance sheet, the board is confident in Playtech's prospects for 2024 and beyond. I'll now hand back to Maure to update you on our strategic priorities.

Thanks, Chris. Moving on to slide 14. This is a slide that is familiar to you all, so I'll be brief. As you'd expect, our medium-term strategic priorities for both the B2B and B2C divisions remain the same. Taken together, these will help to drive organic revenue growth and expand margins, enabling us to reach the medium-term adjusted EBITDA targets we have set over the past 18 months, namely €200 to €250 million within B2B and €300 to €350 million within B2C. This will be supplemented by inorganic growth should the right opportunities arise that help to accelerate our strategy whilst providing shareholder value. And we expect all of this to be underpinned by our sustainability framework, and I'll come back to discuss the good progress that has been made on this later in the presentation. On to slide 15, and looking a bit more closely at the B2B division. Here we outline the progress that has been made during 2023 against our strategic priorities. Firstly, on aiming to be the partner of choice for newly regulating markets. Over the course of the year, we have made excellent progress, not only in building on our existing partnerships with operators, but also signing new agreements to ensure we are well-placed to capitalize on the most exciting regulated or newly regulating markets in the world. The underlying performance of CaliPlay in 2023 has been remarkable and a big driver of the excellent performance from the B2B division. Our strategic agreements with operators in other key countries, in Latam, such as Galerabet in Brazil, are growing strongly and position us well to benefit from these attractive markets going forward. We are pleased to extend our contract with the Polish state operator Totalizato, following a competitive public tender in 2023, illustrating the strength of Playtech's offering, whilst there was an excellent start to the expanded relationship with Northstar in Canada, which saw strong growth in the year. Lastly, but by no means least, we signed a landmark agreement with Hard Rock Digital to provide casino and live, amongst other content, in the US and Canada with additional products supplied internationally. Under the terms of the agreement, Playtech has also invested 85 million dollars, or 79.8 million euros, in exchange for a small minority equity stake. we continue to make good progress against our second strategic priority of capitalizing on live and SaaS opportunities. Within the attractive live segment, the company remains focused on regulated markets, which saw strong revenue growth of 24% in 2023 versus 2022. As we promised at the interims back in September, we opened our third live studio in Pennsylvania at the end of 2023. We also continue to roll out innovative content with Jumanji and Big Bad Wolf Live, just two of several innovative concepts we have delivered on in the year. In SaaS, our impressive growth continues, increasing revenues by more than 50% in 2023 and signing up more brands. With over 450 brands now on our platform, we are firmly on track to meet our medium-term revenue target of 60 to 80 million euros. Finally, we are continuing to carry out a multi-year transformation program across the whole of the B2B division. As Chris just discussed, we are very disciplined around where we are allocating resources to ensure it is being funneled to those areas that are truly strategic for us and where we see a strong growth potential, such as the Americas and live. At the same time, to supplement our organic growth, we remain active on the M&A front to ensure appropriate exposure to attractive segments, both regionally and within product verticals. On to slide 16. This chart plots the maturity of different markets based on the time that has elapsed since the regulation of online. We have presented this slide a couple of times before, but I think it clearly illustrates the growth profile of the various markets we are exposed to and where they sit in terms of regulatory maturity. And as you can see, there is a healthy balance between more mature markets such as Italy and the UK and countries that are early in the regulatory cycle and are set to deliver faster growth. And I'll explain why this is so important. The more mature markets are highly cash generative. This cash can then be used to invest in nascent, faster-growing markets to ensure we are in an advantageous position in multiple countries as they move towards regulating gambling or which have recently regulated, such as the U.S., Brazil, and Canada. Also, the relationships with operators in markets such as the UK can then be leveraged as these operators expand into other faster-growing countries, providing Playtech with an opportunity to increase its wallet share with these partners. Moving on to slide 17. The U.S. provides a huge opportunity for Playtech, and on this slide, we outline the evolution of our journey from entering the market back in 2019 to laying the foundation for growth over the last couple of years and then executing over the next couple of years and beyond to drive significant revenue growth. We may have been a little bit slow entering the U.S. market post the repeal of PASPA back in 2019. That being said, we saw the early seeds for future revenue growth in those early post-PASPA years. As with any market entry strategy, building out local infrastructure and presence is a key prerequisite for success, and we made progress on this front by opening a U.S. office, starting to build relationships, securing licenses in multiple states, and investing in and opening live studios. The last couple of years has seen us make excellent progress in laying the foundations for growth. While the building of studios has continued with our activity in Pennsylvania, along with the securing of further licenses, the next phase of the strategy is focused on signing up a mixture of tier one and ambitious operators, launching our innovative content to the US audience and expanding our workforce. We have now launched with 11 operators in the U.S., including our Landmark Agreement with Hard Rock Digital, as well as BetMGM, Ross Street, and Parks. We have also made good progress in rolling out our suite of innovative content. For example, Adventures Beyond Wonderland for Live Casino was launched in the New Jersey facility in July 2023. delivering the first true game show experience to the American market and won the Gaming Product of the Year Award in the 2023 American Gambling Awards. But the ultimate objective of establishing a presence and then laying the foundations is to ensure we then execute and deliver revenue growth in the US. And we are confident we can achieve this. Our priority remains on signing up the most attractive names in the U.S., and we are making good progress in this regard. Our comprehensive agreement with Hard Rock Digital means we are well-placed to benefit within iGaming as they look to expand to more U.S. states over the coming years, while the 11 operators we have launched with so far puts us in an excellent position to increase our market share as we roll out our content and expand into further states. And while we expect to continue to grow revenues in the US in 2024, we expect this growth to accelerate in the years following. And now is a natural moment to increase the transparency of our revenue disclosure by breaking out the US and Canada, so you will be in a better position to see how the US is performing over the coming years. Now to slide 18, and other countries in the Americas that we are particularly excited about due to the regulatory environment and market opportunity. As previously flagged, our success in this region is rooted in our structured agreements. we are extremely excited about the Brazilian market. In 2023, Brazil took a crucial step forwards with the president signing into law new legislation for online and retail sports betting, as well as online casino at the end of 2023, and industry expectations are for a launch at some point in 2024. Playtech is well positioned to benefit given its exciting strategic agreement with GaleraBet, which migrated its sports product onto Playtech's platform in 2023. At the end of 2023, GaleraBet completed the acquisition of F12, an online brand in Brazil, deploying a multi-brand strategy to capitalize on its first mover advantage, and F12 is now migrating onto Playtech's platform. The Colombian market continues to see strong growth as players shift to online and with the attractive demographics of a relatively wealthy population. Playtech remains well positioned with its structured agreement with Wplay, which has good market share. Finally, a few words on the Canadian market. The market opportunity is considerable over the medium to long term as provinces look to regulate, while Ontario is showing attractive LTV and customer acquisition cost metrics. We are also very happy with a positive start to our expanded partnership with Northstar, which saw us take an equity stake and broaden the scope of our offering to include operational and marketing services, in addition to the wide range of products already launched. Aside from Northstar, Playtech has further exposure to the Canadian market with more than 10 other operators. Notably, last year, we launched live with FanDuel in Ontario, demonstrating the strength of our product. Moving on to slide 19, where we outline the performance of the live segment in 2023. The live business has made good progress with revenues showing strong growth. In regulated markets where we are focusing our efforts, we have performed very well with revenues up 24% erroneous. We have continued to sign and launch with big operators in multiple regions. As we mentioned, we launched with FanDuel in Ontario, Canada in 2023, in addition to Playtech winning the tender to become the partner for live casino for Veikaus, the Finnish state-owned and monopoly operator, via an extensive public procurement process. Both of these two key wins demonstrate how the industry views our live offering. Given the strong demand we are seeing in the market, we have continued to invest in the business and expand capacity, taking the number of tables up to over 350 at the end of 2023. The most notable milestone was the opening of a third live US studio in Pennsylvania, adding to our two studios in New Jersey and Michigan, meaning we now have presence in the three biggest iGaming states. In 2023, we have also expanded our Romania studio, opened an additional studio in Lima, Peru, and expanded our studio with Holland Casino. Looking to 2024, we plan to continue to invest in the live business with further studio capacity increases in the pipeline to satisfy upcoming demand. Innovation is part of our DNA, and we continue to invest in new concepts and content to give operators a first-class range of products. The highlight in 2023 was the launch of Jumanji, the bonus level, a new game within Live that, as I mentioned earlier, using cutting-edge technology to deliver the first-ever cinematic qualities into the Live product. Turning to slide 20. For those that are unfamiliar with our SaaS business, it was launched in 2019 for those operators that do not use the IMS but want access to our content in a plug and play type SaaS model. The initial target market was smaller operators as the larger brands tend to prioritize proven robustness and scalability before deploying such a business model. Over the past few years, we have demonstrated that the technology not only functions as intended, but is robust and can handle large volumes, and thus our addressable market has expanded to target larger size brands, with 888 a prime example of a brand that is deploying this business model. 12 months ago, we set a medium-term revenue target of 60 to 80 million euros. We are pleased to report we are firmly on track to deliver towards the upper end of this target, with SAS revenues up more than 50% in 2023 versus 2022, rising to 50 million euros. Given the nature of the business model and the significant investment made already around infrastructure, such as data centers, the contribution margin is high on incremental SaaS revenues, and we expect to see a material contribution from the SaaS business to B2B adjusted EBITDA in the medium term. And the diversification of brands continued in 2023, as we added more than 100 brands over the course of 2023, taking the total to more than 450 since launching in 2019, an impressive feat. And if you look at the average annual revenue we generate per brand, it is only around 110,000 euros, meaning there is a big potential to increase wallet share in the future. Turning to slide 21, where we outline the progress made against our medium-term strategic priorities for the B2C division. The Sny brand is extremely strong in Italy and synonymous with betting. Coupled with Snytech's retail footprint, this combination represents a powerful advantage, and we continue to grow Snytech's online business. In 2023, we have worked on a full website redesign with a core focus on enhancing the level of engagement, which we will look to roll out fully in the first half of this year, while our innovative content remains an important competitive advantage. Moving on to Happybit, the business remains in the transformation phase under Snytech management. At present, Happybit continues to be loss-making. However, excluding one-off litigation settlement, the losses at the adjusted EBITDA level have narrowed ear on ear. We are seeing early signs of improvement across the retail and the online segments. Within retail, less profitable stores have been rationalized in Germany, with plans to open new shops in 2024 underway. In online, work on optimization of the player bonus policy and improvements in the approach to risk and trading around Sportsbook are ongoing. We therefore expect to see losses narrow in 2024 versus 2023. Whilst the regulatory landscape in Germany is difficult at the present time, Germany has the potential to be one of the largest gambling markets in Europe, given the size and wealth of its population. Therefore, we view this happy bet asset as a way of having exposure to Germany and are looking at opportunities to increase scale through strategic M&A. M&A is also a focus area within Snytech in Italy, and the pipeline remains strong. In 2023, we completed the purchase of Jove, a well-established betting operator in the Puglia region, the integration of which has now been completed, and there are opportunities driven by the online license renewal that we will discuss in a later slide. Moving on to slide 22 and Snytech's online business. One of the key underlying drivers of revenue growth within Snytec's online business is the effective utilization of the retail footprint in an effort to acquire and migrate players to the higher margin online segment. The reason why having a retail footprint and potentially transitioning these customers to online is so attractive is summarized in those two charts on the left-hand side. The average GGR per customer required from retail is three and a half times greater than the GGR of customer required from online, whilst the churn rate of the customer required from retail is nearly two times lower. Whilst customer acquisition is important, we believe that user experience is even more crucial. As a result, we consistently invest to improve our online segment offering. We've spent a large part of 2023 building a new website, increasing the level of responsiveness and enhanced look and feel. We've launched a beta version and expect to fully launch it in the coming month. Moreover, we have renewed our technology infrastructure, allowing us to collect data from multiple sources in real time, ensuring scalability and improving the customer experience for players. Finally, we continue to broaden our tools and features offering with the launch of new widgets, helping us to improve cross-selling activities from sports in addition to revamping the loyalty program. On to slide 23. M&A continues to remain a priority for the B2C division within both Italy and Germany. Within Italy, there are strategies being deployed for both the online and retail segments. In online, the proposed online concession tender is expected to result in a fee per online license of 7 million euros for a nine-year period, up significantly from 250,000 euros currently. For those smaller operators online, of which there are many, the large increase in the cost for a license potentially makes it uneconomical for them to continue to serve the Italian market. Thus, there is an opportunity to increase our market share by acquiring part of the long tail. Within the retail segment, a roll-up and vertical integration strategy is the primary focus for M&A. In 2023, Snytec completed the acquisition Jove Group, which directly manages and has licenses for 18 betting shops at an attractive valuation multiple and increases the pool of customers to onboard to the online channel. Acquisitions within the gaming machine sector enables Snytec to vertically integrate up the value chain and take a greater percentage of the revenue share. Carried out at an appropriate valuation multiple, this is value accretive to shareholders. Over 2022 and 2023, Snytec acquired over 2,000 AWP machines at an attractive average EV to EBITDA multiple of three times. Finally, as we noted earlier, HappyBet needs greater scale in Germany and thus a way to overcome this in an accelerated timeframe is to pursue M&A and the pipeline there looks healthy. Moving on to slide 24. 2023 was a year where we achieved several accolades and reached many milestones as we continue to deliver on our sustainability strategy. I'll highlight only three of these here. Firstly, fostering equality in the workplace is a priority for Playtech. And in 2023, we saw steady progress towards meeting our commitment to increase female representation amongst our leadership population. This culminated in Playtech being recognized as one of the top 10 performance in the annual FTSE Women's Leader Review Report and a company that has already met or exceeded the target for women in leadership ahead of the target year. Secondly, in 2023, we continue to enhance the features and capabilities of our AI-powered safer gambling solution, BetBuddy, which was adopted by six additional brands in three new jurisdictions and is now operational with 16 brands in nine jurisdictions in total. Thirdly, 2023 was the year where we set in motion our net zero by 2040 plan. In early 2024, the Science-Based Targets Initiative approved Playtech's near-term science-based emissions target, a 50.4% reduction in its scope, one, two, and three emissions by 2032. Playtech has also committed to set long-term emissions reduction targets with SBTI in line with reaching net zero by 2040. Finally, most important, supporting our colleagues around the world is something I'm passionate about. Our colleagues and the communities they live in have been impacted by the war in Ukraine and in Israel, which followed the October 7th attack on Israel, and they remain at the forefront of our minds, and we have continued our dedicated and steadfast support for them and their families. Onto slide 25. 2023 was an excellent year for Playtech, both financially and operationally. And we are very excited about 2024 as we look to execute on multiple growth opportunities. Our main short-term priority is the resolution of the Cali Play situation. We are also committed to making progress within our target markets, product verticals, and sustainability initiatives. In the US, we have worked hard to build a sizable presence and our focus is shifting towards executing on our existing partnerships to drive revenue growth. In Brazil, we are looking to benefit from the first mover advantage that we have secured through GaleraBet. Clarity around the regulatory timeline should offer an exciting opportunity to gain market share and drive revenue growth. In the live vertical, we are aiming to secure more partnerships with both ambitious operators and Tier 1 brands whilst continuing to deliver innovative entertainment experiences for the players of our existing clients. In B2C, the Snytec team remains focused on utilizing the retail footprint and brand equity to drive organic online growth. We will also look to supplement this with inorganic growth across both retail and online in Italy via Bolton acquisitions. In addition, the Snytic management continues to transform Happybit and we expect losses to narrow in 2024. Finally, we are dedicated to progressing towards our 2025 sustainability commitments while actively working on our 2030 sustainable development plan. Thank you for listening. Chris and I will now take any questions you may have. Thank you. Thanks, Chris. Thanks more.

We'll first take questions from the room. Once those are exhausted, we'll go to the conference call line for further questions. In order to ask a question in the room, if you just push the button to turn on the mic. Thanks.

Ivor Jones from Peel Hunt. Could you talk about the softness in Asia and what the trends are and how important it is? There was an impact on SNAI of poor sporting results. Could you talk about maybe the staking growth in SNAI to give us a sense of how the betting business performed through the year or in the second half? And you talked about dealing with underperforming businesses. Can you give us some way of thinking about the scale of the underperformance? If you shut them tomorrow, what would be the benefit to profit? How much of a drag are they? Thank you.

Do you want to take the first two and I'll take the last one?

I'll take the first two. No problem. So, softwares in Asia is basically driven by changing market conditions. Obviously, the entire industry moved from China now to other territories, so our exposure is minimal to non-existent these days, and we are focused on other territories. In other territories, there were certain sensitivities around certain markets that are not yet regulated around, for example, elections in 2023. So, obviously, we believe that this is temporary. Again, Asia, I think that the most important thing to say about Asia, we always and we were very, very open and very, very, very open about it throughout the years and said, obviously, our focus is regulated markets, structured agreements, Americas, Central and Eastern Europe. Asia will remain there. It's highly cash generative still. and we keep it because it generates the cash that we can then invest into other territories. It's a very small part of our business these days. I believe that going forward, I don't want to talk about growth, but obviously there is some potential. X, obviously, the temporary one-off impact that we saw in 2023, but I would thought that the best way to think about it, a small part of the business, single-digit, overall, right, in terms of its portion. Steady business from here that will continue to generate cash that will allow us to further accelerate our plans elsewhere. Sorry, no, single-digit what? Single-digit contribution in terms of revenue contribution to the overall group. less than 10%. So it now represents less than 10% of the overall group revenues.

I could probably do the math, but what percentage was it of unregulated in that line you showed us but didn't split out in the presentation? Is it most of it?

No, it's definitely not most of it. And the reason we've stopped disclosing it is, one, it's not strategic and it's far less material than it has. I mean, it's been declining since it peaked in 2017, I believe, is not really a material part and certainly not a strategic focus. So it did decline further in 2023, but it's not a material or strategic business to us going forward.

And on betting, obviously, betting was very volatile in Italy throughout 2023. The first half was extremely good for the operator. The second half was actually extremely bad for the operators. January, for example, was extremely bad for the operators. Some of that was compensated. I mean, some of the performance in February somewhat improved. compensated for January, and obviously the trend now is quite positive, and hopefully the industry will recover by the end of March or sometime in April, depending on the operator, obviously. So these are the trends that we see in Italy are in line with what you see across the board throughout, right? And I think that it has been reflected on by the other by other operators in terms of volumes and this is the most important thing when why when i wake up in the morning and i ask myself you know i don't look at the overall underlying result of revenues right i look at the volumes i look at the margin and and and and the volumes are still very very strong right we continue to grow the volumes hence over time as margin normalizes as sports results are not unfavorable or favorable on a normalized basis this business is going from strength to strength and continues to perform strongly.

And I think your final question, Ivor, on underperforming business units, I guess the first point is no decisions have been made. There's a A few smaller ones, generally speaking, that are under review. That's a mix of business units or perhaps products that haven't performed the way we hope they would. But it's a balance of looking at how they're performing on an EBITDA basis, probably more importantly on a cash flow basis, but also evaluating whether they're strategic or not and whether – You know, they may be underperforming, but if they have a key part of our strategy and we want to have them for the medium term, we'll look more at a turnaround plan. But there's a few. I don't want to overstate the size of it, but there's a few businesses that are potentially underperforming. maybe break even, don't really contribute on the EBITDA level, maybe actually consume a little bit of cash or negative cash flow. They're not necessarily going to move the needle, but they'd be a key part of us being a leaner business going forward on the B2B side.

Thank you. Good morning. Just three questions for me, please. First question is, what proportion of your... Do you have a view in terms of how much growth you will see in this year?

Yeah, I can probably take most of this. Live casino regulated. We don't disclose the exact number, but particularly when you include Brazil, which is let's call that soon to be regulated. I would say a a high majority of that business is regulated. Circa three quarters or more, including Brazil. On the balance sheet, yes, it is, I'd say, a strong balance sheet currently, probably under-levered given the target leverage ratio I've communicated previously of one to two times. So we're definitely under-levered, and as I said in the presentation, even more so when you include the cash that we're confident we'll receive. So I think dividends now obviously wouldn't be the right time to be paying a dividend with balances outstanding like that. But it's something that we as a board discuss on a regular basis and we'll continue to discuss going forward. I think our balance sheet has approached a point over the last couple of years where it's very strong and I think it's something we need to seriously consider. in the not too distant future. But we will always balance that with our M&A pipeline and other opportunities for growth. As I outlined in the presentation today, we made a lot of investments in 2023. In the future, whether it's 2024 or other years, there'll be a lower level of investments. Some years it could be higher, but I think it was always going to be a balance. But I think dividends is something that will strongly be considered going forward when we have a bit more clarity on the cash situation. And then on the U.S. and Canada, yeah, as I outlined, we've disclosed that and broken that out as a geography for the first time. I think we'll expect, you know, I think very strong growth to continue. So without putting a precise number, I think it'll go from the teens where it is now into the probably into the 20s in the this year, but then that's not the end. It's going to keep showing strong growth after that.

We just started, not the end. We literally only just started. Listen, you have to understand the first half is still basically finalizing certain conversations, albeit some conversations are already done, and some contracts are secured with well-recognized brands that we can't yet disclose because of commercial sensitivities. However, the second half, you know, our focus this year is actually in the second half or from, you know, from – March, April and onwards and the rest of the year is to actually prepare for launch and deployment. And actually 2025 will be the real year where we really start to see real significant or more significant revenue from the existing operators in different states, We now have a full offering including all of our content from a R&G perspective, but also obviously three studios in the three most important states that make the majority of revenues, the three iGaming states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. So we feel that, you know, we invested heavily. I will be first to admit we were slow to start with. I mean, we were behind some others that invested ahead of PASPA being repealed. I don't think that anyone expected it to happen. However, they were better positioned. And we are playing catch-up. I think that we are getting there. I think that, and in a very, very, you know, I always said, people basically said, what's the pitch of Playtech? You know, I always started with Playtech came last to the market to become a market leader. And I think that this, you will see that in the coming years in the U.S. for Playtech as well.

Richard, can you just push the, yeah, push the button. Sorry, can I just clarify on the first point about live casino? Is there a material contribution for Mexico in that? So is a Caliente deal inclusive of live casino, or is that not material?

Caliente uses our live casino product, but we don't disclose specific products by customer. But it does utilize that product. Thank you. Roberta?

Hi, it's Roberta Ciaccia from Investec. I have three questions, if I may. The first one, we talked about the margins at Znitec being lower than the previous, the comparable period in H2. Can you give us an idea of how much this has impacted EBITDA for Znitec in 2023? even a rough idea. Second question, when do you expect Hard Rock Digital to contribute to your revenues and which states or regions would be first? Third question, it's on the Caliente situation. Can you confirm that even the commercial part of the agreement and the, you know, let's say, issue you have there is now in front of the UK courts or is it still in... Mexico. Thank you.

Okay. Well, maybe I'll start with that CaliPlay 1. No, I think unfortunately there's not much we can say on CaliPlay. We're in a legal process. There's quite a bit of disclosure in the accounts today and the notes, Note 7 in particular, has a lot of detail. So please take a look at that. I think that outlines the situation. I would say we've had a really successful relationship with CaliPlay over the years, and we do want that to continue. We are in ongoing discussions with them at the moment, but there can't be any certainty on what outcome there might be. So hopefully you understand there's not much more we can say, and I don't think we'll probably take any more questions on CaliPlay, unfortunately, but it is a relationship that's been, I think, highly successful for both parties, and we are working to hopefully have that continue. Then on SNAI margins, there was about a 15 million euro impact, 1.5 in H2 from the sporting results. I would say H1 probably had a smaller number, but a positive impact, so these things do balance out. But net-net, there was, over the course of the whole year, a double-digit negative impact from the sporting results at SNAI Tech. So the underlying numbers for SNAI Tech and Revenue, even dollar margins would have been better without that. But obviously, it's something we were able to, I know others in the industry had profit warnings due to these sporting results, but it's something we were able to absorb in our numbers. Then Hard Rock, you know, I think that we've launched with them in New Jersey already. They're relatively small in New Jersey at the moment, but I think they have big plans, not just in New Jersey, but in general. So that's the first one. So they're generating a small amount of revenue for us currently. But they do have, I think, expansion plans across the U.S. and internationally. So we'd expect that number to grow over time, although it is largely immaterial at the moment.

If there are no more questions in the room, can we move to the conference call if there are any questions there?

Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad, ensuring you are unmuted locally. If you wish to withdraw your question at any time, please press star followed by two to do so. So that's star followed by one to ask your question. We will pause here momentarily to compile a Q&A roster.

No questions on the line. Back to Ivo.

Back to Ivo.

With pleasure.

You're very kind. I was being polite earlier. You talk about the medium term several times. Could you just confirm that the medium term got one year nearer in the course of the last year?

Yes, we can confirm that. No, yeah, a year ago. So I assume you're referring to our medium term targets.

Yeah, you keep referring to the medium term.

Yeah, so Snytech, when they did the presentation at our half one result, so 18 months ago, but they were still using... 2023 is the first year effectively of their medium-term targets. And then 12 months ago, we gave B2B medium-term targets, but again, 2023 being the first year. So we're one year into what we think is three to five-year medium-term targets. Okay, that's helpful. Thank you.

On the slide slides, you showed the EBITDA contribution from buying gaming machines moving from 10% to 30%. I don't know if that's interesting or important, but has that been a significant contributor to EBITDA growth in SNAI and therefore does it stop? Is it capped now because they own as many machines as they can own?

I would describe it as a small incremental value accretive way to add to EBITDA. I don't think it's been particularly material, but when you can make an acquisition at circa three times EBITDA, add it to the SNAI network, get some synergies, it's value accretive to the overall business. So it has... Small, incremental, boosty, but not particularly material, but it's something they plan to continue executing on that strategy to add to the business overall.

By the way, it's a phenomenon across the industry, right? Obviously, we, five years ago, I was called names when we acquired Snine. Everyone thought that Italy, why Playtech is crazy enough to go into Italy. And four years later, look what happened, right? Apex coming into the market, Flutter buying Cezal. Obviously, the landscape, just to illustrate and basically suggest that the competitive landscape changed, right? And now, obviously, there is increased competition. And therefore, obviously, inorganic growth and acquisition, and obviously, in the background, you have the licensing process, right? And it's becoming nearer because... It was suggested that the new regulatory framework would be put into place and the license fees would be paid in 2017, then 2018, 2019. We are now in 2024, but we are getting there. And accordingly, obviously, the long tail of operators are considering what they should do next, right? A very focused online operator that paid so far $250,000 for nine years now needs if they need to pay $7 million for nine years, it's very, very significant. These are small operators like Jovek Group, right? They own 18 betting shops, no online presence, small subscale business. And all of those are now considering selling. And therefore, we refer to vertical integration. And we will participate in this process to secure and accelerate the growth of Snytec.

Thank you. The only name I've ever called you more is genius. I'm not responsible. Thank you very much. On slide 16, this is the last one, you talked about mature markets providing lots of cash to reinvest in growth markets elsewhere. That's not really how technology platform businesses usually talk. It's usually about investing in core technology and then having operating leverage. So Could you talk just a few years out about what kind of business this is? Does it need to endlessly reinvest cash into market entry, or will it deliver cash operating leverage at some point?

Which one is it? Sorry, I missed it.

It's where you showed the maturity of the markets by geography, and you said that mature markets like the UK would generate cash to reinvest in growth elsewhere, but a technology platform business should deliver operating leverage by putting more revenue through the So how long does this reinvestment go on for?

I think there's a few elements and slightly different from one product to another. But if you take the U.S., for an example, there is a certain amount of infrastructure. and foundations you need in place. So it's a balance of establishing that. So like currently in the U.S. with the infrastructure we have and the revenue we've disclosed, we're still in a loss-making position today. Not nothing, not necessarily huge numbers or anything like that. the types of losses B2C operators have had to endure in the U.S., much smaller. But there is an element of that while you build the scale on the revenue side. But on the revenue, you're still leveraging the investments you've made in technology across the whole company, but there is still an element of sort of infrastructure and foundations and investments. The U.S., it probably takes a bit more. Even calling it the U.S. isn't quite right because it's state by state, and each You know, state requires licenses, which comes with certain costs, and that's not just a one-off cost. There's an annual cost to that as well. Live casino facilities need to be built in each of the relevant states. So there's a bit more, but, you know, so that's a bigger market and a bigger example. But it's sort of establishing yourself, and then you can, you know, grow your revenue and leverage those technology investments that you refer to, Ivor.

If I may add, Ivor, just to clarify, right, when we talk about maturity and the addressable market for Playtech, you have to distinguish between the operators and B2B. When we refer to investments, when we refer to the market growing in terms of revenues, not necessarily EBITDA in the first few years. We specifically refer to the operators. I'll give you an example. U.S. is very, very different for the operators, by the way, and also B2B providers. For the first time, B2B providers spend a lot of time, efforts, money, and resources in order to establish themselves. You have to have presence. You have to establish relationships. There are tens of groups that you can have conversations with. You then have to open live studios in three states, right? Unlike, for example, three states in Europe that are being served by one other studio in Riga, for example. So I would say the following. The way we think about it The cost for a B2B provider ex-US, Brazil, Italy, Spain, France, hopefully in the future already with poker and sports betting, is minimal for the B2B providers. However, for the operators, there is a big investment. I just heard yesterday that one of the big operators, one of the three big operators in the U.S., spent $8 billion on marketing so far to establish their position. They are not profitable. Obviously, they will become profitable at some point, probably later this year. But the U.S. is quite extreme, but it illustrates the process that happens in regulated markets, where initially the operators invest heavily into the market, into marketing. basically positioning themselves and gaining market share. Obviously, for Playtech, the investment is minimal compared to them. You know, if you take the investment we talk about, right, it's basically one-third of the investment one of the operators used to make and refer to before it was regulated. Never mind now that it's regulated and invest into marketing. So just to put it into perspective, to summarize, the investment of B2B providers into newly regulating markets is minimal. The investment by the operators is massive, massive. I'm talking about hundreds of millions of dollars invested into, for example, Brazil by individual operators in the Brazilian market. alone, right? And the benefit for Playtech, there is minimal cost to establish ourselves, and we benefit from the investments made by the operator by supplying them the software. So I think that you need to distinguish, but their investment actually creates the addressable market for the likes of Playtech being a B2B provider. I hope that I was clear enough. Yeah, okay, good, good.

Okay, if there are no more questions. Maybe. Last one. Roberta. Last one from Roberta.

Okay, thank you. When we look at the numbers you made in the U.K. in 2023, they seem to be quite good, actually, given what happened in the market, et cetera. Can you give us an idea of how much you expect to grow or what are your expectations in terms of evolution in the U.K. in 2024? Sure.

I think it had small growth as we outlined in 2023. So that's after a sustained period of, say, regulatory pressures on the operators, which flow through to our numbers as well. I think the trends underlying as we enter 2024 have been similar to maybe even slightly better. So So small growth in the U.K. seems to be where we're at at the moment. I know some other operators have been saying similar things with their results in recent days. So I think the worst is probably behind us for sure, and hopefully we're entering a period of at least some stability and perhaps a small growth in the U.K. after a prolonged period of uncertainty, to say the least.

It's similar to what we saw with FOPTIS, right? There was a two-pound stake limit. Then there was a, you know, there was kind of a drop. And then it stabilized. And then you see a little bit of growth. I think that we should not expect after now there is clarity, now that operators implemented the measures necessary, now that they need to comply with the new regulations. I still don't think that it's as exciting as Brazil or maybe the U.S. or maybe other territories. But there is a real potential for the operators to start growing again after everything that happened in the last few years and the uncertainty that the process brought. Now there is certainty, I think, that they will be willing to spend a little bit more. But again, you know, whether it is 1% or 3%, it will not change much. But the UK remains a very, very important market for us. Our achievements, for example, in Brazil is partly due to the relationships that we have in the UK. Relationships in the US obviously have certain roots in the UK, Flutter. You know, I'm not necessarily suggesting we are with them still, but obviously it's potential because they know us. They know the quality of our products. It makes the conversation easier. And the same goes to Entain, the same goes to Bet365, the same goes to other operators that are UK-based and chose to participate or be involved with online sports betting and gaming activity outside of the UK. So as I said earlier in the presentation, we still, never mind the fact that it's just below 20% for us, which is not insignificant, we look at the UK somewhat differently. It will always have a prime position within this industry, I believe.

Okay, I think that's a wrap. So I'd just like to thank you all for attending, and I'm sure we'll see you soon.

Thank you.

Have a great day.