Allied Gaming & Entertainment Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Allied Gaming and Entertainment Inc. 3rd Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star and then zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Tyler Drew, within Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon and welcome to the Allied Gaming and Entertainment third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Speaking on the call today are Allied Gaming and Entertainment's chief executive officer, Yinghua Chen, and chief financial officer, Roy Anderson. Before I turn the call over to management, please note that our prepared remarks may contain forward-looking statements. Words such as may, will, expect, intend, plan, believe, seek, could, estimate, judgment, targeting, should, anticipate, goal, and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those implied by such forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors discussed in the company's public filings, including the risk factors discussed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although the company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be attained. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. In addition, certain of the financial information presented in this call represents non-GAAP financial measures. The company's earnings release, which was issued this afternoon and is available on the company's website, presents definitions of such non-GAAP financial measures, reconciliations to the appropriate GAAP measures, and an explanation of why the company believes such non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors. And with that, it is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Allied Gaming and Entertainment CEO Yinghua Chen. Yinghua?

Thank you, Tyler, and thank you all for joining us this afternoon. It was a strong quarter for us both operationally and financially as we achieved 93% revenue growth and continue to push our strategic initiatives forward, including the launch of World Mahjong Tour, which we believe will accelerate our growth. Our world-class HyperX arena was in high demand throughout the third quarter, hosting 61 event days, 34 of which were third-party events. Highlights include our multi-year returning HackerOne live hacking event, where top hackers from around the globe collaborated to strengthen organizational security. We also hosted Global Gaming League's inaugural event, Everybody Games, a private gathering that brought together celebrities, fashion, and entertainment to celebrate gaming's widespread appeal. Other notable events included the Southern Glazers product launch party, a team outing for the Charlotte Hornet, and an eSports with the Air Force event. On Labor Day, we hosted a Netflix live special event featuring an unforgettable hot dog eating contest between world famous competitors Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi, co-hosted by actor Rob Riggle and WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Garcia. Our Omen Mobile Arena experienced its busiest quarter since 2023, kicking off with two of the 15 scheduled stops in the Rally Karate Championship Tour a hybrid tournament based on the highly anticipated return of EA College Football 2025. Additionally, our mobile arena helped Logitech launch its Pro Leon peripherals in San Jose, California, and conducted a very popular CS2 Supergirl tournament in Oceanside, California, featuring some of the world's most competitive all-female CSGO teams. It is exciting to see global brands and major productions like Netflix make full use of our unique space, fully equipped with streaming and production capabilities for diverse events beyond esports. We are very optimistic about expanding our target market and audience even further. Now let's dive into the exciting progress we've made with the world module tour, WMT. as we further developed its schedule and format. The first season will kick off with two satellite events, one in Los Angeles and the other in Beijing, where we expect significant interest building up to the finale. Winners of this event will earn a coveted spot in the WMT Las Vegas finale to be held at the HyperX Arena in early February, featuring a 100,000 prize pool the largest ever for mahjong in North America. This grand finale will coincide with the Lunar New Year Festival in Las Vegas, and in partnership with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, will highlight WMT as one of the festival's star attractions. LR Experiential Entertainment, AEE, is thrilled to announce that we will be co-hosting our proprietary RhythmX Music Festival in Macau in partnership with the renowned Strawberry Music Festival, a 15-year music festival brand in October 2025. This three-day event will feature global music artists, and our goal is to develop this festival into a landmark event that will be recognized as the Summersonic of Macau, attracting audiences and artists from around the world. We anticipate making this festival an annual event moving forward. Let's move on to Ally Mobile Entertainment, AME. Our strategic investment in ZTECH, a leading developer and operator of casual mobile games, continues to gain traction. The progress has been slightly slower than anticipated. During this quarter, we launched two new casual mobile games to expand our gaming portfolio. For the remainder of the year, our focus will be on maintaining and refining our existing mobile games with a primary emphasis on card and modem games, which are showing strong user retention. We also have an exciting development post-quarter end that we'd like to speak to you as well. In October, we were thrilled to announce a substantial investment by Yellow River Global Capital a leading alternative private equity firm specializing in development-focused investment in digital technologies, telecommunications, new energy, and entertainment. Yellow River is highly synergistic with AGAE, and the agreement demonstrates their belief in our strategic priorities moving forward. In addition to the financial investment, Yellow River will provide us with strategic resources networking opportunities and industry expertise that will be extremely valuable as the company advances its strategic initiatives forward. As part of the investment, Yellow River received warrants that will highly incentivize them to partner with us on different initiatives that will help accelerate our growth. I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Roy Anderson, to provide updates on our Q3 financials.

Thank you, Yinghua. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Total revenues for the third quarter of 2024 were $2.2 million, up 93% from the third quarter of 2023. The increase in year-over-year revenue was primarily due to higher casual mobile gaming revenues, with ZTECH integrated into the business as well as an increase in in-person revenues following strong demand at both the HyperX and Oban mobile arenas. Total costs and expenses for the third quarter were $3.3 million, an increase from $1.8 million in the prior year period. The increase in costs and expenses were also primarily driven by our investment in ZTECH in the fourth quarter of 2023, along with an employee retention credit that was received and recorded as a reduction of payroll tax expense in the prior year period. These increases were partially offset by a D&O insurance reimbursement and professional fees related to prior year M&A activities. Our net loss was $4.0 million for the third quarter of 2024, compared to net income of $0.1 million in the third quarter of 2023. The result was impacted by a $3 million loss on our settlement of a 2020 escrow agreement with BPR Cumulus LLC, as well as a $1.2 million net unrealized loss on loans payable and receivable in a foreign currency. These charges were partially offset by a $0.3 million increase in interest income. Almost all of the net unrealized foreign currency transaction loss was recovered or reversed in October 2024. Our adjusted EBITDA loss was $0.1 million and improved from a loss of $0.3 million in the third quarter of 2023. Our adjusted EBITDA includes adjustments for the depreciation and amortization of fixed and intangible assets, stock-based compensation, non-recurring legal fees, unrealized foreign currency transaction losses, and interest income. Now, moving on to our balance sheet. At September 30th, 2024, our cash and short-term investments position totaled $80.2 million compared to $78.6 million at December 31st, 2023. The company's working capital surplus defined as current assets minus current liabilities was $62.8 million at September 30, 2024, compared to $66.4 million at December 31, 2023. Our cash and working capital positions were impacted by the aforementioned settlement agreement with BPR, under which $5 million of escrowed funds under a 2020 share purchase agreement were redistributed, with BPR receiving $3 million of these funds and AGAE receiving the remaining $2 million. I will now turn the call back over to Yinghua.

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

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