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spk02: Good afternoon. My name is Abby, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Codary Online Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Thank you. Mr. Guillermo Lancho, Head of Investor Relations, you may begin your conference.
spk09: Thanks, Operator, and welcome everyone to Codere Online's earnings call for the fourth quarter and full year of 2022. Today, you will hear from our CEO, Moshe Edry, and CFO, Oscar Iglesias. Before turning the call over to Moshe, I'd like to remind everyone that during this call, we will be referring to a presentation we uploaded to our website earlier today, which includes non-GAAP financial metrics, such as net gaming revenue or adjusted BDA, for which you can find reconciliations in the appendix of the presentation. Let me also remind you that our accounting information is prepared under IFRS accounting standards, and that throughout this presentation, all monetary figures will be in euro unless expressed otherwise. Finally, please note that a replay and transcript of this call will be available on our website at codereonline.com, where you can also sign up for our investor email alerts. With that, I will go ahead and pass the call on to Moshe.
spk08: Thank you, Guillermo, and thank you everyone for joining the call. Starting with the highlights of the quarter on page 7, we have been able to deliver a strong set of results in the fourth quarter, with an impressive 70% net gaming revenue growth versus last year, to nearly $38 million, confirming the acceleration of revenue growth trend that we anticipated when providing our initial outlook for 2022. From a mixed point of view, our full-year revenue was split 50-50 between sports betting and casino games versus higher 56% contribution from sports betting in 2021. We expect that the trend toward increased relative contribution from casino will continue into 2023 as we continue to leverage opportunities to both cross-sell our casino product to sports betting customers, but also to target and acquire higher value customers' casinos. Turning back to the fourth quarter, with a significant growth in the net gaming revenue was driven by 54% increase in our active customer to nearly 142,000. together with a 10% increase in average monthly spend per customer to €88 to €89. This growth in active customer was mainly due to Mexico, where we almost doubled our customer base. In terms of customer acquisition, the World Cup brought a vast global audience and generated better than expected interest in our offering, allowing us to increase first-time deposits to €122,000 in a quarter, an increase of 90% versus the year before. And while we stepped up our marketing spend in a quarter to over 30 million and a versus an average quarterly spend of about 22 million, the 179 euros average cost per new customer in the quarter was below that achieved in the first three quarters of that year. As we close out our first year as a public company, we have achieved better than expected results with a full year NGR of 123 million, which is above a higher end of our guidance. which we said was between 115 to 120 million last quarter. We are particularly proud of our execution in Mexico, where we believe we have both efficiency and effectively deployed marketing spend and seen significant increase in our customer base as a result. Additionally, we have experienced significant growth in Spain, with revenue up more than 20%, despite the limited marketing spend due to regulatory restriction in place. In terms of recent development, we continue to seek several licenses in Argentina, where we see potential to be a magnificent and profitable business. In the province of Cordoba, we expect to begin operation this year. We're also pursuing a license in the province of Buenos Aires, and we have recently participated in a tender process for the province of Mendoza. Finally, we're announcing today a change in leadership at our company. After careful consideration, And for a personal reason, I decided to step down from my role as a CEO and transition into a new role as an executive vice chairman. This decision wasn't made lightly, but I feel that it is the right choice for me at this time. In my new role, I will be focusing on a number of strategic initiatives and otherwise supporting the team where and where it's needed. Aviv Sher will be taking over the CEO. He has been an integral part of the company since we started and has played a key role in our success. Aviv, to Mounoyo, he's worked together with me for over a decade, and on top of the tenure of Kuder Online, he brings over 15 years of experience in the industry and has previously served as a COO of NeoGames and a CEO of Prime Gaming. With Aviv at the helm, I'm confident that we'll continue to drive and reach the highlights. This is an exciting time for the company, and I look forward to working with the team to the new role and supporting Aviv in taking the responsibilities. I also want to take this opportunity to thank the employees for the hard work and dedication over the years. It has been an incredible privilege to lead this organization and to work with such talented and committed team. Likewise, I would like to thank to the board of directors and our chairman for the help and support during the time for my time as a CEO and heading into this transition and looking forward to all closing with our chairman again. Last but not least, I want to express my gratitude to our investors and to their support and confidence in our company. We remain committed to delivering on our promises to generating substantial growth for our shareholders. With that, I'll return over to Oscar to cover the financial highlights of the quarter. Oscar?
spk05: Thanks, Moshe. Turning to page nine, consolidated net gaming revenue grew 70% to nearly $38 million in the fourth quarter. driven by our Mexican business, which more than doubled in the period to over $16 million, together with a 42% growth in Spain to nearly $18 million. Colombia also performed well with over $2 million of net gaming revenue in the fourth quarter, 56% higher than last year. The World Cup played an important role in our revenue uplift in the quarter, not only because of the engagement from both existing and new customers, but also because of a better-than-expected sports betting margin realized throughout the tournament. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $14.6 million in the quarter and in line with our expectations, given the higher level of planned investment around the World Cup, as discussed by Moshe earlier in the call. The negative EBITDA generated in Latin America in the quarter, mainly from Mexico, was partially offset by Spain, which generated $3.7 million of positive EBITDA in the fourth quarter. For the full year, our net gaming revenue increased 48%, to nearly 123 million, almost 40 million more than in 2021. From a mixed point of view, Mexico represented 42% of our revenue, up from 34% last year, while Spain contributed 49%, down from 60% in the prior period. Turning to page 10 and taking a brief look at our P&L, the adjusted EBITDA loss in the quarter was mainly driven by the 31 million in marketing investment together with increases in other operating investments made in platform and content. We will discuss later our outlook for 2023, but as a reminder, our marketing spend is highly discretionary and can be adjusted or curtailed at any point to reduce losses and cash burn to ensure that the company has the financial resources needed to reach profitability. Turning to the Spanish operating and financial metrics, net gaming revenue in the fourth quarter increased 42% versus the prior year quarter, despite a lower 8% increase in active customers due to the significant increase in spend per active in the quarter. This improvement in spend per active is due, in part, to our growing casino business, which we believe will continue to be the driver of growth in this market. In Mexico, net gaming revenue exceeded $16 million in the quarter, an increase of over 100% year-on-year and 26% sequentially. This strong performance was driven by an impressive 93% increase in the number of active customers, together with a higher spend per customer. Moving to Columbia, net gaming revenue increased 56% in the fourth quarter, passing the $2 million mark. Again, this was driven by a higher number of active customers, which grew 48%, together with a higher spend per customer. Turning to the balance sheet, as of December 31, First, we had approximately $49 million in available cash in the balance sheet, having utilized approximately $42 million throughout 2022. In terms of our net working capital position, we ended the year at a normalized level of negative $24 million. On page 16, you have further details regarding the cash flow statement and the variation in net working capital in the quarter. We have ended the year ahead of expectations in terms of cash driven not only by better operating performance, but also from a generally stronger U.S. dollar throughout the year. That's all from my end. I will now hand it back to Moshe to cover our outlook for 2023 and closing remarks.
spk08: Moshe? Thank you, Oscar. 2022 was a year in which we deployed a significant portion for our proceeds raised in our public listings. a year in which primary focus was revenue growth throughout significant increase in marketing investment. We believe we are successful in doing what we set out to achieve. In 2023, however, we will slowly but surely begin shifting our focus toward profitability. This transition is driven by current investor preference for cash flow generating business over a high growth, less making ones. As such, in 2023, we'll be taking our foot off the pedal Somewhat in terms of marketing investment, giving priority to certain geographies over others. With that, we expect that our revenue growth will slow in 2023 to around 20%, resulting in between 140 and 150 million of net gaming revenue. But perhaps more importantly, we expect to reduce our EBITDA loss by half to between 20 or 30 million. This will allow us to turn in the corner to 2024, a year in which we expect to be both EBITDA and cash flow positive. And we are comfortable that we have the balance sheet to get us there. Let me finish my remark by stressing again our strong performance in the fourth quarter of the year. And we believe it demonstrates our ability to execute our planned delivery goal. And we're confident that we'll be up to the task of turning Coderra Online into a profitable company. With that said, we'll turn it back to the operator to open up the call to Q&A. Thank you.
spk02: At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Jeff Stanchel from Stiefel. Your line is open.
spk03: Great. Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Let me start off by saying, Moshe, thank you for everything these past couple of years. And Aviv, congratulations. Looking forward to working together more closely moving forward. Just a handful of questions from me here. Why don't we start off on guidance? You know, net gaming revenue, $140 to $150 million. The midpoint is about $10 million below average. The last guidance previously disclosed, I believe, is that Q2 earnings. Could you just talk a bit more on the drivers of variance between the two? Is that pretty much just a function of prioritizing profitability more? The Italy sale in there, just any color helping bridge the two would help on RF.
spk07: Thanks.
spk03: Hi, Jeff.
spk07: Go ahead, Moshe.
spk08: No, no, go ahead.
spk05: I was just going to say, for starters, just to make it apples to apples, the 155 would have included Italy, I think, looking back at prior three-year plans that we had, there was probably 4 to 5 million of Italy in that 155 million number for 2023. So I think the apples to apples number would be more like 150, the high end of the range that we've put out to the market. But I'll defer to Moshe to talk a little bit more about what he's seeing in the business.
spk08: Yeah, this is correct. I mean, Italy is part of it. And the other part of it is that we are starting Argentina later than we thought. We thought that we'd be able to start working in the province earlier this year, but we won't see the impact of the revenue from the province until the third quarter of this year. So we'll have only like six months of revenues coming from Argentina, and that's, I think, the majority of the decrease in revenues.
spk03: Okay, great. And then maybe just to follow up on that, just to be kind of crystal clear here. So, so I guess between those two, you're fully accounted for, for the variance implying that, you know, any revenue impact from marketing reinvestment coming in was already contemplated in your prior guidance. Is that fair to say?
spk05: Yeah, I think that's, I think that's fair. If Argentina would have come online, if some of the other regions in Argentina would have come online earlier, I think we would be more we would probably be wrapping more around that 150 number, but giving some of the timing delays and getting launched in other regions in Argentina versus what we would have thought, let's say, a year ago and what our expectations would have been or our objectives would have been. I think it's a fair statement what you just said.
spk03: Okay, great. That's helpful. Thank you both. And then, you know, if I could squeeze a couple more in here, you know, the World Cup, you know, is there any way to kind of, quantify how much of a tailwind that was during Q4?
spk08: That's probably also, I think that you can put the numbers better than me, but I just can say that although the World Cup was strong to everyone, not just to our brands, I know that it was strong all over the industry because it was a very successful event. I think that we came to the last quarter with a very strong tailwind from the first three quarters. So it's not just the last quarter, but it definitely supported the overall year. But I think that overall in 2022, we saw that we were able to achieve the growth and the contribution per customer that we anticipated by the beginning of the year. specifically about how much the World Cup contributed? Maybe Oscar can know better than me. I mean, in the last two months of the year?
spk05: Yeah, well, I think that in general, Jeff, we were always planning on having a heavier, significantly greater investment in the fourth quarter leading up to and during the World Cup, and we did. So I think even that performance, even though the $14.5 million negative is a little bit a little bit more negative than what we were tracking throughout the first three quarters, which was more on average, something like 12 million negative. It still was better than what we were expecting. And the last comment that I would make is that we are seeing some benefit here in the first month and a half, two months of 2023 from some of that investment that we made in the fourth quarter. It is benefiting us a little bit stronger than what we would have otherwise expected. in terms of performance starting off 2023.
spk03: Okay, great. That's helpful. Thank you. And then moving to the Spain region, I believe some incremental marketing restrictions came online around year end. If that's correct, have you noticed any impact thus far year to date? Is there anything in guidance or no real impact?
spk05: Sorry, Jeff. I didn't catch the market that you were referring to. Did you say Spain?
spk03: In Spain, yes.
spk05: Yeah, are you referring to the safer gambling regulation that will be in place here shortly or something else?
spk03: I believe there's a couple. I think, yeah, there's the one coming up, and I thought there were some other restrictions that came into play earlier this year, but perhaps those were deferred out as well.
spk05: Yeah, I think the big one is really the legislation that we're expecting here probably over the next month or month and a half. in terms of safer gambling regulation. There's a number of different impacts that we'll have on our business in Spain, largely that we think we will be able to mitigate. But this is legislation that will come into effect. There's some provisions that will be enforced immediately, even though, as I understand it, there will be a three-month grace period. The balance of the provisions established will be up to a 12-month phase-in period to comply with those regulations. those additional rules and requirements. But we feel comfortable that we can, we've been preparing for this for some time. It's some work that we've done, especially on the development front in terms of making sure our systems are prepared to manage and to comply with the new regulations. But we think that we, and we're expecting to be able to mitigate the impact of this on our business. So that would be baked into our our guidance for the year and our expectations for Spain going forward.
spk03: Okay, great. Then if I could just close with one quick housekeeping item. Which new market launches are factored in specifically into your guidance for kind of timing to get to EBITDA profitability? And then if more markets launch, is there any way to think about implications there?
spk05: Yeah, the two that we have in our internal planning, although both are still a work in progress, are really two additional regions in Argentina. First, and probably most importantly, the province of Buenos Aires. And the second is the province of Cordoba, where we've been pre-awarded a license, but still working through the process to get that license issued and to get up and operating. So those are the two that we have. baked into our internal plan and that otherwise would be contributing partially to the numbers and our guidance for 2023. But beyond that, we don't have any additional expansion markets included.
spk07: Perfect. That's very helpful. Thank you both. I'll pass it on. Great. Thanks, Jeff. Appreciate your time. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you.
spk02: Your next question comes from the line of Michael Kupinski from Noble. Your line is open.
spk04: Thank you. First of all, congratulations on your quarter and a successful 2022. A couple of questions. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about Brazil, because I know that you were thinking about entering that market and seeing some success there, but in terms of legislative issues, can you just kind of give us an update on that market and how that might play into maybe 2023 or 2024? Yeah. Hi, Michael. It's Moshe. How are you?
spk08: Yes, so as we mentioned in the previous calls, we definitely as a Latin American brand, we are looking carefully about the market and about the legislation in the market. Obviously, there is any substantial development in terms of the regulation. And therefore, both in terms of the legislation difficulties and both in terms of our focus right now in the next couple of, I would say, in 2023, but I think that also in the beginning of 2024, to turn into a cash flow positive and EBITDA positive, we will remain focusing on the core market, which is Spain, Mexico, and Argentina. Having said that, we do look at what's happening in the market in terms of the transition between the different brands. We are talking to those that are operating there, and we see that right now the only big brand that's operating in the market under the .com license, they are definitely able to acquire players, but they are not seeing any, at the moment, any ROI in this investment. So it's not something that is right now on our agenda. We are in a very, very low-profile-looking to enter to the market maybe with a local partner, preferably a marketing agency or something that will help us to accelerate the marketing. But as I said, in the next year or so, we are focusing on the core markets.
spk04: Great. And of course, you know, there's been a restriction of capital for a lot of companies in your industry and they've been burning through cash. Have you noticed that the competition has kind of backed off on certain markets that you're extremely competitive in? And I was just wondering if you can kind of give us the competitive landscape. Are you seeing companies pull out of some markets and make it, you know, obviously more beneficial to you? Any thoughts there?
spk08: So, we definitely see some transitions in Spain. I mean, some of the brands, the legislation is getting tighter and tighter and harder to advertise, so we see reducing marketing spend, especially with those that were international brands that invested in Spain, such as William Hill and so on. In Mexico, we see that our main competitor, Caliente, keep investing massively or marketing so we don't see any reduction in in that sense but we see that the other brands side of Caliente having some challenges to grow which is good from our sense I mean if you're not local brand without the local presence without the retail for the omni-channel we see the challenge to grow In Colombia, we do see some changes in the landscape of the brands that are operating there. It's more challenging. It's a market that it's harder to create player value with more fraudulent activity. So we see that some that started last year in 2022 to invest in the market and to try to build the brand, some of them withdraw. Just to sum her up, to say that I think that the good news is that not just that we are maintaining our market share, in some markets we are increasing the market share. And we see that that is a trend, so it's important.
spk04: Great. That's all I have. Thank you.
spk07: Great. Thanks, Mike.
spk02: Again, if you would like to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Mike Hickey from the Menchmark. Your line is open.
spk01: Hey, Moshe, Oscar, Aviv. Thanks, guys, for taking my questions here. Just a few. If you guys could, I know you talked about sort of a more focus on profitability here. Just curious when you expect to be profitable and how you're thinking about Your cash balance, I think you ended around 54 million euro year-end. I think you burned about 46 million in cash from operations in 22. So just curious where you think you're going to end up in 23 on your cash position, how you're thinking about being cash flow positive, and if you think you're going
spk05: Hi, Mike. Thanks for the question. Yeah. So, Mike, I think the, as Mochil mentioned in the prepared remarks, what we're expecting is for full year 2024 to be both EBITDA positive and cash flow positive. So that's a little bit different than maybe what we've said in the past, where we've said we would be turning the corner in 2024, we'd be generating positive cash flow. but really never committed to being EBITDA positive in 2024. So that is new and that does reflect a little bit the pivot on balance toward profitability versus growth. In terms of 2023, I would just say in terms of where we think we would end the year in terms of cash, that the EBITDA guidance that we're giving is a good proxy for what we would be expecting in the year for cash burns. So depending on where you think and how you think we'll be performing over the course of the year, then that's, on the adjusted EBITDA front, that'd be a good proxy for utilization of cash throughout the year.
spk01: Okay, thank you. And then, Moshe, I guess, Can you just talk about your transition here a little bit, whether or not the board considered an external search versus internal, how that sort of shaked out? If you thought of strategic alternatives for the company at all, maybe a potential sale? I know you sold your Italian business, but just curious, though. the process that you and your board went through in terms of your transition. And then as a working chairman, it sounds like you're going to be sort of where you're going to be focusing your time moving forward.
spk08: Yeah, hi. So, yeah, look, I'm with Coderre already five years, and those were like quite tough five years, including the COVID-19 and the shutdown of the mother's company's retail. and the merger and so on. And that comes after another almost like 15 years in the industry. So I thought that it's a time for me to step up more for a vice president position that I will help the company more strategically than running the day-to-day operation. And on top of that, I have a lot of confidence in Aviv and the team that I know and I bought with me for, you know, we're working like 10 years and more all of the managerial team. So I felt quite comfortable that it's time to let Aviv to step up as a CEO, to allow myself to work with the chairman and Oscar about strategic, about more about the, I would say, the overview about where are we taking the Scuderia online for the next five years and to create value for the investors. We spoke before about Brazil. We spoke about going to Argentina. That required a lot of strategic alliances and research and looking deeper into what are the opportunities, assuming that at the same time we're trying to train it.
spk07: Moshe, I think you cut out. Are you still there? Mike, are you hearing us? Yeah, I'm hearing you. It looks like we lost his audio. Yeah, I think the line is disconnected, yeah. OK.
spk05: Mike, do you want to go on to whatever other questions you have? And then when Moshe reconnects, we'll pick up where you were.
spk01: Yeah, absolutely. Last question from us here is just any updates on what you're seeing with your consumer given macro conditions obviously continue to be challenging. In particular, I think some of the regions that you do business and just curious as much as you can objectively give us a view of what you're seeing from your players and any impact from a macro understanding. Thanks, guys.
spk05: Yeah, it's a good question, Mike. And I think that the experience that we had throughout the year last year and especially into the back half of the year is that we were The marketing investment that we were making not only helped us acquire customers and build that portfolio of customers that obviously we'll be benefiting from into this year, but also, more importantly, I think it's the quality of the customer that we have on average, the spend per active, per period, pretty much across all the geographies has improved. Some of that is mixed because I think in general when you have, let's say, customers, even sports-first customers, but then you're crossing them over to the casino product or customers that from day one are more casino-focused customers, that helps. So we're doing more casino business than what we have done in the past. I think throughout 2022 we did – it was a balance. It was about 50-50. for the year between sports betting, NGR, and casino NGR. I think that trend will continue, although it won't ever get terribly disjointed. I think potentially into 2023, we may do a little bit more casino overall than sports betting. But again, it's going to be a balanced portfolio. You need the sports to drive the casino and to drive, you know, the attractive unit economics, acquiring sports first customers, then crossing them to casino. But I think to your question, we're seeing strength in the portfolio of customers that we had. We're increasing spend per actives. But of course, we're mindful of both what our competitors are doing and the what's happening with our customers throughout these geographies, each of which is a little bit different in terms of the macro, how the macro has impacted in terms of consumer spend and, let's say, consumer habits. But so far, our customer is holding up.
spk07: Thank you. Thanks, Mike. Hi, guys. Can you hear me? We can. Hi, Mike. I'm sorry I was disconnected.
spk02: Your next question comes from the line of Art Rulak from 3Court. Your line is open.
spk07: Good morning, guys. A couple questions.
spk06: In 23, if you can maybe augment the guide a little bit, what type of total marketing spend are you guys budgeting, if you'll share that with us.
spk05: Hi, Art. Maybe I can jump in here. So I think we're a little bit hesitant to give guidance specifically on our marketing spend, even on an aggregate or a consolidated basis. It's sensitive information, but I think it's safe to say that versus the, what was it, $97 million in total marketing spend that we had in 2022, It'll be materially lower than that, but it'll still be consistent with the plan we set out to deliver in terms of, especially as it relates to some of the higher growing or emerging markets where we operate or will be operating, there'll still be significant investment. So well above what we would normally consider to be a maintenance level of marketing investment. But it's not the levels that we were investing in 2022. It'll be a lower amount, but we're hesitant to give a specific guide on the total marketing spend.
spk06: Okay. And then in light of the model shifting around a little bit in 23 versus 22, and I guess obviously no World Cup in 4Q, can you share with us sort of like the cadence of From an EBITDA perspective, are losses going to be larger or shrinking throughout the year? Is it going to be more flat, et cetera?
spk05: Yeah, it's a good question. We were looking at it earlier and anticipating the question. I think it's safe to say that the losses in the front half from an adjusted EBITDA standpoint will be greater than the second half. but it won't be significant. It'll be a gradual decline over the course of the year. I know that in some of our larger competitors in this space, they've given specific guides as it relates to, for example, what they thought they could deliver in the fourth quarter of 23. We're not going to be delivering over the course of next year. I wouldn't expect, based on how we see things today and our cadence of investment, over the course of next year that we would be EBITDA positive in any of the four quarters. But that would be a – there would be a steady decline over the course of the year, and the first half would be bigger losses than the second.
spk06: Got it. And then in light of your sort of guidance in 24 is the thought that EBITDA would be positive in the first half of the year, or would it be negative and then turning more positive? in the back half, giving the full year a positive EBITDA number for 24?
spk05: I think right now we're comfortable only sharing that we will be positive for the full year. So to get into specifically what quarter are we expecting to be EBITDA positive over the course of 2024, I think that's something that possibly as we move through 23 and we have greater visibility on how the business is passing this year, we would we would start thinking about guiding more into 24. But the idea is that for a full year of 2024, EBITDA positive for the full year.
spk06: Can you share at all the parent company, the Coderre retail side of the business, how they're thinking about online and how it fits in its capital needs going forward versus, I guess, continuing to build versus some sort of monetization?
spk05: Moshe, do you want to tackle that or do you want me to do it?
spk08: Yeah, look, as you probably know, I mean, the mother company, Coderre's Retail, is holding around 60% of the online and they have a representative on the board. At the moment, we are operating completely independent, I mean, financially, and we're not dependent on the mother company and vice versa. So we are running our operation and the overall business completely separated independently of what's happening in the topical. So we don't see any impact side of the relationship that we have toward the omni-channel and the platform and the services that we're getting through the service agreement with them.
spk07: Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Thanks, Mark.
spk02: There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to the presenters.
spk09: Thank you. So we have a few questions coming in from the webcast. I'll start. I mean, this one we have already touched upon a little bit, but they're asking, at this cash burn rate, one could think that cash on balance sheet gives us a little bit more of over one year of run rate. I understand that your marketing expenditure is somewhat discretionary. What other levers besides decreasing marketing do you have to increase liquidity?
spk05: Yeah, it's a good question. I think that as things stand today and given how choppy the capital markets are, I don't think we can plan around any external fundraise over the next year or two. So that's the way we're managing this business. I think that We have the balance sheet and the cash on balance sheet to execute the plan that we have in mind for the next two years and that's reflected in the guidance that we've shared for 2023. And obviously, that plan includes some minimum level of cash that we would like to maintain on a go-forward basis to allow for, as is always the case, unforeseen issues in one or more markets. So I think we have a balance sheet that we need to execute the plan. The plan is to get to both EBITDA and cash flow positive for four-year 2024. And as the course of 23 goes on and we see how the capital markets and the markets in general respond, we'll see if there's other opportunities to raise capital externally. But today our plan is focus on the resources we have on balance sheet and execute EBITDA on cash flow positive by 2024.
spk09: Okay. Another question coming in from the webcast. What can we expect for capital allocation initiatives given the economic environment and our position and the very low share price? Are any cash M&As, stock buyback plans, or investments in the core business being considered? That's a priority.
spk05: Moshe, do you want to tackle that or do you want me to?
spk07: You can take it.
spk05: Yeah, I think the focus, as Moshe said, is really on the core markets. It's really the organic opportunity that we have. We think there's, on the margin, and I think what we've learned in 2022 is there's still opportunities, especially given that it's our home market and it's still our largest market here in Spain, but obviously opportunity in Mexico is we continue to see as attractive and it's a significant opportunity. So we're going to stay focused there. And then Argentina is really the emerging opportunity. We're going to be cautious initially in terms of the capital and the investment we make in Argentina. And once we see, especially as we're up and operating in some of the other regions outside the city, once we see how those unit economics are coming in, we'll take decisions in terms of accelerating or otherwise our investment in that market. But we're not, I think today it's fair to say that we're not evaluating any share buybacks or other, let's say, inorganic activities given the priorities we have and the opportunities we have to grow this business organically.
spk09: Okay, we have a few more. In terms of reaching profitability, are there any updates on the timeframe? I think this one we already discussed. What are you looking at on churn rates? Any important variations given the economic environment?
spk07: Churn rates? Yeah.
spk05: So, Moshe, the question was as it relates to what we're seeing in the customer portfolio from a retention standpoint or churn rate standpoint. I mean, from my standpoint, I would just say that, again, this is obviously information and KPIs that we don't share that's highly sensitive and we don't share, especially in a market-by-market basis. But I would say that the second half of last year, we did see improvements across our core markets in terms of retention. I think a lot of that has to do with all the hard work, especially since the business combination where we have the resources and the team's been able to focus on on all the things that matter when it comes to retention, which is another way of saying improving churn, product, customer service, user experience. I think there has been improvements that are reflected in the internal numbers. We're seeing some of the core KPIs that we follow from the standpoint of portfolio retention and churn, yes.
spk08: Okay, next one. We mentioned in the presentation that we see a trend of shifting weight from the sports to the casino, while we know that the casino, the retention is longer and higher than the sports. So I think that's one of the things that we are focusing on.
spk09: Right.
spk08: Yes, good point.
spk09: Next question. So around social media during the World Cup, there was some noise that the Coderre app crashed. while other competitors apparently didn't have these problems. What can you expect going forward around these issues? Are they being addressed as a priority or was it due to the high volume exclusively?
spk08: So, I don't know specifically what they're referring about the app was crashed, but again, I think that we specified that in previous calls that in Mexico we're working on the Playtech platform exactly like Carrientes. So some of the issues that we had were due to a massive DDoS attack that was on Playtech's third party's hosting. So it wasn't something that was in our hand, and that was recovered, and I think that they managed to recover quite quickly. Other than that, we didn't see or we weren't aware of any crash during the World Cup. So they probably refer to the DDoS attack that was on Playtech's platform.
spk09: Okay, final question. Given the planned reduction in marketing spent in 2023, what makes you confident about retaining and growing the active customers versus having them migrate to competitors?
spk07: Can you repeat, please, Jim?
spk05: So, Moshe, the question is, given the reduced level of marketing investment throughout 2023, why are we confident that we can continue to grow to acquire customers efficiently and continue to grow that base of active customers and maintain that spend proactive? Well, what are we doing to improve the operations of the business over the course of the year?
spk08: Yeah, I don't think that we need to do any improvement in the operational side. And in terms of acquisition, we are adjusting the spend according to the capacity that we have to spend. Obviously, that will have some impact on the top-line revenue, but at the same time, we are entering into 2024 with a much bigger customer base, with a bigger market share in some of the countries, and with a proposition in Argentina that we're accelerating that market toward our omni-channel strategy and sponsorship that we already have with River Plate. So, obviously, we will spend less, but we'll optimize the omni-channel strategy. We assume that and we believe that our overall retention program toward the countries will be more efficient just based on the experience that we have. And therefore, we believe that in terms of cost per acquisition, that will not increase the cost per acquisition per customer. And same apply on the lifetime spent per customer. In terms of the amount of players, we definitely will acquire less players, that's for sure.
spk09: Okay, so that's it. We don't have any more questions on the phone or on the webcast. So thank you, everyone, for joining us today. And if you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to the team. Otherwise, we will speak to you for our Q1 earnings in May. Thank you very much.
spk02: This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.
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