Accel Entertainment, Inc.

Good afternoon. Thank you for attending Excel Entertainment's Q4 and full year 2022 earnings call. My name is Matt and I'll be your moderator for today's call. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call for an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Derek Harmer. Derek, please go ahead.

Welcome to Excel Entertainment's fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings call. Participating on the call today are Andy Rubenstein, Excel's Chief Executive Officer, and Matt Ellis, Excel's Chief Financial Officer. Please refer to our website for the press release and supplemental information that will be discussed on this call. Today's call is being recorded and will be available on our website under Events and Presentations within the Investor Relations section of our website. Some of the comments in today's call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those relating to COVID-19 and its various strains. Actual results may differ materially from those discussed today, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these statements unless required by law. For a more detailed discussion of these and other risk factors, Investors should review the forward-looking statement section of the earnings press release available on our website, as well as other risk factor disclosures in our filings with the SEC. During the call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. For reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures, as well as other information regarding these measures, please refer to our earnings release and other materials in the investor relations section of our website. I will now turn the call over to Andy.

Thanks, Derek, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Excel's fourth quarter and 2022 full-year earnings call. I'm pleased to report we had another strong quarter and record 2022 results. For the fourth quarter, we reported record revenue of $278 million, a year-over-year increase of 45%, and adjusted EBITDA of $43 million, a year-over-year increase of 30%. Q4's revenue growth was primarily driven by the successful acquisition of Century, as well as our growth in Illinois, where we added 52 locations and saw same-store sales grow 6%. Despite the current inflationary environment, our performance continues to demonstrate the strength and resilience of our business model. We believe, and our results demonstrate, that players continue to seek out our hyper-local, high-quality offerings, due to its convenience and appeal. Our business partners continue to see the benefits of gaming in their establishments, and we believe they will continue to invest in gaming due to the incremental profits they receive. On the expense side, we are continuing to adjust to the new normal, where we saw inflation and other macroeconomic factors increase many of our large expenses, such as labor, parts and fuel. We have and we'll continue to invest in new technologies to streamline our operations while always maintaining our reputation for the best-in-class service. Our asset-light business model and highly variable cost structure allows us to quickly calibrate our business to the current environment. Turning to Century, the integration is going well, and we're starting to align on best practices. We have already utilized Century's technology capabilities in our developing markets, which helped us create a differentiated premium offering. We also acquired the Montana slot route progressive in December with 26 locations based in Kalispell. Overall, we're pleased with the progress we've made, but remain focused on continuing to grow organically and inorganically. In our developing markets, we continue to invest and remain optimistic about their long-term potential. In Georgia, we've installed prepaid value card technology in more than half of our establishments, and early results indicate a noticeable increase in performance. As a reminder, in May of 2022, the Georgia Lottery announced it would be expanding its gift card pilot program by making it available to all locations. This program allows players to load their winnings onto a prepaid value card, which substantially reduces one of the biggest barriers player space in the Georgia market. In Nebraska, we're bringing our best practices to the market by working with our location partners to redesign their gaming areas with new equipment to help attract new players. The focus in both markets is to grow our backlog and bring new locations live. It's important to remember that current performance in both Georgia and Nebraska is far lower than our mature markets, so it will take significant time for today's investments to be fully realized. On the M&A front, our pipeline remains active, and we are evaluating multiple opportunities across the country. Our long-term goal is to continue to increase the percentage of our revenue generated outside of Illinois. Overall, Excel continues to execute its growth playbook. We remain excited about the opportunities in the markets where we currently operate, as well as new markets we're looking to enter. Our local business model, low capital requirements, and highly visible growth offers one of the best returns in gaming. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Matt to walk you through the numbers in more detail.