Accel Entertainment, Inc.

Good morning. Thank you for attending today's Excel Entertainment Q1 2023 earnings call. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. If you'd like to queue for a question on today's call, you can do so by dialing star one. I would now like to pass the conference over to your host, Derek Harmer, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer with Excel Entertainment. You may proceed.

Welcome to Excel Entertainment's first quarter 2023 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 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 from the meeting of the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. 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 statements section of the earnings press release available on our website, as well as other risk factor disclosures and 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 first quarter earnings call. I'm pleased to report we had another record-breaking quarter. We reported revenue of $293 million, a year-over-year increase of 49%, an adjusted EBITDA of $46 million, a year-over-year increase of 31%. Q1's revenue growth was primarily driven by the successful acquisition of Century, and 9% same-store sales growth in Illinois. The growth in Illinois was driven by favorable weather and replacing some of our older equipment with newer machines. Our continued growth in the face of economic uncertainty really demonstrates how well our hyper-local business model works. Even when other forms of entertainment suffer, our establishment partners recognize and have come to rely on the value of our high-quality offerings to help support their businesses a trend we expect to continue. On the expense side, we've adjusted to the new normal, and I am pleased to share our expense structure has remained stable for the last three quarters. While certain costs such as parks remain elevated, and we expect them to stay that way, it's also become less difficult to hire new team members. We have also implemented new tools to provide even faster and more consistent service to our locations. Our asset-light business model and highly variable cost structure allows us to quickly calibrate our business to any additional challenges in our markets. Turning the century. The integration is going well, and we've introduced some best practices across our markets. Overall, we're pleased with the progress we've made, but remain focused on continuing to grow organically and inorganically. In Nebraska, we're adding new locations every week. and focusing most of our time on working with locations to grow their businesses. Our offering remains relatively unknown, but redesigned gaming areas, new machines, and best-in-class service continue helping our location partners attract new players. On the greenfield front, we're closely watching Chicago and North Carolina. During this year's election, Chicago's mayor-elect expressed an interest in bringing distributed gaming to Chicago. In North Carolina, the state legislature may include distributed gaming in this year's budget. In both markets, we're working with the decision makers through our coalitions and trade associations to emphasize the benefits of distributed gaming. We remain cautiously optimistic that an existing market may expand or a new market will open in the next several years. Looking at M&A, our pipeline remains active. and we're 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 the 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 naming. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Matt to walk you through our financials in more detail.