Accel Entertainment, Inc.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to Excel Entertainment's Q1 2026 earnings call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Scott Levin.

Welcome to Excel Entertainment's first quarter 2026 earnings call. Participating on the call today are Andy Rubenstein, Excel's Chief Executive Officer, Brett Sommerer, Excel's Chief Financial Officer, and Mark Phelan, Excel's President and Chief Operating 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 litigation reform act of 1995. These forward looking statements are subject to risk 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 in our filings with the SEC. Any projected financial information presented in this call is for illustrative purposes only and should not be relied upon as being predictive of future results. The inclusion of any financial forecast information in this call should not be regarded as a representation by any person that the results reflected in such forecasts will be achieved. 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. Following management's prepared remarks, we will open the call for a question and answer session. With that, I would now like to introduce Andy. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Scott, and good afternoon, everyone. Accel Entertainment delivered a strong start to 2026 with the company's highest ever Q1 adjusted EBITDA result. First quarter revenue increased 9% year-over-year to $352 million, marking an all-time quarterly record for the company. Adjusted EBITDA also grew 9% to $54 million, reflecting solid underlying performance across the business. These results reflected the continued strength of our distributed gaming model. ongoing momentum in our developing markets, and our team's disciplined execution across each of our businesses. We ended the quarter operating 4,540 locations and 28,353 gaming terminals nationwide, representing year-over-year increases of 3% and 4% respectively. Turning to our core markets, Illinois remains the foundation of our business and continued to deliver strong results in the first quarter. Total Illinois revenue, excluding Fairmont Park, increased 6% year-over-year to $242 million. Our distributed gaming operations in the state continued to benefit from strategic location optimization and new machine placements. with total average location hold per day increasing 9% year-over-year to $962. This performance underscores the effectiveness of our ongoing strategy to improve route quality and concentrate investment in higher yielding placements, even as we maintain broadly flat VGT counts in this mature market. Our rollout of ticket-in, ticket-out technology in Illinois, or more commonly referred to as TITO, continues to progress well. With all of our terminals now TITO-enabled, we are beginning to realize the benefit of TITO, and we expect that benefit to build through the remainder of 2026 as players become accustomed to the convenience of TITO. Chicago represents one of the most exciting near-term growth opportunities we have seen in some time. The Illinois Gaming Board is actively processing applications from Chicago establishments as we continue signing up locations while waiting for final regulatory approvals. As the market leader in Illinois, with 2,678 locations and 15,413 gaming terminals, and an established platform of infrastructure, people, and relationships, we believe we are uniquely positioned to move quickly and efficiently when the market opens. We currently anticipate the first Chicago locations could go live in late 2026 or in the first quarter of 2027. We will continue to provide updates as the process unfolds. Montana delivered steady performance in the first quarter, with total average location hold per day increasing 5% year over year. In addition, our Grand Vision Gaming subsidiary continues to develop exciting and engaging new content that enhances margins through exclusivity while supporting our broader business. Across our developing markets, we continue to build momentum. Nebraska delivered outstanding results with revenue increasing 57% year over year and total average location hold per day up 57% supported by new machine placements. We continue to see the benefit of our operating leverage with the business growth and market density. Georgia also delivered strong growth with revenue up 43% year over year and total average location hold per day up In Nevada, we grew locations 27% and terminals 28% year-over-year, reflecting the significant footprint expansion from the Dynasty Games acquisition and our new route partnership with Rebel Convenience Stores. Mark will discuss Nevada in more detail shortly. Louisiana continued to grow with revenue of 12% year over year, and our bolt-on acquisition pipeline remains active and attractive. At Fairmont Park Casino and Racing, we are excited to have launched live dealer table games last month, including blackjack, roulette, and novelty games, marking a significant step in Fairmont's evolution into a full-scale gaming and entertainment destination. Reflecting our continued confidence in the long-term value of Excel shares and our commitment to returning capital to shareholders, we repurchased approximately 1.1 million shares of our common stock for $12 million in the first quarter of 2026. Our balance sheet remains strong. with $274 million in cash and net debt of approximately $306 million, representing net leverage of approximately 1.4 times. Our $300 million revolving credit facility remains fully undrawn, providing significant financial flexibility as we continue to evaluate organic growth, tuck-in acquisitions, and capital return opportunities. I want to take a moment to address the broader macroeconomic environment and the resilience of our business model. We are operating in a period of heightened uncertainty brought on by tariffs, inflation, and geopolitical instability. I want to be clear about why we believe Accel is well positioned in this environment. Our business is fundamentally hyperlocal. We operate gaming terminals in neighborhood bars, restaurants, convenience stores, and truck stops, the kinds of places people visit in their daily lives. Our customers are local players engaging in local entertainment, and that behavior has proven remarkably resilient across economic cycles. We also believe the current environment may be driving incremental trade down activity toward local convenient and affordable entertainment options. This is exactly the kind of experience our location partners provide and which we view as a stabilizing tailwind for our business. Our cost to serve allows us to flex which means we have the ability to manage our business efficiently even in periods of softer consumer demand. Tax refund season provided its typical seasonal tailwind as we moved through the quarter, and we continue to monitor the broader consumer environment for any signs of impact on player activity. Continuing through the beginning of the second quarter to date, we have not observed any material impact to our business. On the contrary, volumes remain strong. And we believe our distributed, local, and community-rooted business model represents one of the most resilient profiles in the gaming space. Lastly, before I turn the call over to Mark, I want to briefly touch on our leadership transition. As we announced in February, I've stepped into the chairman role, and Mark will assume the chief executive officer role, effective August 7th of this year. I'm incredibly proud of what this team has built over the past 17 years, and I have full confidence in Mark and the entire Excel leadership team to continue to grow this business and capitalize on the significant opportunities ahead. With that, I will turn the call over to Mark to review our operations in more detail.