Brightstar Lottery PLC

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the International Game Technology Q2 2022 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Should you require any assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad and an operator will assist you. After the presentation, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. I will now turn the conference over to James Hurley, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and thank you all for joining us on IGT's second quarter 2022 conference call, which is hosted by Vince Sadusky, our Chief Executive Officer, and Max Chiara, our Chief Financial Officer. After some prepared remarks, Vince and Max will be available for your questions. Once again, we are presenting from multiple locations, so please bear with us if we encounter any technical difficulties. During today's call, we will be making some forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees, and our actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements based on a number of factors and uncertainties. including those related to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The principal risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from our current expectations are detailed in our latest earnings release and in our SEC filings. During this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. In our press release, the slides accompanying this webcast, and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our investor relations website, you'll find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of these measures with comparable GAAP measures. And now, I'll turn the call over to Vince Sadusky.

Thank you, Jim, and hello to everyone joining us today. Our second quarter and first half results confirm strong operating fundamentals across the portfolio. This includes accelerated multi-year same-store sales growth for lottery, continued sharp recovery in gaming, and important strategic progress for digital embedding. Q2 revenue was up 11% net of FX and discrete lottery benefits in the prior year, led by 23% growth in global gaming. Operating income and EBITDA match the prior year at constant currency as substantial improvement in gaming profits mitigated about 60 million in discrete lottery benefits that, as expected, did not recur this year. Operating margin of 22% was at the high end of our expectations for the quarter, while EBITDA margin of 40% remains among the highest in company history. In addition to significantly improved global gaming profitability, Strong global lottery margins were an important contributor to our overall consolidated results. We continued our shareholder capital return policy. Year-to-date, this includes $81 million in dividends, which annualized implies above a 4% yield at the current share price. In addition, $54 million was returned through share repurchases. It's a compelling return profile, both in absolute and relative terms. Let me take a moment to give you some perspective on our business that I think is particularly relevant at this moment in time. IGT has leading positions in each market segment where we participate, and about 80% of our total revenue is recurring in nature. The global lottery segment accounts for most of our profits in the range of 75% to 80%. This isn't always appreciated by the market. It is important to highlight because lottery is an attractive business. It has infrastructure-like characteristics with steadily growing and predictable revenue, profit, and cash flows that are backed by long-term contracts. Our lottery contract portfolio currently has an average remaining life of six years. It's an enviable foundation to build on as we execute our long-term growth objectives. Historically, the lottery industry has demonstrated low economic sensitivity and proved to be incredibly resilient to macro challenges. You can see from the data here that in the U.S. and Italy, our two main lottery markets accounting for 85% to 90% of IGT's total lottery revenue held up very well during past recessions. IGT defines and drives the global lottery industry with our extensive and distinctive expertise and vast portfolio of contracts. We compete in all market segments, providing us with the entire spectrum of growth opportunities and unique and comprehensive market knowledge. We are the only lottery solutions provider with both B2B and B2C capabilities. We service over 80 customers, including the world's largest and most successful lotteries. Our solutions power eight of the top 10 lotteries in the world. In aggregate, our systems process over 150 billion in annual sales, including 75% market share in the U.S. and over 90% share in Italy. In fact, IGT is the world's largest operator of lotteries, six across three continents representing 30 billion in sales. This is three continents representing 30 billion in sales. This is valuable experience. And we use our unique sales development team to help our B2B customers succeed and deliver steady growth. In Q2, Lottery achieved an accelerated multi-year growth profile. Average annual same-store sales growth from Q2 of 2019 was over 5% fueled by instance. We expect the trend of accelerated growth to continue in the second half and that mid-single-digit growth can be maintained over the next several years. Our conviction is based on extensive player research and knowledge and the unique role we play in driving industry growth. Lottery is a supply-driven business, and we have a recurring revenue model that is perfectly aligned with customer and market expansion opportunities. Innovation across many dimensions, including game mechanics, game themes, pricing and payout, distribution, and retail execution are all important catalysts to drive demand. A few compelling examples of recent innovation include the launch of Million Day Extra in Italy, where they've used proven game mechanics to build on an existing franchise. In May, the Texas Lottery launched the first ever $100 instant ticket game, with over 800 million in prizes available and a top prize of $20 million. And Florida introduced a $50 instant ticket a few months ago. Sales for both games have consistently been strong. In iLottery, eInstant performance is improving with each new game launch. This is driving record player spend in Georgia and Kentucky, thanks to games such as Bank Buster, Cry Potion, and Beach Bonanza. Soon we will expand our eInstant distribution to Michigan, one of the country's largest iLottery markets. It's always nice when our lottery expertise is recognized, as it was with the Lottery Supplier of the Year Award at the 2022 SBC Awards North America. Turning now to global gaming, this segment had another terrific quarter thanks to the strength of our offerings and the broader global market recovery. Revenue increased over 20% on impressive momentum across several KPIs, and that translated into even stronger profit growth. We sold nearly 7,200 machines in Q2, led by strong replacement demand in the U.S. and Canada. In fact, total U.S. and Canada shipments were 8% higher than the pre-COVID Q2 2019 levels. We could have shipped even more units if we weren't constrained by supply chain challenges. I think it's important to note that IGD has steadily gained ship share in North America over the last three plus years, reaching 27% in Q1, which is the latest data available. Average selling prices were also higher in the quarter, building on the positive trajectory over the last two and a half years. The new Diamond RS mechanical reel cabinet began hitting casino floors in June, supported by an extensive game library featuring new renditions of proven legacy themes and a host of exciting new titles. Early performance indications are encouraging, and we expect the Diamond RS to build on IGT's decades-long reign in the mechanical reel segment. Yields on leased units were up across the board in the quarter. WAP and MLP performance has been especially good. Prosperity Link, one of our newest multi-level progressive games, is among the top-performing new premium games in the North American market, with productivity almost three times floor average. And several new wide-area progressive games from IGT are dominating that category, led by Wheel of Fortune High Roller on the Peak 65 cabinet and Money Mania, whose frequent second-level jackpot payouts are resonating with players and customers. In systems news, the IGT Advantage Casino Management System was selected to power New Star Resort and Casino, the Philippines' most anticipated new casino featuring 1,500 slots and 250 table games. IGT Advantage will enable New Star to build patron loyalty, optimize its casino operations, and access valuable real-time performance analytics. It also positions NuStar to offer cashless gaming in the future via IGT's resort wallet systems technology. IGT has won the central system for every large new Asian casino over the last several years. We have a pipeline of compelling new games supported by a robust sales funnel for the balance of the year. Customer sentiment is strong, bolstered by solid casino visitation and GGR trends across major markets. About 70% of the revenue in our global gaming segment is generated in the U.S. The revenue in our global gaming segment is generated in the U.S. 85% of our U.S. revenues are generated in regional markets, and about half of that comes from tribal customers. And while the gaming segment is somewhat more sensitive to economic cycles than lottery, U.S. GGR trends have been reasonably resilient, especially among tribal customers during recessionary periods. Right now, the big challenge we have is being able to meet strong customer demand given continued supply chain challenges. On balance, it's a good problem to have and a clear reflection of the positive momentum in our business. Looking now at digital embedding, the segment continues to benefit from double-digit iGaming GGR growth in the U.S., primarily a function of new market expansion and IGT's leading position in video poker, table game themes and slots. Total Q2 revenue growth was lighter than expected due to weaker trends outside the U.S. We attribute this to three main factors. The slower pace of new game launches, partially because we were focused on closing the ISOF debt acquisition, to stricter gambling laws in the U.K., and to challenging comparisons in the COVID-related benefits iGaming had last year when lockdowns and other restrictions were still in effect in certain regions. We expect better trends in the balance of the year. Our game portfolio significantly expands with the iSoftBet acquisition, which closed on July 1st. iSoftBet provides us considerable scale and broadens our capabilities to advance our market positions. It greatly enhances our library of proprietary digital native games. The aggregation platform will enable us to provide hundreds of other game titles, allowing IGT to develop exclusive assortments for our customers. Integration efforts are well underway. An acceleration of IGT content distribution into more European jurisdictions using the iSoftBed platform is expected during the fourth quarter. The North America game aggregation platform launch is on track for early 2023. It's an exciting evolution of this high growth market opportunity. Well, six months into the year, we are on track to deliver on the 2022 outlook initially provided in November of last year. The team has done an excellent job identifying incremental sales and cost savings opportunities to offset nearly 200 million in unanticipated profit headwinds from Omicron, higher supply chain and project costs, and significant FX movements. At the same time, we've proactively managed the capital structure to drive the meaningful improvement in leverage and overall financial condition. We have a multi-year plan targeting mid-single-digit compounded annual revenue growth and mid-teens compounded annual operating income expansion for the 21 to 25 period. That plan also targets about $2.4 billion in cumulative free cash flow in the next four years. Executing these goals should drive meaningful value creation for all stakeholders, and I have every confidence in our ability to achieve them. We'll do it with a clear focus on sustainable practices and good citizenship as well. Last month, we issued our 15th annual sustainability report, highlighting our commitment to operating as an industry-leading sustainable business and consistently reporting on our progress. We recently received a gold medal rating from EcoVitas, putting us in the top 5% of global companies assessed by the firm. We take great pride in this achievement as we continue our journey of contributing to a more sustainable future. Our mission is simple. We are investing responsibly to generate profits and cash flows that consistently deliver compelling returns for shareholders. Now I'll turn the call over to Max.

Thank you, Vince, and hello to all of you joining us today. We continue to be pleased with our resilient performance despite the tough comparison with the prior year due to some lottery discrete benefits. As anticipated and reflected in our guidance for the second quarter, our team has been able to deliver strong results in the gaming business that has effectively allowed us to entirely offset the impact of the prior year discrete benefit items in lottery. Our business segments are performing at a high level while executing on their strategic objectives with lottery delivering operating income margin at the high end of the 2025 target range gaming recovering swiftly and exceeding the full year 2019 OI margin, and digital embedding executing on growth initiatives, including the acquisition of iSoftBed. Moving on.

Welcome to the conference center. Please enter your conference ID and press... ...Instant Games in the U.S.,

We continue to invest in game development and cloud-based system solutions to drive growth in this exciting area. The profit profile of the lottery segment is very strong and resilient, delivering $250 million in operating income with 36% OI margin, already at the top end of the 2025 target of 33% to 36%. Also notable is that this was achieved despite a less favorable game mix in Italy and cost inflation. Global gaming delivers significant increases in revenue and profit year-over-year, driven by customer and player demand for IGT innovative products. Revenue of $330 million grew over 20% on solid increases in the number of machine units sold, ASPs, and installed base yields. Nearly $7 7,200 units were shipped globally in the second quarter. North America Casino Replacement Unit led the growth, increasing over 30%, while international unit shipments were down slightly due to lower new and expansion activity. North America ASPs of $15,200 were among the highest level in company history on an improved product mix. International ASPs were also higher. Product sales benefited from the execution of a multi-year Patent Portfolio Licensing Agreement. The global install base of around 48,000 units was relatively stable sequentially. North America declined about 500 units on three main dynamics. Expected changes in the WLA markets of Delaware and New York. Removals of old unsupported games and cabinets, which were inhibited in being able to backfill due to supply chain challenges. And lastly, conversions to sales. In the rest of the world, the installed base was stable and we think there is good opportunity for growth from current levels in the back half of the year. North America yields increased 11% on elevated performance in WAP and MLPs and a more productive installed base due to the removal of older unsupported units over the last few quarters. Operating income was $57 million versus break-even in the prior year. Operating income margin of 17%. represent nice improvement in the margin for this segment as we continue to drive toward pre-COVID revenue levels and reflect the benefit of structural cost savings actions taken as part of our Optima program and despite higher supply chain costs. Digital and betting revenue of $43 million was in line with the prior year and up 4% at constant currency. Driven by iGaming expansion into Connecticut and West Virginia, partially offset by softness outside of the U.S. Sports betting GGR was impacted by lower hold levels. Operating income of $8 million and operating income margin of 19% are stable with the prior year. While we expect revenue to reaccelerate to double-digit growth in the second half of 2022, profit margins are expected to moderate as we absorb costs to integrate the recently acquired Isobet business and continue to invest in talent and resources to fund future growth. We expect a strong return on these investments in 2023 and beyond. Cash flow generation during the first half of the year was solid, with $385 million in cash from operations and over $230 million in free cash flow, with some lottery timing items driving weaker working capital performance. This is expected to reverse in the second half of the year. Year-to-date capital allocation was heavily weighted towards net payment to minority partners. As a reminder, these payments are generally concentrated in the first half of the year and are a bit higher this year due to the exceptional lottery performance in 2021. We invested around $150 million in CAPEX and returned $135 million to shareholders, $81 million via dividends, and $54 million in share purchases. Year-to-date, we have repurchased 2.2 million shares at an average price of shy of $25 per share. We recently amended and extended our revolving credit facilities, which enhance our financial flexibility by increasing the size of the facilities by about $150 million and raising the annual amount of permitted dividends and share repurchases from $300 to $400 million, with the potential to increase the amount to $550 million based on our credit ratings. The amendment also lowered our cost of debt by reducing the interest margin and adding a provision that provides for further changes in the margin based on IGT ESG rating. Lastly, the maturity date was extended to July 27, enhancing our debt maturity profile. IGT liquidity remains very strong with 2.1 billion at the end of the second quarter and increasing by about 150 million with the larger size credit facilities I just mentioned. We currently have a very manageable debt portfolio with no large near-term maturities and a fixed to floating rate debt mix that is favorably structured in the current market environment. The strategic capital management initiatives we have executed over the last few years are reaping real dividends as evidenced by a 25% reduction in our quarterly interest expense run rate from 2019 levels. Net debt leverage at 3.5 times remains at the low end of our 2022 target range. The announced sale of our Italy commercial service business is expected to close in mid to late September, with net proceeds to primarily be used for debt reduction. Net debt leverage is expected to improve by around a quarter of a turn, exceeding our 2022 target, after applying the net proceeds from the sale of the Italian commercial service business, the acquisition of Isofbet, and the final installment from the sale of the Italy B2C gaming business, which was received in July. In summary, we are in a very solid position to be able to weather potential changes in economic cycles. We are tightening our 2022 full-year revenue outlook to 4.1 to 4.2 billion, lowering the high end of the previous range by 100 million, solely to account for changes in currency and the impact of the pending sale of our Italy commercial service business. The updated outlook assumes a euro-dollar rate at parity for the second half of the year, down from 1.18 when we first presented our outlook last November. Operating income margin is reconfirmed at 20% to 22%, despite significant currency and macroeconomic headwinds, and 150 to 200 basis points in project-related and restructuring expenses in the back half of the year. We are reducing the high end of our outlook for cash from operations by $50 million to a range of $850 to $950 million, primarily driven by working capital investment in higher inventory levels, to proactively manage supply chain disruptions. CAPEX is also being reduced by 50 million to around 350 million due to updated timing of CAPEX spend, resulting in no change to estimated free cash flow for the year. As I just mentioned, we are reconfirming our full-year operating income margin outlook of 20 to 22%, mitigating the impact of around 200 million or 400 basis points of currency movements and various headwinds. We are able to maintain our outlook thanks to the hard work our team has done to identify incremental sales opportunities, our continued cost discipline, and lower depreciation and amortization. For the third quarter, we expect revenue of 1 to 1.1 billion and operating income margin of 18 to 20%, reflecting 150 to 200 basis points in higher project-related expenses. In summary, strong operating fundamentals across our business segments are driving compelling capital returns. We achieved solid financial results in the first half of the year, enhance our capital structure, return meaningful capital to shareholders, and reconfirm our full-year operating income margin outlook despite negative currency moments and significant headwinds. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, would you please open the line for questions?

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to remove yourself from the queue, you may press star 1 again. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from the line of Carlo Santorelli with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Hey, everybody. Good morning. Hey, Max, I was just hoping as it pertains to the guidance, if you could perhaps maybe kind of break out or to the best of your ability or whatever you guys are willing to do, kind of look at the moving parts in buckets, obviously. You know, now factoring in the July 1st iSoftBed acquisition, extracting the commercial services business acquisition, extracting the commercial services business at some point in December. Just kind of the net effect of those things relative to when you, you know, last provided guidance at the end of one queue.

Yeah, sure, Carlo. Effectively, not a lot has changed versus before. when we provided guidance last time, we're just clarifying that mathematically to get to the 20% to 22% and overachieving in the first half, you have to have a second half with some lower margins. And the way we would like to highlight the trend is that, in effect, the underlying business continues to perform more or less at the margins you have seen in the first half, The difference is that we have to take some costs in Q3 associated with those mentioned projects, particularly acquisition costs related to ISOFBET, a transaction that closed on July 1st, as Vin said. And so we are in the early innings of the integration phase. And obviously, that will also have some effect in terms of purchase accountings. with some potential for some step-up amortization that will also kind of have an impact, a small impact in our OI estimate for the second part of the year. While in the fourth quarter, the expectation, despite the fact that we don't want to give a specific guidance for the fourth quarter right now, but you can probably actually mathematically infer it, the fourth quarter will have very likely a It has an estimate for a second tranche of our restructuring program, early retirement program in Italy that we announced last year. And so those two items combined have kind of an underlying 150 to 200 basis point headwinds into the margins for the second part of the year. But again, the underlying run rate is more or less in line with what we have seen in the first half, if that makes sense to you.

Yeah, that does. And then just maybe more simplistically from a revenue perspective as it pertains to the Italy sale, do you have an estimate of kind of what the revenue is coming out as you take that out in September?

Yes, absolutely. You may assume about $100 million of revenue Revenue coming out all in the fourth quarter. As we assume right now, the transaction to close in the second part of September. So for simplicity, you could just do that.

Okay. And then just lastly, as it pertains to the large jackpot, which I didn't win, obviously, as I'm on this call. Do you guys have a sense for kind of the magnitude of perhaps the EBITDA that would stem from that in the 3Q?

So the jackpot at those levels is something that we don't estimate ahead of time. So if it comes, it comes, and we take it. Last time we had such a high jackpot was actually in combination with the second game that also was experiencing elevated level of awards. And we mentioned $20 million last time. This time, since there is only one, you may probably ground yourself towards the $10-ish million in terms of impact.

Great. That's very helpful.

Thanks, guys. Absolutely. You're welcome.

Your next question comes from the line of Chad Bainan with Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question and a nice quarter. Wanted to ask about the Italian lottery specifically, maybe the differing offerings, the penny lotto and the instant ticket business. You noted that there were some trends that had kind of changed during the quarter. Can you just talk a little bit more in detail in terms of what you're seeing in the market if that's you know, more difficult comps, kind of a beginning of a softer consumer in Italy. And again, kind of how that feeds into the back half guidance. Thanks.

Yeah, sure. Thanks, Chad. This is Vince. I'll give you a little bit of color. I was actually in Italy earlier this summer and, you know, part of the time that I spent there and visited with, with operators in Italy. And it, it, does not seem as if there is an impact as a result of – there is an impact as a result of consumer weakness. It seems as if the habit that many consumers had of spending time in the tobacconist shops and the retailers is coming back slowly in this post-COVID period as they had – a much longer period where they had restrictions versus the U.S. And I think in particular, we've seen that draw-based games have been slower to recover from COVID as a result of those restrictions at the retail point of sales. I think a couple of important things that give me confidence going forward and optimism around continued recovery are, is, you know, we did see during COVID that there was an expanded player base, especially the area of instant ticket sales, which continue to trend very well. And, you know, that's an area where you probably have a more direct benefit of all the innovation and and the marketing and the good work that IGP is able to do in that particular line. So I think we've got a long history, I think, of innovation in the content and optimizing our portfolio and payout structures. We're also continuing to expand our distribution even more so in Italy. And I think that we will see – we're hopeful that we'll see continued improvement, especially in the draw-based game area in Italy. In the U.S., you know, we've seen continued, I think, support for the elevated play levels that we've experienced post-COVID, which gives us a lot of confidence, I think, in what's important to me, which is the long-term outlook. continued, yet we now have another quarter of same-store growth in the mid-single digits versus 2019 supporting our thesis of higher play levels post-COVID. And a lot of that, again, we've delineated in the past. I think a lot of that has to do with consumers actually having more greater income as You know, inflation's been a negative in terms of the cost of things, but also a positive in terms of real wage growth. And then, of course, all the active engagement that our incredible team has done around working with lottery directors throughout North America in increased number of draws and providing more opportunities for win, multi-state games, add-on games, all the higher price points that have been introduced. So I think all of these things, net-net, are a positive for our overall lottery operation and the long-term estimates and assumptions that we built into our plan. And we believe that the one area that has been a little behind has been specific to draw-based games in Italy, and we think we're optimistic that that will as we get further and further away from this COVID-restricted period of time in Italy.

Great. Thanks, Vince. And then on the gaming business, you mentioned the quarter experience, some removal of some older unsupported units that was kind of offset by, you know, your continued growth in MLP. Could you just say again, I believe you said you're looking for back half growth. I think you were referring to international, but just wanted to clarify that comment. And then I guess just to kind of round that out, are there still opportunities to kind of remove older unsupported games and replace them with, you know, newer leased games or MLPs in the back half of the year and into 23? Thanks.

Yeah, I think what we've seen is in the install bases and our overall KPIs is very, very encouraging. In the second quarter, we saw a real strong replacement cycle on the sales side, up significantly led by the U.S. and Canada. We've seen a high single-digit average selling price increase on a really good product mix and, you know, very, very high demand for our peak series of cabinets. Our ship share continued increase in our ship share through the first quarter of increase in our ship share through the first quarter of the last reported period. And we did a global installed base improvement as well. As you mentioned, it's been relatively stable sequentially down year over year. But again, that was expected on WLA market and removals of old unsupported games. I think what probably one of the most important data points around install base has been the increase, the significant increase in install base yields. I think up around 11% year on year. And that's, I think, really driven by the improvement across our entire portfolio of our better games, in particular our WAP and MLP games. And our MLP base, as you know, that's been an area that we've struggled historically to deliver great games in this category is up, very significantly double digits since 2020. And importantly, the new games continue to be in demand. And to be honest, we believe we could have provided even more games into the marketplace had it not been for our supply chain issues. So the absolute number, as I've described, has several components within it. But I'm excited as, again, the proof the games are performing, I think, is in the is in the significant yield improvement, the demand for the new games, and the fact that we actually had an increase sequentially and quarter to quarter in our most important games, our web titles.

That's great. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Your next question comes from the line of Barry Jonas with Truce Securities. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Good morning. Can you maybe give a little more specific color on the supply chain issues and how that's impacting your ability to ship? We've certainly heard about bill validator issues in the market, but anything else to call out? And I guess more importantly, is there an end in sight? Thanks.

I'll give a little bit of color and then happy to have Max answer. provide any additional detail, but we really haven't seen much relief in the second quarter. It seems from week to week, we've had issue for us primarily sourcing components. One week, it's the actual screen. The next week, it's video cards. The next week, it's chips, wire harnesses. So this has been something that we've really been juggling and our workarounds, the teams achieved have been remarkable, but there's also a cost associated with those workarounds as well. I'd say the team has done a very, very good job of these workarounds. And when you think about, when I think about the third quarter and the fourth quarter, I've seen the production numbers for July. Those look good. And, of course, factored into our third quarter guidance and targets. We think we're getting smarter and better in our workarounds, including the distribution of manufacturing, which you can't move very quickly. But we've been able to do some of that good work. And also, as Max mentioned, we built up some inventory supplies as well out of necessity to be able to deliver a greater volume of games to meet our customer demand. And that is also helping us and going to help us in the back half of the year to deliver a greater percentage of the games that are ordered. So it's really across the board. Again, I think we've we've gotten smarter and better as we've been learning around incremental sourcing options and reducing our dependency on certain individual suppliers. And then as far as the overall opportunity going forward, of course, a lot of that's going to have to do with what percentage of these costs are remain in the system, what percentage can come down. And I'll let Max comment on those data points.

Very good. So further elaborating on this point, Barry, first of all, from a pure economic impact, the second quarter had a sort of a similar impact than the second quarter. had a sort of a similar impact than the first quarter of around $70 million of supply chain cost. What we have done in the second quarter to try to improve going forward is obviously we are looking forward an increased production program in the back half of the year versus the first half of the year. And that explains a portion of that increased inventory at the end of the second quarter. The other portion is obviously related to the inflationary impact of those procurement actions, including some spot buy that we are forced to do as a result of components not being available when required. And so you have to look around and see for the best offering available at that very moment, which is not ideal. So going forward, what you may expect is as we unwind that inventory is probably a push into the P&L of a little bit more cost, especially in the third quarter. But again, against those higher costs, we expect to also ship probably more units than what we have done so far. inclusive of shipping more units into the installed base in terms of production program. So the mix that we have on hand right now is very healthy, as Vince was mentioning during his remarks. And so we anticipate also that a portion of that inflationary impact is going to be offset by a better mix and higher price points all in all from our global offerings. So that would conclude my incremental comments.

That's great. I appreciate those comments. And then just as a follow-up, for the lottery, are there any new jurisdictions or potential RFPs you're focused on now where we could see some nice inorganic growth interested in high lottery, but really any other large subsegments of the lottery?

I would say on the lottery front, you know, the world is pretty well exploited. Our, you know, I think the beauty of the business is the long-term relations that we, in particular, being in more jurisdictions than any other lottery company, have enjoyed. And that's clearly based upon us being experts in this area, and we believe the best in the world. From time to time, there still are some jurisdictions that are discussed, and I think one that could be a significant opportunity that's been out there for some time is Brazil. And I think we've got to get through the – or Brazil has to get through the Brazilian elections, and we'll see how things play out. But clearly, for large – the few large jurisdictions that are remaining – it's pretty compelling, the benefits of lottery for good causes. And when we look at those markets, again, we don't emphasize those, but we are certainly quite capable of being competitive in those markets. On the iLottery front, that is one that's pretty exciting going forward. I think we've seen that we've got real capabilities in this particular area, especially over the last several years as we've significantly ramped up our team's resources and our capabilities. And we've seen in the markets that we've been involved with very significant growth at double-digit rates. We We announced we're not live in Michigan in iLottery yet, but we will be participating in Michigan as well. We've got state-of-the-art cloud-based eInstant platform, and we've got world-class content as well. And in all of the lotteries, I think we provide our eInstant content to 14 lotteries or so in the combination of the U.S., Canada, and the rest of the world. and our performance has been very strong. So the opportunity there continues to be in North America. Unfortunately, the various states have been slower to pass legislation allowing for high lottery, but as the states do pass that legislation over time, which we think will inevitably happen just given the way that people interact and their enjoyment of just given the way that people interact and their enjoyment of playing iLottery on their phones and PDAs, I think we will definitely be a significant player, not only given the history and strength and credibility we have in land-based, but pretty clearly the success that we've had in our 14 jurisdictions with iLottery specifically.

That's really helpful. Thank you so much.

Your next question comes from the line of Ben Chaykin with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

Hey, how's it going? The margin performance in lottery is really impressive. I think as you called out at the high end of the 2025 goal, I guess all else equal, is that a good sustainable level? And I'm asking that question prior to making any adjustments for the payment sale, which is dilutive to EBITDA margins. I mean, yeah, I mean, it's accretive when it comes out, but I'm curious how you think about it.

Yeah, so Ben, this is Max speaking. I'll take this one. So we have historically seen lottery performing at the high 40s. Since a few quarters now, we have been at or above 50%. Obviously, some of that has come from this discrete benefit performance last year. But I would say, for once, I mean, between the elevated players' level and the high degree of fixed cost of this business, higher sales are translated into more significant flow-through profits. If the play levels remain elevated and we see constant growth going forward, we think that we can continue to perform at these levels. One thing to mention, particularly on the commercial service business, when that business comes out, that business is actually dilutive to the average margin, so our margin will kind of get another small improvement going forward. but it's not significant in the great scheme of things, as you know.

Yep. No, I appreciate that. I guess I said that in a confusing way, but I appreciate the clarification. And then switching gears a little bit, on the restricted payment basket, I think the limit was raised to 400, or the size was raised to 400, and it seems like you have a line of sight to 550. I guess when you kind of reflect on the year, you've repurchased $54 million of stock. Your annual dividend is around $160 million. Do you plan on using all this restricted payment basket, or is your focus more on multiple leverage?

Look, the program is open. I can't talk ahead of time of how we're going to execute on it. But again, we will continue to execute based upon our principle of balanced capital allocation with an eye to our long-term leverage target. As you know, When we came out at Investor Day with our targets, we said we want to be in a range of 2.5 to 3.5. We are now approaching the high end of that leveraged range target, but again, we like to be well in the range and not at the upper end going forward. So again, there are definitely attractive entry levels right now on the stock, but I need to kind of continue to weigh all options and the different allocations different priorities in our capital structure. But again, what was important in that renegotiation was to create the conditions for less limitations on our activity going forward, and we have achieved that.

Gotcha. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, it is star 1 on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Santiel with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. This is Max. Thanks for taking our question. I wanted to start and drill a bit more into recent business trends. You know, Vince, is there any color you can provide on the exit rate around July trend, maybe focusing more on the recurring revenue side of things, so really specifically lottery and then gaming game ops? Thanks.

Yeah, sure thing. Okay. Yeah, I'll go ahead and take it. And Max, we'll let you add any comments you want afterwards. Yes, I'd say, you know, comments you want afterwards. Yes, I'd say, you know, we've, as I mentioned earlier, you know, we have seen this elevated play level over 2019 supported by in the first quarter, in the second quarter. In fact, I think our multi-year same-store sales growth over 2019 in the second quarter was actually a bit better than the same-store sales growth over 2019 in the first quarter. Early signs for July were, you know, I think support those levels. And We actually think that when we look back at 2021, the discrete benefits start to wane in the back half of the year. So, you know, the comps get easier for us. So, again, I think, you know, strong growth. We did enjoy the benefit in the early part of the third quarter of mega millions. And great, you know, that's always great publicity around the country. In fact, over here in Europe, it was actually even made press over here in Europe that, you know, one person in Illinois is going to be worth, you know, $1.3 billion before taxes. And also, I think something like 25 other millionaires were minted in that one draw. So that's the kind of thing that's, you know, really, really exciting and just invaluable marketing and promotion oftentimes really raises the awareness of lottery and kind of that that they are the dream tagline that so many lotteries utilize. So I think we're off to a good start. As far as our gaming business goes, it's a similar story for the last several quarters in terms of the sales funnel for the third quarter is very strong. And again, our challenge is just simply making enough machines. As I mentioned, we're off to a better start for the first month of the quarter. Still very challenged by supply chain, but not as challenged as, again, as a result of, I think, a lot of the proactive actions the company took in the first half of the year around distributing production and inventorying supplies and equipment and components and things that we had a really difficult time in the first half of the year. And then our business is, of course, also impacted on the gaming side based upon the health of our casino customers. And not a lot of folks have reported yet, but the few who have continue to note they're selling out their rooms. They are seeing very high levels of consumption. I think GGR was published through June and showed good, strong results, again, maintaining the levels of a year ago. So I think that things on the Strip in particular are incredibly strong. So all signs at the moment are continuing to be very, very good for the gaming industry as well.

Okay, great, Seth. That's very helpful. Thanks. And then, you know, maybe just one quick follow-up. I do believe the New York Lottery Systems contract is coming up for expiration soon, I believe this month, if I'm not mistaken. Just a quick update there would be helpful given, you know, the size of that opportunity.

Yes, that's correct. That lottery is up this month. And, you know, as we've reported in the past, our team – continues to work with the New York Lottery upon an extension. And, you know, we're in the midst of those conversations, so we really can't comment further.

Understood. That's all I have. Thanks for the answers.

There are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call over to Vince Sadowski.

Great. Well, thank you all for joining us and for your interest in IGT. We really appreciate it. We feel like our first half performance confirms our strong operating fundamentals across our portfolio. And as always, want to really thank the team for doing a terrific job in pursuing incremental revenue opportunities built on a very strong portfolio of products and solutions at this juncture. And we continue to do a really, really great job. And again, the team gets the credit for managing discretionary costs. As we contend with significant macroeconomic challenges, our very costs. As we contend with significant macroeconomic challenges, our profit margins have exceeded our expectations. We strengthened the balance sheet. Our treasury team has done a great job on that front. And we're on track to deliver record capital returns to our shareholders. And we think there's a lot of opportunity on the horizon as we continue to execute on our multilevel goals and the trends that we currently see. So thanks again for your interest in IGT, and I hope you all have a great rest of summer.

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.