Brightstar Lottery PLC

over 40 years ago, becoming the world leader in lottery ticket vending machines 20 years ago, or launching the next generation of mobile games tomorrow, our partners have always known they could count on us to guide them into the future. But more importantly, they've always known they could count on us. And helping their businesses grow has helped us grow our business to be the primary technology provider for eight of the 10 largest operators in the world. We are Brightstar. From preserving history in Italy to medical research in Belgium. From the Great Wall of China to the public schools of California. For centuries, lotteries have been the foundation of funding for public services and infrastructure. But what is the foundation of lotteries? Integrity, reliability and trust. Because a lottery can only be as good as the people behind it. From our earliest days igniting the lottery technology revolution to now managing the most innovative and successful lotteries in the world, we have always understood something fundamental. Innovation makes the promise, but our people keep it. So whether it was introducing the first networked terminals over 40 years ago, becoming the world leader in lottery ticket vending machines 20 years ago, or launching the next generation of mobile games tomorrow, our partners have always known they could count on us to guide them into the future. But more importantly, they've always known they could count on us. And helping their businesses grow has helped us grow our business to be the primary technology provider for eight of the ten largest operators in the world. We are Brightstar. From preserving history in Italy to medical research in Belgium. From the Great Wall of China to the public schools of California. For centuries, lotteries have been the foundation of funding for public services and infrastructure. But what is the foundation of lotteries? Integrity, reliability and trust. Because a lottery can only be as good as the people behind it. From our earliest days igniting the lottery technology revolution to now managing the most innovative and successful lotteries in the world, we have always understood something fundamental. Innovation makes the promise, but our people keep it. So whether it was introducing the first networked terminals over 40 years ago, becoming the world leader in lottery ticket vending machines 20 years ago, or launching the next generation of mobile games tomorrow, our partners have always known they could count on us to guide them into the future. But more importantly, they've always known they could count on us. And helping their businesses grow has helped us grow our business to be the primary technology provider for eight of the ten largest operators in the world. We are Brightstar. From preserving history in Italy to medical research in Belgium. from the Great Wall of China to the public schools of California. For centuries, lotteries have been the foundation of funding for public services and infrastructure. But what is the foundation of lotteries? Integrity, reliability, and trust. Because a lottery can only be as good as the people behind it. From our earliest days igniting the lottery technology revolution to now managing the most innovative and successful lotteries in the world, we have always understood something fundamental. Innovation makes the promise, but our people keep it. So whether it was introducing the first networked terminals over 40 years ago, becoming the world leader in lottery ticket vending machines 20 years ago, or launching the next generation of mobile games tomorrow, our partners have always known they could count on us to guide them into the future. But more importantly, they've always known they could count on us. And helping their businesses grow has helped us grow our business to be the primary technology provider for eight of the ten largest operators in the world. We are Brightstar. From preserving history in Italy to medical research in Belgium. from the Great Wall of China to the public schools of California. For centuries, lotteries have been the foundation of funding for public services and infrastructure. But what is the foundation of lotteries? Integrity, reliability and trust. Because a lottery can only be as good as the people behind it. From our earliest days igniting the lottery technology revolution to now managing the most innovative and successful lotteries in the world, we have always understood something fundamental. Innovation makes the promise, but our people keep it. so whether it was introducing the first networked terminals over 40 years ago becoming the world leader in lottery ticket vending machines 20 years ago or launching the next generation of mobile games tomorrow our partners have always known they could count on us to guide them into the future but more importantly they've always known they could count on us And helping their businesses grow has helped us grow our business to be the primary technology provider for eight of the ten largest operators in the world. We are Brightstar. From preserving history in Italy to medical research in Belgium. From the Great Wall of China to the public schools of California. For centuries, lotteries have been the foundation of funding for public services and infrastructure. But what is the foundation of lotteries? Integrity, reliability and trust. Because a lottery can only be as good as the people behind it. From our earliest days igniting the lottery technology revolution to now managing the most innovative and successful lotteries in the world, we have always understood something fundamental. Innovation makes the promise, but our people keep it. So whether it was introducing the first networked terminals over 40 years ago, becoming the world leader in lottery ticket vending machines 20 years ago, or launching the next generation of mobile games tomorrow, our partners have always known they could count on us to guide them into the future. But more importantly, they've always known they could count on us. And helping their businesses grow has helped us grow our business to be the primary technology provider for eight of the ten largest operators in the world. We are Brightstar.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the Bright Star Lottery first quarter 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 James Hurley, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. James, please go ahead.

and our actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. 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 You'll find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations with comparable GAAP measures in our press release, slides accompanying this webcast, and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our investor relations website. Our statements are as of today, May 12th, and we have no obligation to update any forward-looking statements we make. And now I'll turn the call over to Vince Sadesky.

Great. Thank you for joining us today. Well, we delivered a solid start to the year with first quarter results reflecting the strength of our global portfolio and disciplined execution against our strategic priorities. While reported revenue growth was modest, underlying performance was stronger and profitability expanded, demonstrating the resilience of our business model and the impact of our operational initiatives. Revenue for the quarter was approximately $590 million, increasing 1% as reported in and 3% on a constant currency basis, excluding service revenue amortization. Growth was driven by strong performance in Italy and a favorable mix in the United States, partially offset by the impact of the UK transition. Adjusted EBITDA grew 15%, as reported, and 5% in constant currency, reflecting both operating discipline and continued benefits from our Optima efficiency program. This level of increase in associated margin expansion is a clear indication that we're executing well while continuing to invest for long-term growth. Our balance sheet remains a source of strength. We ended the quarter with net debt leverage of 2.4 times, one of the lowest levels we have achieved, positioning us well ahead of the final lotto payment completed last month. Capital allocation remains consistent and disciplined. In the first quarter, we returned more than $70 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. These actions reflect our confidence in the durability of our cash flows and our view that the current share price does not fully reflect the intrinsic value of the business. Now, let me turn to our strategic priorities for 2026 and the progress we've made in the first quarter. Game innovation and portfolio optimization continue to be key drivers of performance, particularly in Italy, where same-store sales grew 3%. Scratch-and-win performance benefited from the successful launch of new Infinity Instance at €5 and €10 price points, as well as Milione di Diamante, our first €30 ticket. We are seeing continued consumer demand for premium offerings, reinforcing the strength and evolution of the Italian market. In draw-based games, product enhancements are also gaining traction. In March, we launched FIDE SAVE by Quattro, expanding our portfolio with formal format modeled on proven U.S. game mechanics. In the United States, same-store sales were flat and below our expectations. Performance varied significantly by jurisdiction. We saw growth in markets such as Florida, Indiana, and Michigan, where innovation cadence and price point expansion remains favorable. In contrast, large markets, including California, face more challenging comparisons. One notable highlight was the February launch of Millionaire for Life, a multi-jurisdiction draw game with an enhanced prize structure. Early results are encouraging, and we see meaningful long-term potential as distribution expands. Turning to digital and iLottery, where we continue to lead globally, We now have 11 iLottery platforms deployed worldwide, with eInstance content available across 12 jurisdictions. In the first quarter, global iLottery wagers increased 30%, reflecting broad-based momentum across our portfolio. In the U.S., wagers grew 36%, led by strong performance in Michigan, Georgia, and Kentucky, as well as the expansion of eInstance in Virginia. In Italy, wagers increased 27%, supported by new game launches and continued strength in established franchises. Milione di diamante contributed to a strong finish to the quarter, including a new single-day wagering record. Beyond iLottery, we're making important progress in our direct-to-consumer digital strategy in Italy. Our offering now includes a full suite of lottery products, about 500 casino games, and newly launched sports betting. We are particularly focused on converting our approximately one million monthly app users into active digital players. Full wagering functionality will be introduced on mobile later this quarter, and we expect those efforts, supported by our retail network, to begin contributing more meaningfully in the second half of the year. Finally, channel expansion and new contract opportunities remain important growth levers. In the U.S., we continue to expand and enhance our retail footprint through investment in self-service vending machines. These upgrades, including cashless capabilities and optimized game mix, are driving strong engagement and are now being scaled beyond the success we've had in California into additional states such as New Jersey and Indiana. We are also expanding distribution through new retail partnerships. Our initial rollout in a new national retailer with thousands of locations is currently underway, with additional states expected to follow. This represents a meaningful opportunity to broaden access and drive incremental sales. In Italy, we are progressing on the rollout of upgraded point-of-sale terminals under the new lotto license, with completion expected in the third quarter. Another growth initiative is San Paolo, where we are currently building a full-service lottery from the ground up, integrating retail and digital capabilities into a modern, scalable platform. A digital launch is planned for the second half of this year, followed by a retail rollout beginning in early 2027. In summary, we are executing well against our strategic priorities with solid first quarter performance and continued momentum across key growth initiatives. We expect these investments to contribute more meaningfully to revenue and profit as the year progresses. With that, I'll turn the call over to Max to discuss our financial results and outlook in more detail.

Please bear with us. It seems like we're having some technical difficulties with Max's mic. Please, we appreciate your patience. Hang on one more minute.

Now.

Hello, can you hear me now? Please. Okay, I apologize. We have some connection issues. I'm connecting here from Italy. So I would like to pick up from slide 10. So thank you, Vincent. Hello, everyone joining us on the call today. Our first quarter results reflect modest reported growth, stronger underlying momentum at constant currency, and outcomes broadly in line with our expectations for the quarter, demonstrating the resilience of our portfolio and the effectiveness of our operating focus on disciplined cost management, especially as we continue to invest in long-term strategic initiatives. First quarter revenue of 587 million increased 1%, as reported. More importantly, growth at constant currency and before known cash service revenue amortization, which is about 50 million higher per quarter with the start of the new lotto concession, was 3% or 5% net of the UK transition. As a reminder, the UK transition started in August 2025, so we had one full quarter plus one month left to anniversary the transition in year-to-year comparison. As for the components of reported revenue growth, instant ticket and draw wager based revenue was in line with the prior year at constant currency as strong more than 3% Italy center sales growth and favorable mix in the US was offset by the impact of the UK transition. Other service revenue increased 14% primarily on LMA dynamics. There are two drivers at play. The first is higher pass-through revenue which has no profit associated with it. The second is a lower shortfall accrual in Q1 26 compared to the prior year period. This outcome differed from our expectations. Initially, we were expecting a break-even LMA outcome in the quarter. Instead, we booked a 10 million shortfall specifically associated with the New Jersey LMA due to the combination of two factors affecting the New Jersey incentive calculation. a constant increase in the contractual annual net income target, which was known, and since the last large jackpot in late December 25, Powerball hit two times at or below $250 million. This phenomenon, in addition to the continued subdued mega-million performance in the period, prevented any large jackpot formation in Q1. Since Powerball has also hit multiple times at very low levels to date in Q2, we're currently trending towards incurring a similar LMA shortfall in New Jersey in the second quarter, as there is not enough time left in the period to develop a jackpot above $700 million, the level at which we tend to see jackpot sales inflate. This results in an approximate $20 million New Jersey shortfall for the first half of 2026, which is in line with the prior year and represents the maximum capital penalty in this contract fiscal year. Our team has developed several strategies to help mitigate the New Jersey LMH eco-sensitivity going forward. One is improved payouts on new instant ticket games, which is already driving stronger sales in March and April. Another is an increased deployment of self-service vending machines which have delivered immediate sales lift. Outside of the New Jersey LMA contract, modest jackpot activity did not have a meaningful impact to our sales, demonstrating its limited exposure in the overall business. Moving now to our very resilient profit performance, we delivered an adjusted EBITDA of $287 million in the first quarter, a 15% increase as reported, and up 5% at constant currency, with a reported EBITDA margin of nearly 49%. The increased upfront license fee amortization artificially bolstered the EBITDA margin, which would have been approximately 42% in Q126, and about 40% last year, excluding that item. Contributors to the strong profit growth included high flow through of strong Italy same-store sales growth the reduced LMA shortfall, continued progress on our Optima cost savings initiatives, and certain expense recoveries. Partial offsets to growth were the UK transition, human capital investments tied to retention, execution, and long-term value, and significant investment in growth initiatives during the quarter. In fact, approximately 20 million of the year's 50 million investment spend was incurred in Q1. We also experienced inflationary pressures impacting postage and freight and other costs. In addition, we saw a nice euro-barrier improvement in income from operations driven by three main items. The adjusted EBITDA growth, just mentioned. FX, which is a non-cash positive impact from a change in the euro-dollar exchange rate on debt balances at the parent company. and a lower tax provision resulting from various strategic actions we have taken to lower our effective tax rate in the last two years. For the full year 2026, we currently expect an effective tax rate in the high 30% range compared to 55% in the prior year and heading closer to our normalized rate in the mid to low 30s. We expect full year 2026 cash taxes in the range of around $150 million versus 220 million in the prior year period. First quarter cash from operations of 165 million was in line with our expectations and reflect an over 50 million negative impact from timing of working capital items, primarily reflected to the day of the week that the quarter ended on in Italy and the associated collection cycle. While this tracks behind the fully run rate, The timing impacts are expected to reverse in the second quarter, and we are reaffirming our expectations for full year 2026 cash generation. Capital expenditures total $110 million, with about two-thirds of the investments related to the rollout of new terminals in Italy. We return over $70 million to shareholders, including $30 million in share purchases and a cash dividend of $42 million or 23 cents per share. Our LTM quarterly cash dividend yield is nearly 7%. While no payments were due on the Italy lotto from license fee in the quarter, I just want to remind you of the funding requirement. The first two installments totaling 926 million were paid in 2025. And the final installment of 1.67 billion was paid on April 24th. While the full amount of the license fee is reported in cash from ops, Brightstar is only responsible for its 61.5% share, with a balance funded by our minority partners. As a matter of fact, Brightstar balance sheet and credit profile are strong with net debt leverage of 2.4x. We expect leverage to peak around 3.5 times mid-year and anticipate that it will subsequently restart a more favorable trajectory thereafter. Total liquidity following that payment is around 1.8 billion, providing substantial support for capital allocation plans. In April, we successfully refinanced our revolving credit facility, moving its new maturity date to March 2031. We improved terms and subsequently fully repaid the 200 euro million outstanding principal amount due under the Euro Denominator Term Loan due 2027. We have a sound profile on our debt with no new term maturities and very competitive terms on our senior note. Turning now to our outlook, second quarter revenue is expected to be below the prior year, primarily due to higher service revenue amortization. Adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter is currently expected to be modestly below the prior year, as underlying growth in the business and continued cost discipline is more than offset by the impact of the UK transition and the likelihood of a higher New Jersey LMA shortfall, in addition to investment in growth initiatives. We are reaffirming our full year 2026 revenue, profit, and cash flow outlook. As Vince outlined, we are executing on many initiatives to drive accelerated revenue and profit growth in the second half of the year and beyond. We believe that diversity mitigates the risk associated with any single area of focus, as our Q1 clearly demonstrated. In addition, our LTM sales and adjusted EBITDA performance, coupled with the proven resilience of Lottery in the face of macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, gives us confidence we can deliver on our financial target for the current year. Now, we'd like to open the call for your questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. And if you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from Jeff Stanchel with Stiefel. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Great. Thank you. Morning, everyone. Maybe just starting off, Max, that last point that you raised of some initiatives to try to drive, you know, reacceleration in the back half of the year. If you think about sort of bridging between the 1% of growth in global themes for Q1 and then last quarter, I think you sort of talked about, you know, three-ish percent, two from retail, one from my lottery. If you think about how you go from one to three, you mentioned some initiatives, you know, retailers, self-service terminals, you mentioned sort of the timing of product. Can you just, you know, sort of walk through or help us think about, you know, rank ordering, which of these is most material? And then, you know, if you could also help us think about sort of like which ones you feel like you have the cleanest line of sight to, which ones might require sort of or lottery partner approvals to roll out and sort of your degree of confidence in this back half acceleration.

Thanks. Yeah, so to ground everyone up around the 5% organic growth projections for the year, we anticipate effectively 2026 to behave more or less similarly to 2025. where we see a second half that it will be more prominent or expected to be more prominent than the first half of the year. As a result of a couple of factors, not least the UK transition, which is still negatively affecting our revenue growth by about 2% each quarter, negatively. While instead, in the second half, we anticipate product sales to be a significant positive contributor with between 3% and 5% contributions for each of the two remaining quarters of the year. So again, that is backed by an order backlog with deliveries expected to be completed between Q3 and the majority in Q4 of the year. From a same store sales trajectory, we expect the same store sales to pick up in the second half as well on the back of those retail initiatives that Vince and I mentioned during the call more prominently the game innovation with the introduction of the new price point, the vending machine expansion, the new retailer contracts that are also providing additional point of sales overall in the second half as we roll out the initiatives. And so all of that together is supposed to give us a little bit of pickup in the second half of the year versus the first half of the year. Then obviously, we would anticipate a sort of a normalization of the multi-stage output, again, similarly to what has happened last year. the sequence of jetpots in the first four months of the year, four and a half months of the year has been extremely negative, even worse than a year ago. And so again, we think that some sort of normalization may occur in the second half that should help us contribute favorably to kind of get to a total retail performance in the year up 3% versus the previous year. And then we have the two growth initiatives, mainly the iLottery that continues to overachieve our projections in terms of growth rate to contribute 1%, as well as the Italy B2C initiative also to start ramping up more decisively in the second half of the year and finishing up the year with about a 1% contribution on a total year basis.

That's great. Thank you for all that color, Max. And then maybe switching gears, you talked about in the release notes some margin pressure from higher postage and freight costs. Max, can you just help us think about sort of the magnitude of impact here resulting from the spike we've seen in crude? On the guidance piece, did you assume sort of a consistent impact through the remainder of the year? Did you anchor to the forward curve? How do you sort of think about the impact through the remainder of the year?

Thanks. Yeah, the inflationary pressure per se is not super significant. We're talking about a few million dollars in the quarter, mostly concentrated in the postage and trade activity. So we think that this is a manageable number within our cost initiatives. We think we can absorb that impact relatively easily during the year.

Perfect. And if I could just squeeze in one quick housekeeping. Apologies if I miss this. Max, did you say what the embedded Euro assumption was for the full-year guide? Is it still 115, or did that move, just given, I think, the spot moved a little bit higher since you guys reported?

Yes, I mean, for questions, I think at this point with four and a half months in, it's probably the right thing to do is to update the effects to the 117. There is still some volatility associated with that, but we believe the 117 is more appropriate than the 115 at this point.

Perfect. Thanks very much.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from Barry Jonas with Truist. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to start on the multi-state lotteries. I believe Powerball is going to be expanding internationally. So I wanted to get your thoughts on any potential upside there. there and walk us through the timing and then just on the other side of the coin you know clearly mega millions hasn't achieved uh the results we were hoping with the increase to five dollars so there's been some talks about tweaks from the consortium and just wanted to get uh your uh your your thoughts on uh those potential tweaks thank you

I cannot hear you.

Sorry, did you not hear the question?

This is Ellen, the operator. Barry, if you could please repeat your question to confirm our speakers can hear it. Thank you.

Great. Can you guys hear me now? Yes. Okay, great. So my question was a two-parter on the multi-state lotteries. First, Powerball is expanding internationally. So I wanted to get your thoughts on potential upside there and timing. And then for Mega Millions, I believe the consortium is talking about making tweaks to potentially improve results. So I was hoping you can give us some color on those tweaks and expectations there. Thank you.

Sorry, I cannot hear Vince, unfortunately, so I hope you can hear me and apologize.

I can hear you.

You are connected from different locations. So, yes, the Powerball game is expanding internationally. It is scheduled to go live in the UK later this summer, pending final regulatory approval. The game will cost £4, and the jackpot will be the only share element of the price structure. The anticipation is that about 68 cents for every UK ticket will go towards the jackpot, consistent with an absolute value for the US base game contribution. So again, we think that overall the game will provide some support the formation of the jackpot in the US. And this is the positive information that could provide an upside gain to the game overall. And so I think this is a positive development at the end of the day because it will create additional support to the development of the jackpot. So we are not per se forecasting any significant sales increase as this type of expansion is unprecedented. So we would like to be very conservative and we need to understand, first of all, how the US players will react to this expansion before we really can take some significant upside.

Okay, got it. And then just for Mega Millions, are there actions the consortium can take to maybe improve trends there, or is it just a waiting game to get the jackpots at a sufficient level?

Yeah, so again, As we all now realize, I mean, the sales on the Mega Million are below the prior year levels. And it's very clear at this point, consumers don't appreciate the value proposition of the $5 price point. As a reminder, the higher price point was introduced in April of 25. Since then, the jackpot, to be fair, has been hit six times. which has not allowed the formation of a jackpot exceeding $1 billion so far. We got one time barely just below the $1 billion. So, again, when you take this statistic and compare it to previous years, based on wagers, on average, the jackpot would have been hit two or three times in the same period. the frequency of hitting has been much, much greater than what we have experienced in the previous years. And again, yes, as you said, there has been some discussions around evaluating options to optimize the game, but so far nothing has been decided from the consortium point of view.

Yeah, sorry, we had some technical issues. It's been a morning of technical issues here in Rhode Island with otherwise a beautiful day here in New England. Max, I assume you took the question on Powerball, and it sounds like multistate jackpots in general, so if there's anything else I can help out with there. But otherwise, I think we're back.

Very good. So I just wanted to finish up on this important commentary. As you can imagine, we were grounded on two games. Now, one of the two games is definitely structurally underperforming, so that puts more pressure on the one game, if you want, left, Powerball to perform. And unfortunately, again, also on Powerball, five hits since the beginning of the year. All five below 250 million or one of the five at 250 is really unprecedented from the last few years of statistics. And so that also has put a lot of pressure on the game. Having said that, our own exposure to the multi-stage jackpot on a year-over-year basis has been very, very limited with the only exception of the New Jersey LMA contract as I explained in my prepared remarks.

Understood. Maybe just one more follow-up. You know, now that pro forma leverage after the last Italy payment is three and a half and the shares are still depressed, you know, how are you thinking about capital allocation here and maybe just timing to hit that mid-cycle target of three times your last? Thank you.

Yeah, so I think with the payment behind us, we're probably going to see the peak of that leverage on or around 3.5, probably on the low end of 3.5, potentially. And since then, we anticipate that leverage to come down gradually over the next few quarters. And so we definitely We are very cognizant of the fact that we have an ability to bring the leverage back to our long-term target of three times over the foreseeable future without compromising our investments, our core investments and or our support to the balance capital allocation plan that we launched July last year and that we are in full execution mode Since then, we have been able to deliver about 60% on the buyback program, the $500 million program. And the rest of the program is still open for execution. And we anticipate that you will see from time to time the company being able to continue to execute on the remaining part of the program. Plus, in addition to that, we have been able to also increase our ordinary dividend to the tune of about 15% over the last two quarters. We have taken a pause on the increase this quarter because, again, we had to absorb that large last lotto payment in April. But with that in mind, I think we have the ability to continue to support our capital allocation plan going forward.

Great. Thank you.

Your next question comes from Chad Bainan with Macquarie Capital. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you could elaborate just a little bit more just in terms of opportunities on the AI front in this business, either from a cost-saving standpoint or just from an efficiency standpoint, if any of that has improved as we've kind of worked through the year thus far. Thank you.

Yeah, Chad, I'll take the question. So we've done a lot of work in this area, including using third-party consultants to assist us and then also assess where Brightstar stands relative to others in the industry, and then more importantly, I think, outside of the industry. And I think we're in pretty good shape in terms of our evolution. So I think I mentioned in the past, a while back, we put in a governance structure for the management and utilization of various AI tools. So we've got the tools in place. We've got our controls and guidelines. We've got a structured program. We had an innovation committee where our senior executives sit on that committee. I chair it. And we've got just a lot of best-in-class techniques, including really robust training programs for our managers. So I think we've talked about some of the examples of our initiatives, including the game creation program, especially in the area of our e-instinct game launches, our leveraging AI, our game recommendation engine, which we believe is best in class, utilizes a fair amount of AI in its technology stack. We've done things like become more efficient and effective in an area such as field services, which utilizes a terrific amount of resources on a daily basis in each one of our major jurisdictions to canvass the state and be able to provide strong customer support in the area of troubleshooting and repair, as well as kind of a lot of the typical stuff that other companies are doing in the corporate area. A big part of what we've been able to deliver in the first quarter in terms of incremental efficiencies and cost reductions, a lot of that is based upon innovation and AI. As a team, each quarter is more and more engaged. It's really been the team that's been super helpful in incrementally identifying opportunities for improved services as well as efficiencies. Our Optima program, which Max continually updates, that we continue to grow what our projected opportunity is over the next several years. And much of that is based on the utilization of AI, especially around the area of efficiency on software engineering, which is a significant part of our our business right down to the delivery and maintenance of the servicing. Those are the areas that we primarily benefited and we see benefits increasing over time. So we get smarter and better at this and take on more projects and refine our execution.

That's great. Thanks, Vince. And then last quarter we opened up the window a little bit more in terms of M&A opportunities, whether it's iLottery or other areas of the business. Can you just kind of talk about your appetite in M&A, given the second payment will be made and your free cash flow and cash position is maybe just a little bit more understood at this point? Thank you.

Yeah, sure thing. So as we report every quarter, the growth opportunities and the high growth areas that we've experienced have, of course, been in the area of iLottery. We are the leading global provider of iLottery platforms and content. Our games are performing great. We've got 11 or 12 platform customers out there. We have platform customers coming online in 2027. And we've also added our content to customers that don't deploy our platform. So we've invested for years. We feel like we've got the best-in-class team. And our acceleration, I think, of the delivery of top-performing games, as well as platform refinement, has been really impressive. So I think we've got the capabilities that we've built organically that have enabled us to, you know, achieve that, you know, 20-plus to, you know, 30% iLottery growth quarter after quarter. And now it's becoming more meaningful as the, you know, the absolute number is getting larger. And now, you know, we've got a couple of big deployments that – that are pretty exciting. We go online with San Paolo in July. And of course, it will take time before those numbers become meaningful. But I think it's exciting because it's a mobile-first community. It's got a decent amount of economic activity. And it's a place where you could see a different paradigm with digital exceeding retail. right from the start. So the team's been actively involved in the development of that platform and is excited about that launch of e-instance in the third quarter. And then, of course, the B2C area in Italy. That's, of course, our home turf. We've got a very, very good team of veterans that have been working on putting together the best-in-class platform and are excited to really launch full functionality around our MyLotteries app in Italy in this particular quarter and the second quarter, as well as all of the marketing that goes along with it. And we've increased our iLottery market share a couple of points from a year ago. still early days in terms of that focused activity around digital in Italy. And, as you know, we've been building up our game library there such that we've got about 500 iCasino games available now, including live casino games, skill-based games, and sports betting. I think we're in good shape, and, you know, if there's an area where we'd be looking to potentially engage in M&A, you know, I don't expect it would be anything massive, you know, but the ability to gain some incremental expertise or market share, you know, I think would be something that we would be open to where we could, you know, quickly synergize and, you have both the cost opportunity and pick up some incremental market share. So I think we're in fine shape with our balance sheet. I think we're even considering the payment on lotto. And so I think any M&A of that magnitude would not be significant in terms of the impact to the balance sheet. And those are things that we're currently evaluating. Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Your next question comes from Domenico Gilotti with Equita. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Two questions. The first is on the retail same-store sales performance you were mentioning, so the 3% target. I wonder if this is something that you see happening well-balanced between Italy and the U.S., so if you're expecting some kind of acceleration in the U.S. or any kind of additional acceleration in Italy. Second is a follow-up on the Italian B2C launch and activity. How are you going to exploit your retail network and so your opportunity for a say omni-channel approach, if any. So I'm interested in understanding how do we want to exploit this asset. And third, just a clarification on the LMA shortfall that you were mentioning in the previous comments. If you can just clarify, so the impact in Q1 and Q2, expected impact in Q2.

Yeah, I can get started and hand it over to Max. As we mentioned, I think we got up to a decent start for the year. Global same-store sales were up just over 1%, but given the mix, neutralizing for FX, our revenue was up about 3%. Italy was the driver of the same-store sales. They were up about 3% in the first quarter. It really had a lot to do, you know, once again, just another quarter of great game innovation and great vitality of the Italian market. I think the product launches, our 30-euro ticket was very effective. The multi-bet pay slips, I think, on Lotto have been effective, and certainly iLottery in that market, being up almost 30%, continues to continues to be a driver. In the U.S., same-store sales for the first quarter were, you know, were flattish compared to the prior year. But again, you know, we had a good mix that enabled us to be up for the quarter. The driver there has also been iLottery. That was up about 30% for the quarter, actually more than 30% for the quarter. And we've again got this scenario with a very weak multi-state jackpot. As Max mentioned, the number of hits was really remarkable for the first quarter of this year. And then the rest of the world was fine. Actually, we were up between 5% and 6% in the rest of the world, including Belgium, Poland, Czech Republic. When we look out to the second quarter, I think the trends are in line with what we've seen. They're kind of in the flattish range to up a bit. And as we talked about, or Max really talked about, it's the second half of the year that we get excited about when we think about all the initiatives that are to take place, including not only the lottery ticket sales, but also some of the categories in the product area that we feel very confident are eminent. And then shifting on over to your question around Italy B2C. So I'd say the numbers that we've achieved so far have shown really good progress with Minimal marketing efforts so far, a big part of the effort has been to assemble a group of games that we think really optimizes the offering to consumers, as well as putting together features and functionality so that when we do the full launch, the full capabilities launch, the ability to take wagers on the on the MyLotteries app that consumers are impressed and view this as a viable alternative. And the growth that we've had so far, as you'd expect, has been around the iLottery market share. And that was really the design of the plan. That drives the success of the plan and then to a lesser extent also offering consumers the ability to play. iCasino games and Sportsbet. And I think what's most exciting about that opportunity is the ability to work with our retail network as well as leverage the folks that are using the app and the website on a daily basis. We mentioned in the past the retail players primarily have used the app historically for checking winnings. on tickets, and that number of monthly visitors here is somewhere around one million. So we have a lot of outstanding leadership position touchpoints with consumers. And so I think when we get this full functionality in place, we'll be able to utilize all these channels, retail and digital, to drive brand awareness And our thinking is that will help to drive player acquisition. And a lot of it has to do with the retailer engagement. And all that is coming very, very soon. And I'll hand it over to Max to handle the LMA question.

Yes, thank you, Ben. So thank you, Domenico, for asking that question. Obviously, we are very frustrated with the the recent performance of our contract, particularly in New Jersey. There are very specific reasons why, at the end of the day, this contract didn't perform. Some of those are related to some specificity associated with how relevant the multi-stage airport game is in New Jersey versus the rest of the country. We're talking about an exposure or a penetration of multi-stage effort games in New Jersey that is about three percentage points higher than the average of the United States. In addition to that, the payout on the multi-stage effort games is around 50% versus over 70% on instant games. So any shortfall on sales to sales that comes to fruition as a result of lower multistage efforts have an outside impact to the net income generation for the state. And hence, that impact flow through 50% to the kind of incentive shortfall scheme. Having said that, these are very lucrative contracts. I mean, in the last 13 years, we went back and looked at what we generated over the last 13 years. We've been able to generate on average at least $10 million per year on the New Jersey contract. So here the question is really how to structurally reduce the exposure of the contract to the jet fault volatility. by structurally enhancing the underlying fundamentals of the business. And the initiatives that Vince and I have mentioned during the call, particularly the expansion of vending machines, the increase in retail point of sale, as well as the game rejuvenation, and also the combination of the modification of return to state, which have allowed us to effectively work around the payout. And that transition is underway. We have probably in the midst of it, we completed 50% of that game transition. So there is another kind of few months to go to fully rejuvenate the portfolio game. We are confident that structurally we will improve the sales performance of this contract overall. and hence reduce the exposure to the volatility of the jackpot gains. So once the jackpot gains perform, there is definitely an opportunity to overachieve on that net income target and effectively generate an incentive overall down the road. So again, we remain positive and optimistic around the importance of this contract in our portfolio. And we continue to work on improving structurally the fundamentals of our business within that contract.

Thank you.

Your final question comes from David Katz with Jefferies. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi, morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question for all the details so far. I wonder if you could just talk about iLottery in the context of a TAM, you know, longer term view. You know, are we talking about, you know, obviously growth within what's on your plate right now, but, you know, future states, is there any update that we can talk about there that's, you know, realistic? And then some kind of a global, you know, walk around would be helpful there too. Just get a sense for how big the opportunity could ultimately be for Bright Star. Thank you.

Yeah. Hey, David. Yeah, it's difficult to say how quickly states will adopt iLottery and which ones they will be. Of course, we've got our board that we're constantly following and tracking. But it's clearly, as we've reported out the growth for years now, quarter in and quarter out, it's been pretty impressive. And the research we've done shows it not only brings in existing lottery players, but brings in players that just don't have the habit of frequenting retail operations. You look at the courier services, for example, they charge a pretty hefty premium for the convenience of purchasing tickets without having to go to the store versus the states that have full-fledged iLottery operations that don't charge an incremental premium. And yet the couriers have generated a fair amount of incremental sales. In fact, part of our challenge, one of the things in the negative column for us over this past year continuing to the first quarter, is the decline in sales of one of our big jurisdictions, Texas. And, you know, we can attribute that largely to the reversal on couriers and the elimination of couriers, whereas courier sales had been pretty significant in that state that did not permit and still does not permit high lottery. So, you know, it's difficult for us to control that. So our focus has been to continue to deliver upgraded platform, including best-in-class game recommendation engine, to continue to prove our superior capabilities in the marketplace. We've got the 11 customers live right now in U.S. as well as in Europe. And also expand our content offering to the markets where we don't have the platform. And we mentioned we've launched in Virginia, as well as several other markets. We expect to be online when Massachusetts launches, et cetera. So I think we're positioned really well in terms of what else is going to be launched We have the platform for a couple of markets, including New Jersey, and we think there's a good chance our lottery launches in New Jersey, Missouri. That is coming up, we believe, in the future. And I think Sao Paulo will be pretty interesting over time. And then also the development, I think, of the games, including progressive jackpot games and potentially multi-state games as well. So we're busy constantly innovating. We think that's the thing to do as we see how things progress. But as we've said in the past, we believe the lottery directors around the country – are very aware of the success that the states who have launched iLottery, the success they've had, and the accelerated growth profile that they've enjoyed. And clearly, I think that's something that they're very focused on. Exactly where the next ones come from, we're not sure. And I would say one other item as well, as you think about the digitization opportunity as being an area for growth for lotteries. And, of course, one of the reasons is it gives you, in addition to convenience, which is what the couriers offered, what the couriers don't offer that we offer in a full-fledged iLottery market is the eInstant games, which are an experience that's very different from traditional scratch cards and pretty pretty fun and exciting different experience that players clearly enjoy. And just one other item around the area, I'm not even sure if I would call it innovation, but just how lotteries could have potential incremental growth opportunity, and that's been in the area of cashless. So the cashless adaptation in markets is fairly low, And, you know, when you think about, you know, digital as the way that everybody's transacting, you know, most states aren't even permissive of non-cash transactions, which is, you know, astonishing given, you know, given it's 2026. And again, I know the lotteries are aware of the trend among consumers to embrace cashless. And I think there's several states that are either adding or considering adding cashless, starting off with the machines, with the lottery machines. And I think that will also have the opportunity to significantly increase purchases. And we've seen the states that do provide for cashless have had a significantly greater amount of sales per transaction as a result of that. And we're not, the numbers are difficult, but, you know, we also believe that the number of transactions are greater as well. All right. Thanks for all that. Appreciate it. Sure thing.

We have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to Vince Sadusky, CEO, for closing remarks.

Yeah, it was a solid start to the year based on the strength of our global portfolio and really good discipline execution by the team. And, again, we think that reinforces the continued resilience of Lottery. As we look ahead, we're executing well against our strategic priorities. We're investing in our higher return growth initiatives, such as iLottery and B2C in Italy. And we also believe that we have good visibility in the second half of the year for businesses good revenue and profit drivers. We remain focused on our execution, our strong cash generation, long-term value creation, and we appreciate everybody continuing to support Brightstar and your interest in the company. Thank you.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.