Greek Organistn Football

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Constantinos, your course call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the OPAP-SA conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the second quarter 2021 earnings results and online business focus. All participants on the audio conference will be in a listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, You may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Jan Karas, CEO of OPAP SA. Mr. Karas, you may now proceed.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our financial results call today in the very special format where you can not only hear us, but in case you connected through the web link, also see us. Please rest assured that we have taken all the safety measures that you may enjoy watching us without the masks. The key reason for that special format today is besides the usual agenda, we would like to share with you also more of the forward-looking trends focusing on how we plan to explore our opportunities in online. And that, accompanied with some more details on the subject of our dividend policy and the addendums. For that reason, besides the usual presenter, our CFO, Pavel Mucha, we have with us today also several important guests. Starting from the right, James Kerven, our Chief Online Officer in OPAP. And on my left side, George Daskalakis, Founder and the CEO of Sychymen. And Pavlos Kanelopoulos, CFO of Sychymen. Gentlemen, welcome. We will start with the usual agenda, where Pavel and I will take you through the H1 financial results. And then I will hand over to my colleagues to share with you the additional topics we have prepared for you. Let me start right away with the key highlights of the last six months. Despite the fact that the COVID-related circumstances have raised a series of challenges on our business, you may remember that our last communication involved a fair degree of cautious optimism about the future outlook. We are excited that our reported results moved along the express lines of confidence due to strong online contribution, encouraging retail recovery, aided by full commercial back-to-the-game plan, and very importantly, persisting VLT momentum. We will speak about these later in our presentation. Now, operationally wise, the launch of our loyalty program that we spoke about before in April has brought intangible results. The digitalization of our retail network offering is continuing at full speed, and we are now ready to launch our new exciting op-up store app, enabling the in-store play on the customer device. Now, that's for the quick intro. I'm handing over now to Pavel to take you through the financial results of the first half of the year.

Thank you, Jan, and good afternoon, everybody. Q2 was indeed a very strong quarter, and several KPIs have been significantly improved. But before going to the numbers and starting, as always, with macro developments, it is true that delta wave brings us some uncertainty. But all other indicators, early tourism numbers in July and August, indicate very strong recovery and it's also supported by consumer confidence and economic sentiment figures and all that implies that the GDP projections will most probably be met and possibly even surpassed. Now moving on to Q2 results, the total GGR in Q2 came at our Q2 figures were characterized by retail reopening and strong contribution of online with GGR more than doubling compared to the respective period in last year. In Q2 21, our total GGR came in at 396 million, which is up by 120% year on year. Moving on to the first half of the year, the total GGR came in at 570 million. Stichyman full consolidation led the half-year figures grow by 12%, despite the fact that our shops in the first half of 2021 were closed almost for the double of the period, double of the days, versus the same period in 2020. Now, focusing on the individual segments, the lottery rose by 46% in Q2, on the back of the retail reopening on April 12th, while online joker continued upward trend for yet another quarter, constantly attracting the new customers. Betting increased to $132 million, with Sticheman being obviously a large part of that, and op-ups online also growing, while online casino reached almost €49 million. Finally, VLTs came in at €36 million, which, given the long-term shutdown in the previous period, is more than satisfying performance, and we believe it sets the tone for the remainder of the year. When it comes to the distinction between the channels, It is evident that retail reopening was successful, while online continued to perform well as well. Both OPAP Online and Sticheman managed to increase considerably their revenue on year-on-year level, with OPAP's quarterly performance reaching $16 million higher, that is by 60% year-on-year, at the same time staying close to all-time highs despite the retail reopening. Stichemann growth in the first half of the year reached 81%, with the company generating really exceptional numbers on every front and customers exceeding the 200,000 threshold. Jumping on to the cost side, the full consolidation of Stichemann is obviously distorting overall figures on a group basis. Q2 payroll decreased by 11% on a like-for-like basis at 17.7 million, while marketing costs reached 18 million euro on a like-for-like basis versus 10.8 in Q2 2020, which reflects the revamp of our marketing actions and also support of our shops, shops reopening and also the Euro event. Finally, other OPEX decreased to €25.8 million, lower by 12% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis. And please note that our P&L continues to be burdened by the decision to record Hellenic Lottery's increased GGR contribution according to the annual contractual threshold of €50 million, so as to stay prudent despite the fact that we have already filed an arbitration request. All in all, the combined impact of revenue growth along with efficient cost control and the positive P&L impact of the concession extension shaped the Q2 EBITDA of $143 million and the relevant margin of 36.2%, which should grow further assuming a normal and uninterrupted full year. Net profit reached 71.9 million, which in turn led to a strong operating cash flow in the first half of the year of 140 million. Investment-wise, we spent 19 million related to the acquisition of Stichemann, as well as 10 million for the acquisition of new five-year online licenses in both sports betting and casino. Overall, our strong profitability, together with limited investment, but more importantly, higher visibility going forward, led us to the decision to distribute interim dividend per share of 10 euro cents on top of the 55 euro cents which were distributed just one month ago. Our net debt to EBITDA as of 30th of June stands at 1.3 times, And this, going forward, our substantially strong financial position, together with a bright outlook, makes us fully confident that our dividend policy will remain more than rewarding for our shareholders. We will share a bit more information on that in one of the next sections of our presentation. With that, I'm passing you back to Jan.

Thank you, Pavel. So continuing on the operational and business update, let me share with you some interesting information from our retail estate. So as Pavel mentioned, the COVID has hit us more stronger this year than last year. But despite that fact, we continue our retail excellence program and modernization of our stores. We have opened for our customers another 140 new and upgraded stores in the first half of the year. With that, the share of these new stores are reaching more than 40% of our estate. We keep up on digitalizing the retail experience. We introduced centrally managed audio setup in almost 500 of our stores, and we continue adding the audio as an important element of the experience. We are concluding the beacon installation with more than 3,000 of our stores already covered. Just to remind you, the beacon technology is something that will enable us very soon now launch the Op-App Store app that we genuinely believe will be a true innovation for the retail sector, aiming to boost the digital experience. We have already started reaping the merits from the Op-App Rewards Program launched back in April, reaching more than 400,000 registered customers, and on a daily basis, 40,000 to 50,000 Active users are enjoying the benefits of the app and are using it. Furthermore, we have boosted the customer experience during summer with hundreds of thematic in-store events, pursuing our ambition to provide more entertainment. Important driver of our solid recovery has been, as always, our commercial plan. In this case, the plan called Back to the Game, as connected to the retail network reopening. The key proposition I believe worth highlighting was certainly Euro 2020, which proved to be a great opportunity to reach out to our customers, bring them back, and keep the engagement with better-than-ever product proposition that we have offered for this special event, supported by a 360 campaign. Virtual's revamp, spicing up the game with significantly upgraded visuals and new highlights. Another important element was launch of Leico Summer Edition, aiming to revive customers' interest in one of the key heritage games within the Greek gaming industry. And last but not least, we have had an extended summer campaign across all verticals of our retail business. The result? The GGR performance at similar levels as in 2019. And I am particularly excited about the performance of our legacy games, which, despite all the indoor seating limitations, has shown great resilience and, without any doubt, aided by the new loyalty program performed really well. Another great thing were VLTs, which have emerged after the reopening of the retail network as the key growth driver on the retail front. Moving on to our online, a few words from the online world. I'll try to be brief, not to steal the show from our colleagues later. As you can read from the charts, online is continuing recording very strong growth despite retail reopening, something that is very important for us, and we are experiencing the growth across all verticals. We also sustain very high levels of customer activity, and that trend continues. That's all on the first part from us. Let me now move to the promised forward-looking deep dives that we would like to share with you. Before I hand over to my colleagues, I would like to set the scene for you with a few facts about the Greek online market and our presence in it. Official numbers from AGC indicate that the market grew by more than 18% CAGR in the last eight years, also aided by the extra kick of the pandemic in 2020. Forward-looking estimates from H2GC are no less optimistic, foreseeing another 12% plus CAGR growth over the years to come. Stichemann and OPAP 2020 market share is around 49%, and as such, we believe we are very well positioned to benefit from this expected growth of the market. New online licenses have been awarded in May, and since August, all 15 license operators operate under the same rules from the regulatory and legal perspective, which was not necessarily the case in the past years. It's also important to mention that 12 out of the 15 have been already present in the market and we have only three new entrants. In terms of Greek online market penetration, the development, as you can see on the left side, the development and the growth trends are similar to EU and the current amounts of penetration are reaching and closing to the EU average. It's something that I consider especially encouraging given the fact that Greece is generally slightly behind EU in terms of smartphone and digital adoption and shows great opportunities we have on this market. Online penetration within OPAP that you can see on the right side, besides strong growth of OPAP's own proposition that we discussed on the quarterly basis, has been driven by acquisition of Sticheman business that you may see reflected in the numbers starting December 2020. We remain strong after retail reopening with our online performance, and the expectations for this KPI of online penetration within OPAP Group is to land at around 29% at the end of this year. And we are also confident that this performance is here to stay and grow stronger heading towards mid-30s in the mid to long term. Few years back, we have envisaged a dual strategy And the journey has started two and a half years ago with the first investment in Sticheman, leading operator in Greece, and brought us here today, holding 84.5% stake and sole control of Greek and Cypriot business. We are extremely proud of having Sticheman as part of the OPAP group. Sticheman offers betting and iGaming, as you can see on the chart on the right, leveraging their own top-tier internal liberal platform, giving them significant competitive advantage. As a brand and customer proposition, Sticheman operates completely independently from OPAP online. On the OPAP side, we aim to leverage one of the most complete offerings in the industry, supported by a very strong heritage brand. As such, we will, of course, continue to develop our non-exclusive portfolio of betting and iGaming, but also equal attention will be paid to bringing the power of OPAP's exclusive lottery games to online. With that, we are confident that our dual strategy in online will help us not only to defend our position against current and possible future competitors, but also, very importantly, achieve further growth. Now, with that, I'm handing over to James Kirvan, who will take you through more details on our plans regarding OPAP online. James, over to you.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'll be taking you through some insights into our current and future plans going forward. And first of all, I'd like to just talk about the fact that... Thank you. So first of all, we are modernizing our proposition and our brand. We've done a lot of insight and research into our customers through our data. And what we found so far is that 70% of our customers are 35 plus, and we need to target millennials going forward. It's very important that we do that. They're the new generation of spenders. 30% of our customers are also female, and we need to get a more even split between our female and male customers. One thing that we are working on in our brand awareness is is our online customers on our main brand, Pam Stickema. Only 15% of them play with us exclusively. And our target is to increase our brand loyalty into 2022. And that will have a big impact on our customer base. I think when we look at iLottery, what we can see from our retail players, we know that 50% of them in retail play more than just Joker. And that means that our confidence into launching more products in online will have a big difference to our numbers going forward. Next, if we have a look at our non-exclusive portfolio and our enhancements, this is our PAM Stikima brand. We currently offer a full sports betting and casino product. But we need to work hard over the next months to On lots of enhancements in in-play and our UX and UI, that's a key focus for us. We're also looking at our virtuals. We're adding 100 new virtual games, so there'll be around-the-clock availability. This should also target a different generation of millennial traffic. On our casino, we're spending a lot of time on our in-house and new development team. We are building our own casino website with fresh look and feel and innovative content, again, targeting a different audience. And we're also looking to become the leading live casino provider in Greece. I think this is a key area to aim for more high-value customers. And overall, building a stronger gaming awareness, because at the moment, our brand resonates more with the Sportsbook customer, and we need it to grow. go over all of our product base. When we have a look at our exclusive products, our current offer is Joker. It's the biggest lottery game in Greece, and it has the highest awareness, and we drive really good traffic through this. But at the moment, it's just one product, and we need to add the whole portfolio of both aspirational and achievable prizes to our product and our exclusive product. In retail at the moment, they have a fuller breadth of products, and we will be adding those in the future. We're going to be creating an online entertainment destination overall for numeric games. On our financials, it is clear to see that our online business is progressing in a very positive manner, quarter on quarter. Rapid growth was seen through the COVID lockdown periods, and this trend has accelerated our online business. GGR and actives remain strong on exiting the lockdown, and our expectations are to see significant year-on-year uplift over the short and long term, with our ambition to see six times multiple on our 2020 GGR and EBITDA margin exceeding 2020 group's margin of 23%. We are now in a phase of upgrading our non-exclusive products, both in front-end and in content, and we fully expect 2022 to be a year of full transformation. with exciting releases and new and innovative improvements that will excite our customers. We are also looking to leverage our exclusive iLottery portfolio by adding more content, and this will have a significant financial uplift, which will in turn drive our actives to new heights. We fully expect over the next five years to grow our active base by over 95%, therefore increasing the overall market share in Greece. Thank you.

Hello again.

Turns out my mic was turned off. So I was saying I'm happy to be here today. And along with my colleague, Pavlos Kanelopoulos, ICFO, we're going to be talking to you about Kaizen Gaming and, of course, focus on Stikman. So to begin with, a few introductory information about Kaizen Gaming. We've been online for the past nine years. and we're one of the leading and fastest growing operators of online gaming in Europe right now. As you probably know, we have two different brands, Stigma, which is very well known and is our brand for the Greek and Cypriot market, and Betano, which is our international brand. I would say that from the beginning, we've always been a company that's been focused on sports betting, and this is also evident in our breakdown when it comes to our GGR. Almost two-thirds of our revenue last year came from sports betting. At the same time, gaming has become more and more important for us. And in addition, the pandemic has accelerated its growth, and we can see a lot of traction in the gaming product as well. Stickman remains to be the dominant source of income for Kaizen Gaming. As you can see, almost three quarters of our revenue last year came from the Greek and Cypriot business. We're now active in six markets as we speak, So apart from Greece and Cyprus, where we are active with Sticheman, we are also active in Germany, Romania, Portugal, and Brazil under the brand of Betano. Right now, we are coming close to 700,000 unique active players across all markets. And of course, we are aiming to see this number grow to more than 1 million users in 2022. I would say that the two key components of what we achieved so far have been our people and technology. Our people, the passion of our people, Atima has grown from 20 people to more than 1,000 recently. And within that team, a very strong tech unit, which is, of course, crucial, not just for what we're doing now, but most importantly, for our future plans. At the same time, technology is becoming more and more important, and we have achieved this year to migrate all our operators, all our markets, to our new proprietary sports betting software, Ariadne. A few fact and figures about Stichman and Betano are the ones you can now see on your screen. We have a very rich sports betting offering. I talked to you earlier about our Ariadne platform. We are very happy. We believe Ariadne is a key for our future. The transition has been, I would say, very smooth for our new platform. And most importantly, it gives us the flexibility to have our own roadmap, have our own agenda, drive our product forward much faster, and also differentiate from the competition. We're handling a very large amount, as you can see, of transactions, which is continuously growing in a scalable and stable platform. And at the same time, we are very active when it comes to our relationship with sports and society. We are sponsors in clubs, football clubs in almost all the markets where we are active, also supporting amateur athletes. and taking a lot of social initiatives in the markets where our brands are present. We have received international recognition in the last three years from the market, but also when it comes to awards, I think one telling moment was when two years ago we won the EGR Operator, Mobile Operator of the Year Award. You understand this is a very prestigious award, and I think it came as a surprise to many. back then that we were the brand that won this, we take a lot of pride in our mobile and natives product. And, of course, it's a channel that's becoming more and more important with time, a crucial channel for any operator. So we are very happy to have such an acknowledged product when it comes to this key channel. In our markets, and to begin with Greece and Cyprus, two markets where we've become the market leader for quite a while now, with market shares that, according to the official numbers, range above the 40% mark. As it's also evident on the comment next to the Greek market share, this is based, of course, on the official data. There is probably some amount when it comes to the grey market. However, we believe and we hope, and as Jan said earlier, that now, starting with the licensing that took place in August, who will enjoy a level playing field going forward, which would be beneficial, of course, not just for us, but also for the industry in Greece and for the Greek state. When it comes to Arbitrano markets, the two markets where we have a bigger presence are Romania, the first market that we entered with a license back in 2016, and Portugal, which we entered two years ago. In both of these markets, it's estimated that we are the third biggest operator. usually behind local operators, local champions. According to the data that we have from HDC, it seems like we have more than 20% in Romania. To be honest with you, based on estimates that we have internally, we believe this percentage is probably closer to just below 20%, but there are no official data so that we can have conclusions like we do in Greece and Cyprus. In Portugal, where there are official data, We had 11% market share, which has actually, in the last quarter, grown to 15%. So we're enjoying a very fast growth in Portugal. As Jan mentioned earlier, our portfolio is mainly comprised from two components, our sports betting product and the online gaming product on our properties. When it comes to sports betting, it's, I would say, our strongest asset. We're well-known for our product, and all the customer surveys that we've been running across time have shown that we enjoy a lot of recognition for it, and it's actually the reason that people register with our brands. Of course, we do have gaming customers as well, but it's very common that gaming customers are ones that we cross-sell after they come in for our sports betting product. We have a very rich sports betting product, I would say we're one of those companies that do not focus on margin, but focus on the customer experience. And our aim is to entertain our players and bring revenue via engagement and not via high margins when it comes to our sportsbook. We have also supporting products like esports and fantasy, especially esports showing more promise for the future, though they are both quite small at the moment. When it comes to gaming, given a lot more focus during the last two, three years. One of the main reasons is that in the past, it was quite uncertain whether the online regulation in Greece would include RNG. This changed in the last couple of years. And after that, we paid a lot more attention to our product. We're continuously improving it, adding games to our portfolio, launching exclusive games with operators, having our own tables when it comes to live casino, and also some innovative initiatives, I would say. Going forward, we expect our gaming to continue growing fast, especially based on the evidence that we've seen in the past year. The numbers are very encouraging, not just in Greece and Cyprus, but in general. I believe the pandemic played a key role in that. Technology is at the forefront of everything that we do. We always like to call Kaizen a game tech because we're offering games via technology. I won't repeat how happy we are about Ariadne as a betting platform. We also have our own in-house bonus platform called Pandora. And don't get confused by its name. I can assure you it does not create the problems a Pandora box would. It actually does exactly the opposite. Also inspired from our Greek legacy, our Greek culture, I'm sorry, we call our own artificial intelligence automation platform Prometheus. Prometheus is a platform that is helping us process customer payments automatically without the interference of our own service agents. And I have to say that it's only one of the nine AI applications that are productive on our platform. It's an area where we have invested quite a bit during the last couple of years and we're starting to see very satisfying results. After those introductory comments, I will now happily pass you on for the main event to Pavlo. Pavlo?

Thank you, George.

The ball is yours.

I think I'm very pleased to share with you the financial performance of Sticheman. As you can see on the top left-hand side of the screen, the GGR growth of the company historically has been very strong. We enjoy a compound average annual growth of 30% from 2017 or 2020 and this of course didn't stop in 2021 where we enjoyed a much faster growth primarily due to the fact that in the first half of 2020 we had a decimated sportsbook calendar so this helped us illustrate a much stronger growth in 2021 however even if you take out the The 2020 levels, 2021 was a very satisfactory growth in terms of top line. On the bottom of the screen, you would see an equal and parallel growth of our monthly active players. We're taking out the Q2 of each year where it's historically a low season for our product. We have enjoyed sequential growth and of course during the Q4 of 2020 we had the jump of 40% in active customers. This was closely or primarily associated with the second lockdown that took effect in our Greek market. Now in the first half of the year we have maintained our level of active customers 2,000 players, corresponding to a monthly ARPU of over 160 euros per player, which is a very healthy metric for the industry. Now, on the top right-hand side of your screen, you could see our profitability. As the business is scaling, you would see that our margins have grown. We have always been a profitable company. By the end of the year, we finished the year at 55 million EBDA and a margin of just over 20%. And for the first half of the year, we enjoyed a very healthy profitability for the business at 39 million euros. This, of course, corresponds to an over 400% growth, but this is not... a micro depiction since, you know, first half of 2020. It was not a normal year for us or a normal half year for us since, you know, last year we didn't have any activity during two months of, you know, three months, half of March until end of June. There was no sportsbook calendar for our players to play on. So it's not a micro depiction, but still, 2021, in all metrics, it has been a very profitable half of the year. Now, in terms of outlook, we believe that our strategy is to go after and defend our leading market positions, both in Greece and Cyprus. We will be aiming to grow our customer base as we have done for the past several years. And of course, along with this, we expect to have absolute growth in our top line, both for 2021, but also in the future. And this, of course, will come with an improvement of our EBITDA levels for 2021. And our aim is to maintain a healthy heightens growth, heighten margin in Arabida for the following years. Now, our business requires constant investment in technology, people, and focus on the front end and the back end of our product. And all these years has been our focus and we continue to do so. Nonetheless, the initial investment has been done, so we are not expecting to have substantial capex requirements for this product. And, of course, Stichemann is enjoying the scaling of the business of the other brand, so it's not paying exclusively for these developments and it's sharing the expenses. So, all in all, we are very pleased with the performance and we expect this to continue in a stable, environment that the licenses that were provided in August of this year gives us a plain level field and an arena where we can plan and enjoy the competitive environment in the Greek and the Cypriot market. I have completed the analysis, and I think I'll pass the floor to Pavel to talk about the concession agreement.

Thank you, Pavlos. So you have just heard from James, George, and Pavlos the details of our online strategy, which will form one of the important pillars of the future of pub growth. I would like now to take the opportunity of this extended call to remind you again about another important factor that will contribute to future strong financial performance of OPAP, and that is the extension of concession agreement for lottery and retail sports betting for 2020 to 2030. A little bit of history to remind. Back in 2011, OPAP signed addendum to lottery and betting extension for years 2020 to 2030. And OPAP paid a consideration of 375 million euro. In 2013, amendment to addendum was signed, which specified that 300 million out of 375 corresponded to GGR contribution prepayment for the 10 years period. The addendum stipulates that this GGR contribution prepayment has a future value of 1.83 billion spread over the 10 years. And as of October 2020, OPAP indeed implemented this 10-year extension of concession agreement. And accordingly, the GGR contribution rate has dropped from 35% to 30% for the next 10 years. 25 percentage points out of the 30% was already prepaid, so on a cash basis, OPAP now pays only 5% GGR contribution for the next 10 years. At the same time, OPAP also recognizes in the P&L 1.83 billion prepayment of the GGR contribution. At the end of the decade, the agreement with the Greek state prescribes for a settlement mechanism based on which OPAP and the Greek state should counterbalance the 10-year cash payments of 5% GGR contribution rate plus the amount of 183 billion, which was prepaid, net of any corporate tax impact. And this is counterbalanced against the nominal tax rate of 30%. The difference will be paid as a settlement fee either way, OPAP to Hellenic Republic or Hellenic Republic to OPAP in 2031. This benefit has been already reflected in our EBDA and cash flow since October 2020. Here I'm showing just a difference between the previous and new tax regime on an example of €1 billion of theoretical GGR for the games under this concession. I believe it is self-explanatory, so rather than going through it in detail, I'll give you just the key highlights. In a nutshell, the EBITDA is increased by €265 million, which is a sum of the reduction of the GGR contribution rate from 35% to 30%, plus the $183 million prepaid back in 2013, plus an amount offsetting increased corporate tax burden as a result of higher profitability, less higher commission paid to our agents because their commission is NGR-related. This EBDA upside then obviously translates into net profit upside. And also please note that the free cash flow of $228 million is higher than net profit also because the settlement amount, which is charged to the P&L now, does not become payable until 2031. And here is just a reminder that what I just described is applicable for the next 10 years. So basically this one billion of GGR over 10 years would bring over the 10 years positive EBITDA upside of 2.6 billion euro and free cash flow upside of 2.2 billion euro. And at the same time, we will have to pay additional settlement amount of 93 million in 2031. With that, I'm moving to the last part of my presentation, and that is our future dividend policy. The mechanism of the 2020 to 2030 license agreement, which I just described, will be obviously one of important sources of future shareholder returns, obviously together with ongoing strong OPAP financial performance, which will be the result of delivery of our strategy. So I will now conclude my part with reassurance about our dividend policy. I will start with the reminder of the dividend payment since 2013, i.e. from the year when OPAP was fully privatized. OPAP was consistently paying dividends every year and providing strong shareholder returns already in the past, with average dividend yield over the period reaching 9.2%. Going forward, we continue to be committed to provide shareholders with annual dividend distribution, and we intend to give maximum possible amounts which we can. If you look at the historical dividend payments, you can see some fluctuations in the past, but by committing now to maximum possible amount for future and also being helped by the new tax regime, which I just described, You can expect that the minimum floor on the annual dividends will be one euro dividend per share as a minimum. We intend to distribute dividend consistently and regularly twice a year as interim dividend and final dividend with interim being announced always with the half-year results. There will be also occasions for special dividend distributions going forward. That way, we intend to distribute in full not only the net profits of the given year, but also all retained earnings and also, at some stage, all the share premium which is being built up as a result of script dividend. So to conclude from me on the dividends, our business strategy together with favorable tax regime will secure regular, consistent, and high shareholder returns going forward. With that, I hand you over back to Jan for his closing remarks. Thank you, Pavel.

I hope you have enjoyed the presentations. Before we close this part, let me sum up a few of the key messages we were trying to convey. Our retail shows great recovery, and with our exclusive concessions, the digital innovations, and smart anonymization of the base, we believe we are certain it will remain very strong. In online, for all the reasons that you have heard today, we will sustain our leading position and grow in absolute terms. This will help us further increase our profitability as OPAP group, aided also by the addendum effect. With healthy and high cash generation, we will provide substantial dividend payout, continuing our generous shareholders' reward. Speaking on behalf of all of us, we are very confident on this optimistic outlook. Now I'm handing over to the operator, closing the first part and opening the floor for your questions.

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time we'll begin the question and answer session. Questions will be taken from the webcast participants and those in audio conference participating using the telephone. Anyone in the audio conference who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, then you may press star and two. Please use your handset when asking your question for better quality. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question is from the line of Draziotis Tamadis with Eurobonds Equities. Please go ahead.

Yes, hi there, and thank you very much for taking my questions, and it's really great hearing the views of Stigman's management team, very useful insights indeed. I have three questions lined up, if I may, please. My first question actually relates to your land-based business. Just looking at the presentation, and you are basically referring to Python character performance since June for the legacy games. just wanted to make sure I understand correctly, could you tell us the extent of normalization of trading just for your over-the-counter business, so excluding any contribution from online, which is reported in lotteries and betting, and give us your thoughts as to how how this might shape in the next couple of years, because clearly there's going to be a return to normality, but on the other hand, maybe there is going to be migration from the retail channel to online. So that's the first question. Second question has to do with the online market landscape, and I guess, you know, either you or speaking on Steam can address that. You mentioned that there was a significant number of licensees having acquired the license, but most of these are actually already existing players. Just wondering what exactly you think You know, this means from a competitive point of view, will competition ramp up? Do you expect margins to, you know, to come under some sort of pressure? And, well, I'll let you answer these two questions, and I will proceed with the others after that.

Thank you. Thank you for your questions. I will go ahead on the first one. I'll let my colleagues, online experts, to answer the second one. So regarding your point about retail, just a clarification if it was not clear from my presentation. When I was referring to a strong recovery and good performance of our legacy games, I was referring entirely to retail. So not retail and online. I was referring to retail, and that's why we are so so pleased with the performance, and we strongly believe this was deeply aided by the early success of the loyalty scheme and the whole trend of the anonymization of the retail base and CRM campaigns connected with that. So that's just to clarify. Second, you were referring to going back to normality. I think I would say It's second half of 2021, and honestly, we don't believe too much into going back to normality of 2019. I think the customer expectations, mindset, way of thinking, preferences has changed and shifted so much that there is not going to be such a thing as going back to normal. We are much more adopting to the new normal, and given our results, I believe we are adopting very successfully, and that's something we will continue to do. The full extent of the Delta variant still remains to be seen. I believe we are well prepared for anything that could come down our way, and we are very optimistic about the retail outlook. So if you ask me, I think much more of a challenge than possible online cannibalization of our retail business is this adoption to the new normal and new preferences of our customers. That's why we invest so much effort and emphasis into digitalization of our retail and smart the anonymization of the base so that we can understand the customer needs better and address them better in whatever the future brings. I hope I covered your question, and I will hand over to my colleagues on their remarks about the outlooks on online market landscape.

George, you want to start? Thank you, Jan. When we talk about the regulated era, I think it was also mentioned earlier in the presentation by Jan. We're talking about 12 of the 15 licenses being companies that were already active in the Greek market before the licenses were issued. I think that the competitive landscape will not change a lot. Nobody can rule out that more companies, of course, will apply in the coming months or years. But from the international experience, I would say that when there are so many operators in a market, And let's say the pie has been distributed up to an extent. It is not very easy for new operators to come in and obtain a significant share. They have to really, you know, boast of some competitive advantage of some sort that will make them stand apart from the competition. I don't think this is very easy right now, as also most of the leading online operators are already active in Greece. Do we expect the competition to increase? Definitely. It has been increasing during the last few years and it will continue to increase. And as always, the market leader faces pressure from that. We are very confident in our plans and the experience we offer to our customers in our brand equity. I would expect that our absolute market share, which, again, what we saw earlier we cannot say is accurate because it's only an outcome of the officially declared figures by the Hellenic Gambling Commission. I would expect this market share to slightly decrease over time. I've been in this industry for 20 years. I'm not familiar with any market where the market leader had almost half of the market captured in the long term. However, I strongly believe that the growth of the market will lead to a final absolute result, which will continue to be bigger and bigger in the coming years, even if our market share slightly decreases. So, overall, I remain confident about the coming years. And I believe Stichman will continue to come up with excellent performance and will continue leading the market and setting the pace for the Greek online industry.

Thank you.

I think we are ready for next question. The next question is from Mr. Young Ed with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

First of all, I appreciate the online offer is very sports-led. I just wonder if you could talk about the impact of maximum online casino stakes in the market. Could you remind us when you lap those? Do you think those measures might be relaxed at some point? If not, do you think the grey market might end up taking up some more of that market growth you're excited about? And if it is relaxed, what do you think the impact will be on your BLT business? And the second one, you've obviously struck a very confident and positive tone in this update. Is it a fair conclusion for us to draw that you don't think the upside of the business is sufficiently reflected in the Bloomberg consensus that you published in the presentation? Thank you.

Hi, Ed.

So I'll answer your first question, at least from the outlook we have at Stichman right now. It's quite early days. And what I mean by that is that the new regime was launched on August 5th. I hope that most of you know what August means for Greece, our society. And for those who don't, I have to tell you that it's a a month that is characterized by holidays. It's a classic holiday season. In addition, of course, there's not a lot of mainstream football leagues going on. And especially this year, I have to say, everybody seemed to really need a good holiday in August. And why am I mentioning this? Because usually every year it's September that we really draw our first conclusions about our performance for the new season. Because actually we do think in football seasons, to be honest with you, when we talk internally as a company, we plan. Of course, we have annual plans and annual budgets, but we are like a football team. And for us, the new season begins every September. So we have seen the initial, let's say, effect of the new limit. What is difficult is to conclude what this will be, because we have already seen every week a different outcome. Over early, we definitely, you know, hurt us a bit. We are seeing at the same time a small increase in the live casino, so some of the users are increasing their spend in live casino. And also we are seeing users returning and starting to become accustomed in this way of playing. So I think we will... We need probably a month. I would say that in early October we'll have more conclusions because also now we are registering a lot of players, reactivating a lot of players with the start of the new season, which in Greece, by the way, started just this weekend. It doesn't start early like the Premier League in England, for example. It started only on Saturday and the Champions League just started yesterday. So I would probably say it would be best if we start talking about figures in October, otherwise now, you know, if you asked me last week, I would give you something different from today, and probably next week, I will give you something different. I think in October, we'll be in a position to make a good first evaluation of the effect of the TUR limit.

Yeah, I mean, for me, I would agree with George. We see numbers different every week. Of course, it has an impact, especially with the higher value customers because they're having to change their behaviors. What I've seen before, because I come from more regulated markets than here, is that over time customers get used to the way that they play. And I think that all we're going through now is a process of customers actually getting used to playing different maximums than they're used to. We've also seen an uplift of live casino, and that's why you see from our slide deck the online strategy for our brand is to put more focus there for those customers, and we're seeing a transition there as well. But we're monitoring it, as is George, on a weekly basis, not even on a monthly basis, and we think there will be some changes going forward.

In terms of the part of your question as to a possible change of the current status quo, let me remind you that this is completely in the decision of AGC and the Ministry of Finance for them to decide, and we have no information and updates on that front.

Okay, I will take the second question. Yes, I think the Bloomberg forecast, which we included in the presentation in terms of EBDA, we believe with the current good performance, which you've heard both in retail and online, that we should get there or thereabouts in terms of EBDA of 2021. There is obviously one strong disclaimer, assuming that the operating environment, retail environment remains as it is now. But with the pandemic, we believe with some progress of the vaccination in Greece, we don't believe there will be another lockdown coming. But we can't rule out any more restrictive measures in terms of opening hours and things like that. But if things remain as they are, we should be getting very close to these numbers.

And just one quick follow-up then. On next year's or the year after, you're clearly talking about retail and legacy businesses performing sort of in line with where they are, online upside plus tax upside. Are those forward numbers too conservative or do you think they reflect well the kind of range of outcomes you'd expect given what you said today?

I think going forward... Again, we will see how pandemic shapes the result. But when we think about total OPAP business online and retail combined, again, what's depicted there as a sort of average or base case estimate, I don't think that's far away from what OPAP business can achieve. Thanks very much.

The next question is from the line of Chohan Virendra with Alpha Value.

Please go ahead. Thank you for taking my questions. I have a couple of them. So the first one is around the online GGR that we saw for the quarter, Q2 specifically. I noticed that there's been kind of a slowdown Q1 to Q2. while most of the other operators have reported sequential growth in the same timeframe. So is that reflective of one increased competition or is there something else that I'm probably missing? And then secondly, on the EBITDA margin, I think now that we have had an entire half with the effects of both online as well as the effect of the transition agreement, is this 36% thereabout a bit of margin reflective of what we could probably expect in the longer term from here? That's it from my side. Thank you.

I'll take the first one. It's a simple answer. The Q1 versus Q2 difference is driven by the retail network opening that has happened early Q2. And that obviously had a major impact on the Greek market customers' behaviors.

Okay. Okay, so just a follow-up. Would that mean that there's been a similar contraction in the overall online market as well?

That's correct, yes.

And the second question about the BDA margin. Yes, indeed. What we've recorded for the first part of the year is around 36.2. And as I already mentioned, it was definitely impacted by the pandemic. You know, you have to bear in mind that the retail network was shut down. So definitely our GGR performance was not normal. And although we were cutting the cost base, you still have running fixed costs, which you can't avoid. So definitely the margin... was so far impacted by the pandemic, and the 36% is definitely not full reflection of true OPAP financial performance. The margin going forward will be moving upwards.

Okay. Just one more question that I had. Can I just ask that as well? Yes, please. On the online business, and that's from your slide where you're showing the potential of the OPAP online business. And I've seen the box there that you have a CAGR of more than 45%. So is that the kind of target that you're targeting for the OPAP? Is that the right understanding?

Apologies, wouldn't you mind to repeat the question? We have troubles to hear you.

Yeah, in the slide, OPAP online financial performance in your presentation, I see that you have mentioned envisaged five-year CAGR of more than 45%. So is that the understanding that, you know, that's some kind of outlook or target for OPAP's online growth from the 2020 base.

Yes, that's correct. And it will be driven not only by a non-exclusive portfolio where, as you've heard, the market is quite saturated and very competitive, but that's definitely the result that we are planning to bring much more wide lottery portfolio into online, which has definitely better payouts than sports betting or casinos. So it will be the fact that we want to bring more significant lottery portfolio into online. So that's why we have such a big ambition.

We are very strong in retail today in this area, and we are talking about exclusive online offers. So we believe that is certainly a great opportunity for us.

And just one last follow up from my side on this. So we've noticed with other lottery firms in other geographies where they have significant margin differential between offline to online in the lottery space especially and even up to twice the margin. So is that something that you expect by the lottery shift? Do you see online lottery margins being significantly higher

Our strategy for online, if you are referring to iLottery, how specifically we will approach the market, there is something that is currently in the kitchen, and we are outlining our go-to-market strategy where the margins and payouts are part of the exercise. So I would kindly abstain from answering that now. I hope you could hear me. I hear myself. If you can hear us, we apologize. We cannot hear anything here.

Osman, we apologize.

I heard a question about Stichman, but we only heard the last words that you said because you had an issue with the sound. So if you are kind enough to repeat the question, thank you.

Sure, sure. So first part is first half Siheman margin was about 20%. What's the output for the rest of the year and potential for 22? And also for the longer term, you have 15 as the output for Siheman, but you have OPPOP online at 23%. So just wondering what's driving that difference. And I have another question on a separate topic afterwards.

Thank you. First half of the year was particularly strong. Second half of the year, we don't expect to meet the same level of margin, but we'll be very close to that. Of course, it's still very much related with sportsbook margin. which is not in our control. And we will need to factor in, which is not part of the first half results, the unknown yet effect from August 5th imposition of the limits on RNG casino. So our aim is to maintain a high tin levels of EBITDA margin going forward. But again, second half of the year will be somehow different from the first half of the year.

Okay. And the second part of the question, the reason why we predict a better margin on OPAP is, again, the portfolio. On a non-exclusive, it's difficult, given the payouts, to go higher than what was described by Pavlos. But because we are planning to bring lottery products, which have lower payouts than... than sports betting and casino. That's why we can forecast a little bit higher margin on op-up online. It's due to exclusive games, lottery games.

Thank you for that. And if I could follow up on your dividend strategy, and particularly about the rationale of paying a relatively limited 10% Okay.

Well, we had a lot of discussions about the interim dividend, and we want to give it because we believe the performance is good. Now, you have to bear in mind what's our net profit, which we generated for the first half year. It wasn't definitely a normal year. The retail, which is the bigger part of the business, was closed. So we wanted to give proportionate level of interim dividend. We didn't give any interim dividend last year and the year before. When we were giving the interim dividend in earlier years, it was also 10 euro cents. Going forward and things normalizing post-pandemic, you can expect the interim dividend to be higher than 10 euro cents. But now we took cautious decision again because of pandemic and because of what we created in the first half of the year to give 10 euro cents.

Perfect. And maybe a small follow-up on the online lottery products. Is there any other in terms of timing or ramp-up of expansion we expect?

Well, as you have heard from James, we certainly intend to significantly strengthen our portfolio during next year. Very specific time plans is something we will share with you at the later stage once the whole technical, legal, compliance, commercial aspects of the whole go-to-market plan will be clarified.

Thank you very much.

The next question is from the line of Birbos Dimitris with Optima Bank. Please go ahead.

Yes, good evening, gentlemen. Thank you for your presentation. Actually, I have two questions from my side. The first one has to do with your prediction about the online GDR growth in the next... six years, almost double size versus 2020. So I'm wondering if this could translate into some pressure on your retail betting offering, and what other ways to defend your land-based offering? This is my first question. And my second question has to do with Stigman. The first one has to do With your marketing expenses, is there any guideline, let's say, percentage of DDR for each year in order to have some, let's say, visibility on this specific cost element? And my second question has to do with the potential entry of some new players in the market or some extra competition. So what are the ways to defend your market share, which is currently 42%? You said that it might come down a bit less, a bit lower, so would you expect higher odds, more bonuses to players, more advertisement? What are the strategies to defend your overall market position?

Thank you. All right, I will take the first spot. Yes, you are right that, obviously, growing online with all the ambitions we have ahead of us, it would be naive to expect that it will not take its toll in the retail network. Yet, we remain optimistic about the future continuous strong position of retail for two main reasons. One is that despite the online cannibalization, there is a lot of opportunities in digitalization that we have already embarked on the journey, and we are certainly delivering and upgrading the experience. The one particular step that is just around the corner is enabling customers to play on their customer device and that not just placing a bet, but also paying for their bet and collecting the winnings while in the store. So bringing the experience of placing a bet and enjoying the game itself closer between the retail and online world, something that is particularly important for the younger generation. And very importantly, the second aspect besides the digitalization of the customer journey is, and that is the entertainment. So that's the unique and essential benefit of the retail network. And that's why we so much believe in its future is because it can always offer the real life experiences, socializing of people, seeing the games on a large screen, being together, playing together. And that's something that has certainly resonated well with our customers in the past now. And we believe that is something here to stay, judging from the customer feedbacks and the success of the business we have seen so far. Last but not least, as I have referred a few times to a very important topic, and that is the anonymization, or as we say, smart, the anonymization of the retail customer base, something that will give us hundreds of thousands of data points about specific customers, how they play, what they play, what they want, And that is something we can then convert into successful CRM cross-sell and up-sell campaigns. Again, something that has very much materialized as part of the success in our online and in VLTs where we are doing it today. So combination of digitalization, data, CRM, and building more entertainment, we believe are the key success factors that will not only compensate the possible online cannibalization, but also enable, explore the opportunities for further growth.

Yeah, thank you. So we have the other two questions about thinking, man.

Yeah, Dimitri Kalispera, I will answer those questions for you. I will probably actually answer the second part because when it comes to the first part, I'm afraid I won't be able to provide you with any mid-long-term guidance on the marketing expenses as we speak. And the reason for that is that we are evaluating the situation after the recent market opening and all the changes that were implemented, including... the RNG limits and the additional tax. So this is something that we'll be weighing up our options on and rest assured that we will fiercely defend our market lead. Talking about our market lead, I think that we're not a company that the basis is attracting us on offering the highest price or the biggest bonuses. We believe that our biggest asset is the customer experience that we offer and we'll continue investing in that. And in my personal opinion, this is the only way to be successful in the long term and not bonusing and short-term acquisition efforts. We need to be scalable and stable, which is very important. And apart from the customer experience that I mentioned, which will be boosted a lot by our recently launched proprietary sports betting platform, I think the second key asset for us is our brand, our brand equity. We've built this brand during the last nine years and it has a very high recognition. And we believe that we'll continue investing in our brand. And in all honesty, I think, like OPAP is a synonym of gaming for offline, we feel very happy that Stihman has equally become something similar, of course, with not such a rich history when it comes to online gaming. And we'll do everything that we can in order to provide this experience to our customers and make sure that we remain number one in the market. As I said earlier, I don't believe the 40s are a reasonable expectation, especially once we have the full market picture. But I would expect us to move in the mid-30s range in the long term. And that would definitely way offset the loss we have in market share, any loss, any small loss we have in market share would be way offset by the total growth of the market, and we expect to keep growing year to year. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I have a follow-up question about Betano. If you could tell us something about the profitability of this segment in 2020 or better in 2021, and what are the prospects of... the new markets in Germany and Brazil. I have seen that you have a lot of advertisement in Germany with Stuttgart sponsorship. So overall, what do you expect in terms of profitability and the prospects of Brazil and Germany, if you could share some insights about the new markets there. Thank you.

Yes, of course. When you talk about profitability, you have to understand Betano is a whole different case. Betano is something which is relatively new, and what we're aiming at is growth. Having said that, Betano was profitable in 2020, marginally profitable, and we expect the same thing to happen in 2021 by some very big surprise. The focus, though, is not on the EBITDA or the profit. The focus is on building an international brand and growing. I have to say that this is somewhat challenging. You have to compete with brands that have a much wider geographical coverage. And to build an international brand, you need range. So our focus right now is on growing this range. When it comes specifically to Germany and Brazil, I must say that Germany is a very difficult market, especially recently with the regulatory changes that took place. I would say it's a nightmare for most operators. Likely, we are not dependent on Germany because we didn't have a big position there. We are expecting to see what is going to happen in the next few months and if there are going to be any more changes or improvements. But I would say that right now Germany is something which is not on the spotlight for us. As for Brazil, it's for us a test market. We wanted to explore South America. Brazil is a big market. And as always, we only enter regulated markets or soon-to-be regulated markets. And Brazil is expected to be regulated in 2022. So I would say for us this is an experiment of expanding in LATAM. We believe there is potential there, but at the moment Brazil is also a market which is small for us. Romania and Portugal are the two markets where we have an established presence.

Thank you. Thanks a lot for your answers.

The next question is from the line of Dragiotis Tamatis with Eurobank Equity. Please go ahead.

Hello, again, yeah, just a couple of follow-ups, if I may, please. First one is operational. You talked about the maximum online casino stakes. Just wondering what the effect from the new regime regarding tax on winnings has been. Again, I know this was implemented in August, so probably you don't have many data points, but, you know, any comment would be very helpful. And the second question is a follow-up on the dividend. Just wondering what would be the trigger for a special dividend? And is this part of your intention, willingness, or the fact that you remain comfortable effectively going to a leverage ratio closer to two times EBITDA?

Hello again, Dimitri. On your first question, we have to be honest that the combination of the RNG limit and the newly imposed tax, although it's early days, will definitely have a sizable effect to our business. Having said that, we expect to continue showing growth in half two versus last year, very satisfying growth. So we remain confident, albeit the fact that it will somewhat hurt us about our profitability and our year-end results. Jan?

Yeah, I mean, we're in the same position as George. We're monitoring it every week. Obviously, everything has had an impact on us, especially with higher-value customers because, you know, they're not used to playing two euros. They're used to playing a lot more when they're... Over time, customers get used to playing in a specific way in a regulated market, and we think that over time it will normalize. But obviously at the moment, yes, we're all having an impact and dealing with that in the best way we can.

Thank you. In terms of the dividend, when I spoke about special dividend, I had especially the share premium on my mind. As I mentioned, Because of the script dividend, and it proves to be popular with a large number of not only the biggest shareholders, but many international institutional and free float investors, we are building, we are issuing lots of new shares with the share premium, and it's a substantial amount which we intend to distribute at some stage. So that's mainly what I meant. Certainly not to the second part of your question. Our thinking is not that we would increase the leverage closer to two times and use that for the dividend payment. That's certainly not what we would think being doing for the special dividend. It's the distribution of the share premium.

That's very helpful. Thank you.

If you wish to register for a question, please press 101 on your telephone. No further audio questions. We will now move to our webcast questions. First question is from Panik Yugalia with Wood and Company. And I quote, regarding Stichman online business, What is the outlook on EBITDA margin for the next couple of years, and what is the target for a matured EBITDA margin?

I think we have covered this. The outlook for the EBITDA margin, as we have detailed in our deck presentation, is a heightened EBITDA margin going forward. But still, the target for a mature EBITDA margin, still we're far away from that. When we're growing, you know, 30% year on year, and especially in this year, even more, I think we are far away from a mature level of a company or a target of EBITDA margin. So I think we're still enjoying the hyper growth that the digitization of the online gaming is giving us, and we will ride the wave for as long as it lasts.

The next webcast question is from Petr Grasovic with Intercapital Asset Management. And I quote, what is net debt to EBITDA including lead liabilities? That is the first question. The second question is, can you give me more details and the effect on bottom line on new player winning tax regime? Does that include both offline and online? And third question is, capex estimates for full year 21 and full year 22? Thank you.

Okay, so the first question, the net debt to EBITDA including lease liabilities is 1.3 times. The second question, James, you were there.

I mean, I think we've covered that already, I think, with George, that, you know, we're monitoring the effects now. And I think, you know, going forward, we'll be able to update you on the long-term effects of that. But at the moment, it's too early.

Indeed, it is certainly something we will be talking about in our Q3 financial results call. So let's wait for that. Too early now.

Okay, in terms of capex estimates for 2021 and 2022, we have declared that normally our normal capex is in the range of 20 to 25 million. I would say in 2021, we will finish below this. In 2022, we are still finalizing the plans, but again, there wouldn't be anything surprising. It would certainly not go above this level. But what I would mention for 21, what I said during my presentation, on top of these normal CAPEX in 21, we still paid 19 million for Sticheman acquisition. Also, we paid 10 million for the online licenses. And in 22, we will have to pay also some remaining amount for Sticheman acquisition.

Thank you. If I may kindly ask the moderator, leveraging the benefits of the digitally submitted questions, could we maybe go one by one so that the audience can hear the question and answer at the same time? If that's okay?

Of course. We'll do so. The next question is from Iakovos Kurtesis with Piroz Security. And his first question is, and I quote, do you have any particular time frame that you could share with us for the online launch of Kino or

As discussed before, we intend to bring these games to online during next year.

Second question is, any news on the arbitration with the Greek state related to the minimum GGR tax payment of €50 million per year for Hellenic lottery?

On this matter, we continue to defend our rights. The arbitration continues. It's in process, and I don't have any new updates on that at the moment. When we do have, we will certainly come back to you.

Third and final question. Any investment plan or potential areas you would like to expand in the near future? Example, expansion, enhancement in business areas or in geographical segments.

Well, we certainly have a lot of homework to do in the area of online and retail in the core parts of our business, but that doesn't mean that we are not looking into what else we could explore. Our primary focus in this area is into auxiliary services that can complement nicely the proposition. A good example would certainly be following the success of bill payments that we offer in our retail network. We are now intending to look into the opportunities around packages delivery, so-called PUDO services, something that we will be piloting soon and hopefully expanding into successful business and reaching the services in our retail network. Another nice example, I think, is our e-banking ambition to bring to our customers e-wallet proposition soon, extending the Again, digitalization of retail and connection with the other areas of our business. Other than that, there are additional investment ideas and expansion ideas, but those we keep for ourselves for the moment. But I can assure you that we certainly keep exploring.

The next question is from Paris Madravras with Pandellaki Security. Are there any plans of OPAP to raise its 37% stake in international business?

Thank you for the question. We have concluded on our investment, and at this moment we do not have any intentions to further increase our stakes. Next one, please.

There are also the webcast questions. As a final reminder to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone.

I think we see one more question. George, do you want to comment it?

Yeah, I can see a question from Victoria Paul from our capital. Victoria is thanking the OPAP team for the excellent presentation, but not the Stichman team, so I guess Victoria will try to do better next time. We can't beat the guys. They're more experienced than this. So the OPAP team gets the praise, and we get a question. Thank you. So what do we consider the main differences we observe when it comes to the Greek market versus international markets where we participate, and especially demographics and customer behavior? I wouldn't say there are huge differences. If I had to mention some, apart from our beloved high taxation and inflation, player winnings taxes and the highest limit in Europe in RNG. Going back to the customer behavior and demographics, I would say our customers are slightly, not a lot, but slightly a few years older. That could also stem from the fact that in Greece online betting is only allowed for ages above 21 and above 18. We also see a stronger sports product versus gaming product. You saw earlier that we have almost two-thirds of our income coming from sports. Gaming has been growing and is going to continue growing and probably go close to the 40% mark when it comes to Greece. At the same time, in international markets, there are some of them where gaming is actually bigger than sports, and Greece has traditionally been a sports betting market. Talking about sports, of course, there are some differences in behavior, because apart from soccer, which is the king of sport in almost all markets, or in all markets, actually, in Greece, basketball is the second sport, which doesn't stand for the other markets where we are in, where tennis usually is the most important one. And finally, I have to say that there is also a difference in communications. It turns out that Greek users like to engage themselves into a chat with our customer service. about stuff not strictly related to their betting activity, and they like to ask questions. They don't really like to read a lot, so sometimes it's actually more demanding to serve Greek customers, for example, versus Romanian customers who seem to be very keen on reading the FAQ and, in general, read the terms and everything else that is offered to them. I hope that covers it, and I hope that next time you'll be happy with our presentation as well, Victoria. Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Karas for any closing comments.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your attention, for your questions. Big thanks to my colleagues for being with us and strengthening the usual participants of Pavel and myself. I hope you all have enjoyed the presentation and not only the audio but also the video, but most importantly the content and the quality of information we have handed over to you. We are looking forward to continue our conversations offline and see you no later than at our Q3 results. Have a great evening, ladies and gentlemen, and goodbye.