Greek Organistn Football

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Gailie, your chorus call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the ABAP SA conference call and live webcast question and answer session to discuss the first quarter 2022 financial results. Please note a video presentation has been distributed and is also available on the ABAP Investor Relations website. All participants will be in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Jan Karas, CEO of Opap SE. Mr. Karas, you may now proceed.

Thank you very much. Good morning to everyone and welcome to our regular Q1 2022 results conference call. I'm delighted to share with you another set of solid results of Opap. reflecting strong online contribution and encouraging retail performance despite some COVID-related restrictions and macro environment affecting our Q1. Lift of the green pass since May 1st and fast masks mandate as of today, we are expected to further aid walk-ins. Hopefully you have reviewed the results recorded video we shared with you earlier today. So we'll jump directly to our Q&A session. Geli, over to you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. Anyone 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 Varadjotis Talmatis with EuroBank Equities. Please go ahead.

Yes, hello there. Thank you for taking my questions. I have three things to ask, if I may, please. Firstly, just wondering whether you are happy with the guidance you had provided back in March and you still believe this profitability range is... is still feasible. Secondly, you mentioned in the presentation that VLT run rates have improved since the easing of restrictions. I'm just wondering about the other games. Have you noticed any sort of change in panthers' behavior in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine and the mounting inflationary pressures, for example, You know, has there been any impact on football, on spending, recycling, active accounts since Q1 that is causing any concern? And lastly, just on the deal, you recently announced the sale of the minority interest in Betano. Could you confirm what you intend to do with the cash and when you expect the transaction to close, please?

Yes. So, thank you for the question. We will answer all three of them. I will start with the first one, referring to our outlook. So we have explained the rationale for providing outlook this year, last time when we presented. Given the quite challenging and volatile environment, we thought that we would be transparent and therefore we thought it would be helpful when we envisage this group performance, obviously with certain assumptions that we presented. Now, as of today, Following strong Q1, we still think that our outlook is valid. So we confirm that outlook that we have presented to you in the previous quarter call. Obviously, we are not yet seeing any stabilization of geopolitical tension, neither any improvement on the inflationary front. So despite that, we are still optimistic and positive and confident, maybe with the high end of the range to be a bit challenging. In any case, we will come back with our updated view on this whole macro situation and its impact on our business, as we always do at our next quarterly call after the summer. So you can rest assured that we will keep you updated on that front. The second question was related to what performance we see currently. Again, connected with the previous topic, there is quite a few factors influencing the existing performance, so it's a bit difficult to read the specific factor here, namely the green pass measures you referred to and its impact, because we need to have the big picture here. There is macro, there is inflation. Those are certainly factors that are not helping the continuation of the war conflict. On the other hand, we need to keep in mind many of the positive trends. You mentioned Green Pass. We already see some positive impact of it. Think of single digit or mid-single digit impact. But very importantly, as I've mentioned just a second ago, the June 1st Today is the first day when the masks are not mandatory anymore. So if we keep in mind the very important customer perspective, the masks still play a role also in May. And that is something we are excited to see what impact it will have, the really true normal situation now in our stores going forward. So we remain optimistic about further positive impacts and evolution also connected with the positive expectations of everyone from what is expected to be very strong touristic season and its macro impact. On the third question, I will kindly ask Pavel to answer to you.

Good afternoon from me. We expect the transaction to close somewhere within Q3. It is still subject to regulatory approvals and also corporate separation of the Betano business from the Greek and Cypriot business. So the expectation is Q3. And the proceeds will be used to finance the last part of Stichemann earnouts during 2022 and the remaining to be distributed.

That's great. Thank you so much. And just to follow up on the current running rate question. On the retail part of the business, I guess from what you are saying, it makes sense to expect an improvement in terms of run rates in the retail business vis-à-vis 2019 levels, right? So Q4 was down 13%, if I remember correctly, versus normality, let's call it. Q1 was down 10%. Is it a fair assumption to make that these trends ought to improve as... These COVID-related measures get relaxed and probably more than offset the macroeconomic impact.

Yes, your thinking is correct, and we have expectations that are positive. Obviously, we all know in how difficult times macroeconomically we live, so the reality remains to be seen, but if we don't face any unpleasant surprises, the trends that we expect are certainly in the positive direction.

That's fantastic. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Memisoglu Osman with Ambrosia Capital. Please go ahead.

Hello. Many thanks for your time and the presentation. Going back to, so two on my side, one on VLT, one on online. Just following up on your presentation, the 4 percent comes across as a bit subdued, but maybe you're expected to pick up with the masks being lifted from June 1 and also Maybe you're seeing some impact from a macro angle, so you would have recovered more. I guess that's the first bit. And then the second one, you did have the retail opening, so I understand. I appreciate the online coming down. How do you see the rest of the quarters for online? Should we see a return back to growth in Q2? And related to this, how is your market share coming along? Obviously, some new entrants are there. Any color on that front would be helpful. And finally, online, any news, any update on when we should see benefits in the financials from your new products plans in the online segment? Thank you.

Let me start with the first question around VLTs performance. VLT is a typical vertical where we certainly have further positive expectations, not just short term, but also mid to long term about further opportunities to be explored with VLTs. We see VLTs improving every day, so I think that's the vertical that will certainly benefit the most from the masks being lifted, because if you just imagine the practical situation of spending quite an extensive amount of time in the gaming hall, sitting there with a mask or without a mask, makes quite a big difference in engagement of customers. We have positive hopes there and the performance in the last couple of weeks is confirming that with steady growth. So there is hopefully more to be seen. So that's on your first question. On the online, can you please repeat your question because you were asking about market share?

Mr. Yes, well, it's related to growth, really. So we had a decline in Q1, and I appreciate that. It was a very different operating environment in last year's first quarter. But with potentially competitive side moving around as well, just wanted to get your thoughts on how we should expect online to perform in Q2. Are you seeing a return back to growth? uh so both overall demand uh you know the dynamics between retail and online and also your your market share performance and you had mentioned i think in earlier calls some work being done on new products any update on that when should we see some material benefits from that thank you

Okay, well, we've seen the new regime, new regulatory regime since the August, new players entering the markets. In that period, we managed really recently to double the market share of OPAP from 3% to 6%. We've launched live casino, which is doing very well and with very good product. Combined with Stichemann, We are holding at the level of 50% market share between OPAP and Sticheman. The market continues to grow and with holding the share, the whole online business is growing and expected to continue to grow. You were asking about the dynamic between retail and online. While the online is growing, obviously, we are trying to to keep or grow also the retail. We have to bear in mind that these are not two mutually exclusive markets like online and retail that the players would be leaving retail and moving to online permanently. We have like one and a half million players who are multi-channel. They are playing both in online on different occasions but they are still coming to the shops for different reasons and that will continue to be there. So that's really a bit about the dynamics between retail and online.

Thank you, Pavel. Just also to add some more flavor, you asked about the innovations and how we continue. I think the most important one as presented in my deck was the joker.gr update, another confirmation of our commitment to develop really highly competitive and highly attractive, customer attractive front ends and user interfaces. So we are very proud of what we have achieved with Joker.gr, which is now the second after the casino that we have done at the end of last year. And that's a journey that we continue and pay a lot of attention, a lot of focus to. There is more to come, but for that you will need to wait for the next call.

Understood. Thank you.

As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and 1 on your telephone. Once again, to register for a question, please press star and 1 on your telephone. The next question is from the line of with alpha value. Please go ahead.

Yes, just following up on the question by the previous panelist. I'm sorry, Mr. Chajan.

Mr. Chajan, can you hear me? I apologize to interrupt you. I'm sorry. Can you please speak a little closer to your microphone? Because I don't think management can hear you.

Yeah, is this better now?

Yes, thank you so much. Yes, thank you. You may proceed. Thank you.

Yes, so just following up on the question regarding online market shares, so if I understood your reply to the previous question, said OPAP has been taking market shares, so could you just give us a sense of what has happened in the broader Greek online market in terms of a growth perspective in Q1? Like how much was the overall market up or down on a year-on-year basis?

If you are referring to Q1 performance specifically, we don't have such a data. There's no such data available published. You would have to speak to AGC on that. So I can't answer.

Okay, no problem.

Thank you. Once again, to register for a question, please press star and 1 on your telephone. As a final reminder, to register for a question, please press star and 1 on your telephone. 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.

Mr. Karas? I'm sorry. Thank you very much. I apologize. We didn't expect such a quick finish, but I hope it's an indication that we have provided a great presentation and covered your questions during our presentations. Thank you very much even for those questions placed here today. It was a pleasure to be with you. Be safe, enjoy your summer, and we will be looking forward to talking to you again in September for our Q2 2022 results and or during our General Assembly meeting very soon. Thank you and have a great day. Bye-bye. Thank you, moderator.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling and have a good afternoon.