8/21/2026

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Better Collective Q2 2026 presentation. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session you will need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast please use the Q&A box available on the webcast link. any time during the webcast. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Better Collective VP Investor Relations and Communications, Mikael Monk-Jakobsgaard. Please go ahead.

speaker
Mikael Mohn-Jakobsgaard
VP Investor Relations and Communications

Mikael Monk- Good morning and welcome to Better Collective's Q2 2026 webcast. My name is Mikael Monk-Jakobsgaard, VP of Investor Relations and Communications, and I'm joined today by our co-founder and co-CEO Jesper Søgaard, and CFO Flemming Petersen who will provide today's business update. Please follow me to the next page. We ask you to pay attention to this slide where we display our disclaimer regarding any forward-looking statements in today's webcast. Please turn to the next page. Here you see today's agenda. Jesper will start by providing a business update including some of the highlights for Q2 2026. After which, Flemming will take you through the financial development before handing the word back to Jesper for concluding remarks. As always, we end the call with a Q&A session. Please turn to the next page as I hand over the word to Jesper. Thanks a lot, Michael.

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Let me begin with the key developments in the second quarter. We are pleased to report another solid quarter with the growth momentum from Q1 continuing into Q2. Revenue reached 89 million euros, corresponding to growth of 9% year-over-year, while operational earnings increased 20% to 27 million euros. Cash generation was also strong. Cash flow before special items amounted to 30 million euros, corresponding to cash conversion of 111%. Our FIFA World Cup activities and prediction market initiatives delivered in line with expectations and supported engagement and commercial activity during the quarter. Underlying customer activity developed strongly during the quarter, boosted by the World Cup. New depositing customers grew 24% compared with Q2 last year, while value of deposits increased 17% to all-time highs. North America was the main growth driver in the quarter, driven by the revenue share transition, talent-led media, and prediction markets growth. This broad-based growth contributed to the North American EBITDA margin improving from 5% to 26%. Finally, our full year guidance remains unchanged. Overall, we are pleased with the quarter. We continued the growth momentum from Q1, reached a 30% EBITDA margin, and delivered strong cash conversion, while progressing on several of our strategic growth initiatives. Please turn to the next page. Turning to the FIFA World Cup, the tournament was naturally a major focus during Q2. Following more than a year of preparation across our brands, products, platforms, and commercial teams, it delivered the expected boost to activity across the business. Publishing and paid media both benefited from strong tournament momentum. We saw higher user acquisition and reactivation stronger engagement across our brands, and solid commercial activity. That activity provides a solid foundation for the continued development of our revenue-shared databases. The clearest evidence is the growth in new deposits in customers and value of deposits, which I'll cover on the next slide. Please turn to that page. NDCs grew by 24% year over year, and 21% quarter-over-quarter to 373,000. The growth was supported by the FIFA World Cup and continued momentum within prediction markets. Importantly, 70% of NDCs were generated through revenue share agreements, providing a solid foundation for future revenue share growth. The mix also reflects the strong uptake in prediction markets where partner agreements are structured on a CPA basis. At the same time, value of deposits reach an all-time high of 836 million euros, increasing 17% year-over-year and 5% quarter-over-quarter. As a reminder, value of deposits measures the total amount deposited during the quarter by users referred on the revenue share agreements. It is not a cumulative metric. Please turn to the next page. Let me now turn to another important growth driver and an area that continues to diversify our revenue base, which is talent-led media. Since acquiring PlayMaker HQ in 2023, we have strengthened its talent network, commercial capabilities, and content formats. During Q2, PlayMaker HQ continued to make strong progress across all three areas. We expanded the roster of premium talent and introduced new formats including the show Man On ahead of the FIFA World Cup. At the same time, PlayMaker HQ continued to expand beyond digital content into high-impact live events. A standout example was the Roommate show hosted by Jalen Bronson, Josh Hart, and Matt Hellman. Following the next NBA championship victory, the show hosted a live event at the Madison Square Garden complex. Selling more than 5,000 tickets, in less than 15 minutes and airing nationally on ESPN. This demonstrates the strong audience connection that talent-led media can create. It also provides commercial partners with access to highly engaged audiences across content, social media, and live experiences. PlayMega HQ was a key driver alongside HLTV of the 39% increase in group sponsorship revenue to 16 million euros during the quarter. Please turn to the next page, where I'll dive a bit deeper into our strategic developments in improving our total advertising revenues. We have talked for some time about the opportunity to do more with a very large and highly engaged audience that we have built across Better Collective. For many years, a significant part of our focus was on building scale, strengthening our brands, and deepening our audience positions. The next step is to increase the value we generate from that reach. And it's encouraging to see that strategy now becoming increasingly visible in our financial performance. At the core of this is a continued shift towards more sophisticated and higher value monetization. We want to build deeper, more direct relationships with advertisers and partners, sell more of our inventory directly, and create products that allow us to capture a greater share of the value generated by our audiences. We're already seeing this across the portfolio. PlayMaker HQ continues to demonstrate the potential of a strong direct sales organization. HLTV shows what is possible when you combine a highly engaged, category-leading audience with attractive sponsorship inventory. And through FanReach, we're building new capabilities to help us monetize our audiences in more targeted and scalable ways. These and many other initiatives all sit within our Advantage framework. which brings together our efforts to systematically improve advertising monetization across the group. Naturally, as we optimize monetization, there'll be some movement between CPM and sponsorship revenue. If we can replace lower yielding programmatic revenue with higher value direct sponsorship revenue, that is precisely the trade we want to make. And we can now see that in the numbers. In Q2, sponsorship revenue increased 39% to €16 million, while CPM revenue declined 16% to €6 million. Taken together, advertising revenue grew 18% year-over-year to €21 million and is becoming an increasingly meaningful part of our overall revenue base. For the first half of the year, combined advertising revenue grew 13%. Importantly, Advantage also creates spillover opportunities for performance marketing, enabling us to bundle broader commercial partnerships and increase the value of individual deals. As this strategy develops, the distinction between sponsorship and CPM is also becoming less meaningful from a management perspective. From next year's annual report, we therefore intend to combine the two into a single advertising revenue line. which we believe better reflects both how we manage the business and our long-term strategy for monetizing our audiences. Please turn to the next page. Let me now turn to prediction markets, another growth opportunity that contributed positively during Q2. North American CPA revenue increased by 50% to 5 million euros, primarily driven by strong momentum within prediction markets. As mentioned previously, prediction market partner agreements are currently structured on a CPA basis. The strong NDC development within the category therefore translates into an immediate revenue contribution. The opportunity extends beyond the current revenue. User interest remains strong, while increasing competition among prediction market operators is supporting demand for efficient distribution and high-quality customer acquisition. For Better Collective, this expands our addressable market and increases the monetization potential of the high intent sports audiences we already reach. We continue to scale our execution across our own media brands, social first content, product integrations, and paid media. This multi-channel approach positions us to capture rising demand across the category. Prediction markets remain an emerging revenue stream. However, the development in Q2 demonstrates that the category is already contributing positively while creating an additional growth opportunity across our platform. Please turn to the next page as I hand over the word to Flemming.

speaker
Flemming Pedersen
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Jesper, and good morning to you all. Let me start by breaking down the revenue development in the second quarter. In Q2 last year, revenue amounted to 82 million euros. During this quarter, the business generated approximately €11 million of growth, primarily driven by talent-led media, paid media, prediction markets, and HLTV. This growth more than offset two external headwinds. First, the increase in UK remote gaming duty from 21% to 40%, effective from April 1st, had a negative impact of approximately €2 million. Second, regulatory changes in Brazil had a further negative impact of approximately €2 million. As a result, revenue increased 9% to €89 million. Turn to the next slide. Let me now turn to the development in recurring revenue. Recurring revenue increased by 2% to €53 million during the quarter. This was driven by revenue share income which increased by 5% to 44 million euros and now represents approximately 82% of the recurring revenue base compared to 79% last year. The revenue share growth was supported by strong development in North America and paid media despite the regulatory headwinds in the UK and Brazil. As the chart illustrates, revenue share remains the core component of our recurring revenue base and continues to provide long-term visibility and compounding value from our preferred customer cohorts. Please turn to the next slide. Let me break down the EBITDA development during the quarter. In Q2 last year, EBITDA before special items amounted to €23 million. The net revenue growth delivered during the quarter contributed approximately €7 million to earnings. At the same time, Cost increased by approximately 3 million euros. This primarily reflects higher activity around the FIFA World Cup, increased event activity at Playmaker HQ, and additional investment in paid media campaigns. Importantly, these higher costs were activity-related and focused on areas with attractive commercial opportunities. Staff costs declined during the quarter, while other external expenses remained broadly unchanged. Overall, total cost increased by 5% to €62 million. The result is that EBITDA before special items increased by 22% to €27 million, while the margin expanded by 2 percentage points to 30%. Please turn to the next slide. Let me now turn to cash flow and our financial position and capital allocation. Cash flow from operations before special items increased by 59% to €30 million compared to €19 million last year. This corresponds to a cash conversion of 111%. During the quarter, we repurchased shares worth €8 million, bringing the total share buybacks during the first half of the year to €14 million. We therefore continue to execute against the annual share buyback target of €40 million, running until 3 March 2017. At the end of June, capital reserves stood at €80 million, comprised of €25 million of cash and €55 million of unused bank facilities. Our total bank credit facilities amounted to €319 million. Our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged. Maintain leverage below 3x, invest in attractive organic growth and selective accretive M&A. and return excess capital primarily through share buybacks. Please turn to the next slide. Concluding on the financial development, strong performance during the first half of the year keeps us on track to deliver on the full year guidance. Organic revenue increased by 9% in constant currencies during the first half of the year, while EBITDA before special items grew 14%. This places us within the full year guidance range of 7% to 12% organic revenue growth and 8% to 18% EBITDA growth. Cash conversion before special items was 106% during the first half of the year. We completed the share buybacks of 14 million euros while net debt to EBITDA before special items stood at 2.3x. Our guidance for 26 therefore remains unchanged. Overall, the first half-year performance supports the trajectory we have set out for the year and our longer-term financial ambitions. With that, I'll hand the word back to Jesper for concluding remarks.

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Thank you, Flemming. Let me close with a few reflections on what Q2 says about the direction of our business. The most important takeaway from Q2 is not any single KPI. but it's the momentum we are now seeing across several parts of Better Collective at the same time. We delivered solid growth and expanded our EBITDA margin while absolving regulatory headwinds in the UK and Brazil. To me, that demonstrates the earnings power and scalability of the business. The momentum is also becoming broader. The revenue share transition in North America continues to deliver. Talent-led media and sponsorships are developing strongly. Prediction markets are already making a positive contribution and paid media continues to grow while directing investment towards most attractive opportunities. Together these developments are creating a more diversified and resilient business. Equally important is the work we're doing to improve how Better Collective operates. We are accelerating the work with AI to simplify the organization, reduce fragmentation, and build a more integrated technology foundation across our household brands. By consolidating platforms and applying AI across content, product, data, and selected commercial and support processes, we can scale our capabilities more efficiently. The FIFA World Cup was a good illustration of what the organization can achieve. After more than a year of preparation, teams across our brands, products, platforms, and commercial functions delivered the activity levels we expected. I would like to thank all employees for their continued dedication, with a special thank you to everyone who worked long hours before and during the tournament. I would also like to thank our customers and commercial partners for their trust, and our shareholders and other stakeholders for their continued support. We entered the second half of the year with strong momentum and a clear focus on executing our priorities. With that, we're ready to open for questions.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the box and click submit. Thank you. We will now go to our first question. One moment, please. And our first question today comes from the line of Hjalmar Ahlberg from Redeye. Please go ahead.

speaker
Hjalmar Ahlberg
Analyst, Redeye

Thank you. Yeah, maybe starting with the prediction markets where you gave some flavor on the development there. which I guess is still small numbers but pretty good growth in Q1. Could you say anything about what this kind of beast by relate or any specific sport and also if you can give some kind of sense what we should expect from here?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, yeah, we were pleased with how the prediction markets are developing in the US and I think Basically, we started the year with one player being active there, and then during the second quarter, we got one more into the market. And obviously, we know for US sports, the start of the NFL is a major milestone. And we are really excited about the competition that the market will have leading up to the start of the NFL. and quite clearly the ambitions that the prediction markets players demonstrate. So, all in all, we've seen good development in the first half of the year with the prediction market players and expect also an exciting development for the second half of the year.

speaker
Hjalmar Ahlberg
Analyst, Redeye

Thank you. I'm also curious a bit, I mean, if you look at the development of the FIFA World Cup, it sounds like you're looking at the performance But I mean, if you look at the kind of, I mean, I guess it's a different market now with more AI search and so on. But if you compare kind of how your products and all your tools work, this World Championship compared to maybe the previous Euro or previous World Championships, do you see any major differences?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, I can speak quite concretely to how we have been creating content and utilizing AI during this World Cup. Obviously, a big part of what users are coming to some of our brands for is tips and getting sort of expert opinions. And here we've been able to basically scale that content, utilizing AI more than tenfold with sort of tips and expert opinions being produced for one brand in one market that we can then scale utilizing AI across many more brands. So it's really driving efficiency on how we produce content. So for me, that's a pretty clear example of a change for this World Cup in how we develop the content and how we're able to reach a lot of users with high quality content originating from a few of our brands to all our brands.

speaker
Hjalmar Ahlberg
Analyst, Redeye

Right, thank you. And also a question, maybe two questions in one. I mean, you mentioned UK there, the tax hike had some negative impact. What do you see from that market region from here? And also, if you can comment anything on Brazil, if there's any change, there is still kind of a flat market.

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, so in the UK, it's mostly our paid media business. where we have sort of felt this change. But that also comes with auctions then adjusting to sort of a new landscape, lowering bid prices. And again, I think our paid team, they have displayed excellent performance and really being on top of this. So it's of course a headwind they need to manage, but I think have done so very well. For Brazil, it is now several quarters where we have seen the impact of adjustments to the taxation and the regulation in Brazil, which is, of course, from a user and player perspective, sad because it does drive more people into the non-regulated market and thus less consumer protection ultimately and less tax revenue. But it's also an environment we are now used to operating in So for us, it's daily business, you could say.

speaker
Hjalmar Ahlberg
Analyst, Redeye

Understood. And maybe a final question. I mean, you mentioned some continued operational efficiencies here, also supported by using AI. How should we view this going forward? Do you think cost could come down even further, or is it more likely to drive top line?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, for us, AI is affecting our business in many ways. It's on the product side with Playbook as a very good example of that. It's on our content production, which I just alluded to in the World Cup. It's also a lot on the internal processes where more or less all functions in BC are adopting AI at a high pace. and it's the new normal and I really feel a strong buy-in from the entire organization in Better Collective which I'm very proud of and very pleased with. So it's just the new normal of conducting businesses that we are empowering ourselves with AI across.

speaker
Hjalmar Ahlberg
Analyst, Redeye

Thank you very much.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Thank you. We will now take the next question and the question comes from the line of Paul Jessen from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

Yes, thank you for taking the question. Just coming back to prediction market and the impact here. The increase you had sequentially in the number of CPA indices, is that mainly prediction market or is there also an uptick from the traditional part of the market given the World Cup?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, it is mainly driven by prediction markets. There's also an effect from the World Cup, but because we operate prediction markets purely on CPA, the main effect is from prediction markets.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay, and if we do the math, then the average CPA is down something from 300 to 175 in the quarter, which is the previous quarter, meaning that the average price for a prediction market CPA should then be in the range of 100 or slightly above. Is that fair that when we look forward and try to model inclusion of gross prediction market that that's the number or the level we should use for that part of the market?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

I think what is probably worth mentioning here is that like with the market more or less starting this year with just one player it's of course in terms of pricing and competition not the most ideal scenario having just one player. Now we are seeing Another being active, we expect more to come. So from a pricing perspective, that is, of course, good for us and something we will, of course, as much as possible implement in how we strike deals.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

So we should see rising prices potentially also from the traditional market to take up competition with prediction?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, as I said, of course, we cannot predict deals, but that environment is exactly what drives prices when it's very competitive. So for us, it's how we would like to see it play out.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

OK, thank you. Question on the fact that you want to combine CPM and the sponsorship in one line from next year. Makes sense. But I was just wondering, advantage, is that also impacting the sponsorship part of it? I would have assumed it's mainly for the sell side of CPM more than its sponsorship. I guess sponsorships are not fitting into the system. They are more making a one-to-one negotiation of a price for a longer period than it's based on an auction system. Why am I wrong?

speaker
Flemming Pedersen
Chief Financial Officer

Flemming here. Thanks, Paul. I'll try to answer. You can see the initiatives that we have under the umbrella of the Advantage project that we installed a couple of years ago are multifold, and you are right that you can say on one part, as you described, that is one thing, but you can say it also comes with different initiatives, being our fan beach project we discussed also, you can say increasing focus on selling more direct of our inventory and of course the tail of all this is the CPM revenue where we sort of have you can say the lowest you can say income per mill so it's really multifold and hence also why we're looking at this as a holistic effort rather than just one initiative so Advertising revenue is really, you can say, a focus and it comes in with many sub-projects basically.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay. And then you're also commenting on events after the end of the quarter and there you talk about a number of integration optimization and organizational changes. Does this only impact the fact that you want to operate better or is there also a cost element part of this initiative?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, I think as I also alluded to in an answer just before is that overall we are very focused on being as efficient as possible in order to allocate resources to the biggest opportunity that we see in Better Collective. But no doubt that AI is impacting significantly on all parts of Better Collective. So it's something we're really embracing and that does allow for an efficient business to be run. And again, it's something we will just continue to utilize as much as possible. And as I said before, I'm very proud of how our organization as a whole are really embracing this path that we're on. So we will just continue to adapt AI wherever it makes sense for us. and that would drive efficiency and allow for us to invest into the biggest opportunities of Better Collective.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

I have just a follow-up on that one. The restructuring charts you put into the Q2 numbers, is that part of these initiatives in the third quarter? Or did that relate to action in the second quarter?

speaker
Mikael Mohn-Jakobsgaard
VP Investor Relations and Communications

Sorry Paul, did you ask whether the comment to after the quarter is hitting Q2 or Q3? Was that the question?

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

You had a restructuring cost of 1.4, 1.5 million in the second quarter. Then you announced that you are doing some optimization in the third quarter. I was just wondering if that provision in the second quarter related to what you did in the third quarter or if it was actions in the second quarter.

speaker
Flemming Pedersen
Chief Financial Officer

It's accessed in the second quarter, sorry. I did not hear the question. So new initiatives, you will see that in the following quarters.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

There will be a special item there as well in the third quarter.

speaker
Flemming Pedersen
Chief Financial Officer

Yes.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

I have two minor questions. In the media partnership, you do an investment of €11 million. I was just wondering, is that a new partnership or is that extension or expansion of existing ones that might be running out of contract?

speaker
Flemming Pedersen
Chief Financial Officer

It's a partnership in general where we are investing in new acquisition of new rights also including the talented part of the business.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

And the last one is that Thotta was out doing a Part of the profit they came with was because they had apparently not noticed that the NFL is starting one week later this year. So just for planning or budgeting or modeling for the third quarter, will that have an impact on your US business in the third quarter that it's starting one week later than last year?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, it's five days to be precise. No, we don't see that having a significant impact to our business.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay. Thank you. That's all. Thanks, Paul.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Thank you. We will now take the next question. And the question comes from the line of Sebastian Grave from Nordea. Please go ahead.

speaker
Sebastian Grave
Analyst, Nordea

Hi, Jesper, Flemming and Mikkel. Thanks for taking my questions. Congrats on another quarter of steady sailing in a still dynamic market environment. I have a few, I'll just take them one by one if it's okay. First, I'd like to ask about the World Cup uplift here in the quarter. Jesper, you referred to activity around the tournament playing out, I should put it, you know, broadly as expected. Could you maybe help us, you know, being a bit more specific on what you actually saw in the quarter in terms of revenue and indices relating to World Cup activities? I believe you've previously provided those metrics in connection with other tournaments, so I guess this could be very much helpful here at this time around as well.

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, I think first off, the Q2 here covers roughly half of the World Cup, so the second half of the World Cup hits Q3. But to speak to where we sort of see the positive impact, it's on the new deposit customers that we were able to deliver, where the normal part of this year is lower performance on indices, where like for the World Cup, we saw a good performance on indices. In our advertising and sort of sponsorship business, We have productions that were focused solely on the World Cup and thus sponsorship sales related directly to those shows and overall just higher demand for advertising towards our audiences whenever it was football related. So I would rate that as sort of the main impacts along with activity in our revenue share databases where we also flagged that we had an all-time high for value of deposits. Also there the World Cup played a part.

speaker
Sebastian Grave
Analyst, Nordea

And as I recall it back in Q2 25 you provided this bridge from the Euro 24 and I guess as I recall back then the impact was around 5 million Euro revenue and EBITDA from what you referred to as Tournament comparisons year-on-year. Is it broadly the range we're in here for the World Cup as well, or is that number off?

speaker
Flemming Pedersen
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think in this quarter clearly it had an impact, as Jesper said, and was part of our, you can say, also our expectations. So I think it was in line with that number you mentioned is likely, you can say, representative also for this, you can say, 14 days of the World Cup. I think also we saw quite good traction on the finalization of the NBA in this quarter with a lot of activity. where we had, as you can say, success with especially the talented side of things. So the World Cup was important, as Jesper said, and I think we also said before, the major impact is the uptake in newly posting customers, but of course also on activity level. So, yeah, I think that's...

speaker
Sebastian Grave
Analyst, Nordea

Okay, that's fair. No, thank you, Flemming. No, that's fair, that's fair. Then secondly, congrats also on strong momentum in the US. As my colleagues, I would also like to hear a bit more about the prediction market momentum here. You alluded to Jesper, more operators coming online during the year here. I know you're not specific on how much an absolute revenue you get from this vertical here in the quarter, but still, is it fair to expect more from this vertical going forward in Q3 and Q4? On the former point, could it be possible for you to provide a bit more specific on the actual impact here for the quarter?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Yes. Well, as I said, this is overall driving a change in market dynamics. So it's not just a direct impact from prediction market, it also spills over to our sports betting customers in their behavior. So that is something we are really pleased with. I spoke to the fact that we started the year with just one in the US market. We now have two very active players and that is affecting how we can sell and the prices we can get. So for the second half of the year, we are really excited about this development and expect this to be growing further and really a significant part of the growth we expect for the second half. So we are really excited about these developments and believe that the competition will see for this half of the year will directly translate into the financial performance of our business.

speaker
Sebastian Grave
Analyst, Nordea

Thank you, Jesper. And then just my last question. Similar to Paul, I also did the calculation on the Implied CPA Appendices and I get to the same numbers, meaning a quite steep step down from the previous quarters. I understand that there might be some prediction market dilution in this number but is that the only dynamic or are there any other dynamics to be aware of on why the implied CPA is significantly lower this quarter?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

There are other factors such as like in our paid media business how the hybrids are structured so if we take more of a revenue share the CPA component will be lower So there are more factors to this number. But I think we can lean forward and say on the prediction markets, because of this development, we are seeing prices go up. So that will have a positive impact compared to the first half of the year and then looking into the second half of the year.

speaker
Sebastian Grave
Analyst, Nordea

Okay, good stuff. Thank you, Jesper Flemming and Mikkel.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 1 on your telephone. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the box and click submit. I will now hand the call back to Michal for webcast questions.

speaker
Mikael Mohn-Jakobsgaard
VP Investor Relations and Communications

Thank you. And I think maybe the first one is for you, Flemming, on the North American EBITDA margin expansion and whether the 26% is a sustainable baseline or whether a seasonal high margin revenue stream inflated it temporarily.

speaker
Flemming Pedersen
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think you can say discussing margins per quarter is difficult, but the result is basically impacted by two things. Our performance in the U.S. or North American revenue share databases was really strong, and as some will know, we have weighted that and also invested a lot into revenue share in North America for a long time. And that is now beginning to fill relatively more in the performance as recurring revenue. And then, of course, as we have discussed now a few times, the new market dynamics around prediction markets also hitting this quarter. which is normally quite slow for sports in North America is also helping this. So yes, I would expect if we look on the full year clearly that is sustainable and likely also higher than this. So it's a very good development that we are seeing in that region. Thank you.

speaker
Mikael Mohn-Jakobsgaard
VP Investor Relations and Communications

And then we have several questions around Brazil that I will combine into one, but they're all around whether there have been any changes to the Brazilian market and the regulation also that we show in our bridge and also a few comments to the election in the second half of the year and what our expectations are for the markets in general.

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Yeah, and I also touched a bit upon that earlier in the webcast that We are affected by the regulatory changes and taxation in the Brazilian business and there is an upcoming election which obviously also sparked some debate and opinions about the development of the market. But fundamentally, I personally believe that with the amount of tax revenue that the Brazilian state is seeing now, that yes, there will be constant discussion, but they will also want to protect this tax revenue combined with the ability to protect consumers in a regulated and licensed market. And whenever they weaken the regulated market, it unfortunately spills over to the non-licensed market with no consumer protection and no tax revenue coming in. and so it's a balance that is happening and being discussed in all markets and especially in Brazil right now with an upcoming election I think the topic is then filling a bit more than normally.

speaker
Mikael Mohn-Jakobsgaard
VP Investor Relations and Communications

Thank you Jesper and then I have The final but one again I will combine because there are quite a few questions related to other players in the industry that are reporting different numbers than us and we don't comment specifically on other companies of course so I will try and make it a question about ourselves but what are we seeing in the broader competitive environment right now also towards our partners and the general performance in the market?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

I think, first off, I think Better Collective is on good track and I think you can tell that in the performance of the first half of this year. There's no doubt we are in a fast-moving industry with constant change and everybody has to adapt to that. I'm really proud of how Better Collective, several years ago, has been very focused on diversifying our business, meaning that If we go all the way back to our IPO, we were more or less a pure affiliation business with almost all revenue stemming from revenue share and just one line to now where we have developed into many more markets, not just Europe. We are in North America and South America. We have expanded to a paid media business. We have added esports as a new category for Better Collective very powerful brands and big audiences. And we have launched new products, engagement products like Playbook. We have a big talent-led business which is very creative focused and living on social and driving strong sponsorship revenue for us. So we have really been focused on diversifying Better Collective and I think that is helping us right now in the fast industry and the change that we experience here and giving us a very attractive position in this ecosystem with a lot of optionality in many directions. So we are of course, we are not immune to changes as we've also seen in the past but we are really resilient with this business. We're back to growth and the focus for us is just continued disciplined execution of the business. with all the opportunities we see in Better Collective and ahead of us. But I very much agree with the questions that this industry is just constantly changing and everybody needs to adapt and be ready for that.

speaker
Mikael Mohn-Jakobsgaard
VP Investor Relations and Communications

Thank you. And that was the final question. So with that, thank you for the questions and thank you very much for showing interest in Better Collective. Have a nice day.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thanks for participating. You may now disconnect. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for watching.

speaker
spk07

Thank you. Thank you for watching!

speaker
Mikael Mohn-Jakobsgaard
VP Investor Relations and Communications

Good morning and welcome to Better Collective's Q2 2026 webcast. My name is Mikkel Mohn-Jakobsgaard, VP of Investor Relations and Communications, and I'm joined today by our co-founder and co-CEO Jesper Søgaard and CFO Flemming Pedersen, who will provide today's business update. Please follow me to the next page. We ask you to pay attention to this slide where we display our disclaimer regarding any forward-looking statements in today's webcast. Please turn to the next page. Here you see today's agenda. Jesper will start by providing a business update, including some of the highlights for Q2 2026, after which Flemming will take you through the financial development before handing the work back to Jesper for concluding remarks. As always, we end the call with a Q&A session. Please turn to the next page as I hand over the word to Jesper.

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Thanks a lot, Michael. Let me begin with the key developments in the second quarter. We are pleased to report another solid quarter with the growth momentum from Q1 continuing into Q2. Revenue reached €89 million corresponding to growth of 9% year-over-year while operational earnings increased 20% to €27 million. Cash generation was also strong. Cash flow before special items amounted to €30 million, corresponding to cash conversion of 111%. Our FIFA World Cup activities and prediction market initiatives delivered in line with expectations and supported engagement and commercial activity during the quarter. Underlying customer activity developed strongly during the quarter, boosted by the World Cup. New deposit in customers grew 24% compared with Q2 last year, while value of deposits increased 17% to all-time highs. North America was the main growth driver in the quarter, driven by the revenue share transition, talent-led media, and prediction markets growth. This broad-based growth contributed to the North American EBITDA margin improving from 5% to 26%. Finally, our full year guidance remains unchanged. Overall, we are pleased with the quarter. We continued the growth momentum from Q1, reached a 30% EBITDA margin, and delivered strong cash conversion while progressing on several of our strategic growth initiatives. Please turn to the next page. Turning to the FIFA World Cup, the tournament was naturally a major focus during Q2. Following more than a year of preparation across our brands, products, platforms, and commercial teams, it delivered the expected boost to activity across the business. Publishing and paid media both benefited from strong tournament momentum. We saw higher user acquisition and reactivation, stronger engagement across our brands, and solid commercial activity. That activity provides a solid foundation for the continued development of our revenue-shared databases. The clearest evidence is the growth in new deposits in customers and value of deposits, which I'll cover on the next slide. Please turn to that page. NDCs grew by 24% year-over-year and 21% quarter-over-quarter to 373,000 The growth was supported by the FIFA World Cup and continued momentum within prediction markets. Importantly, 70% of NDCs were generated through revenue share agreements, providing a solid foundation for future revenue share growth. The mix also reflects the strong uptake in prediction markets, where partner agreements are structured on a CPA basis. At the same time, value of deposits reach an all-time high of 836 million, increasing 17% year-over-year and 5% quarter-over-quarter. As a reminder, value of deposits measures the total amount deposited during the quarter by users referred on the revenue share agreement. It is not a cumulative metric. Please turn to the next page. Let me now turn to another important growth driver and an area that continues to diversify our revenue base, which is talent-led media. Since acquiring PlayMaker HQ in 2023, we have strengthened its talent network, commercial capabilities, and content formats. During Q2, PlayMaker HQ continued to make strong progress across all three areas. We expanded the roster of premium talent and introduced new formats including the show Man On ahead of the FIFA World Cup. At the same time, PlayMaker HQ continued to expand beyond digital content into high-impact live events. A standout example was the Roommate show hosted by Jalen Bronson, Josh Hart, and Matt Hellman. Following the Knicks' NBA championship victory, the show hosted a live event at the Madison Square Garden complex. Selling more than 5,000 tickets, in less than 15 minutes and airing nationally on ESPN. This demonstrates the strong audience connection that talent-led media can create. It also provides commercial partners with access to highly engaged audiences across content, social media, and live experiences. PlayMega HQ was a key driver alongside HLTV of the 39% increase in group sponsorship revenue to 16 million euros during the quarter. Please turn to the next page, where I'll dive a bit deeper into our strategic developments in improving our total advertising revenues. We have talked for some time about the opportunity to do more with a very large and highly engaged audience that we have built across Better Collective. For many years, a significant part of our focus was on building scale, strengthening our brands, and deepening our audience positions. The next step is to increase the value we generate from that reach. And it's encouraging to see that strategy now becoming increasingly visible in our financial performance. At the core of this is a continued shift towards more sophisticated and higher value monetization. We want to build deeper, more direct relationships with advertisers and partners, sell more of our inventory directly, and create products that allow us to capture a greater share of the value generated by our audiences. We're already seeing this across the portfolio. PlayMaker HQ continues to demonstrate the potential of a strong direct sales organization. HLTV shows what is possible when you combine a highly engaged, category-leading audience with attractive sponsorship inventory. And through FanReach, we're building new capabilities to help us monetize our audiences in more targeted and scalable ways. These and many other initiatives all sit within our Advantage framework which brings together our efforts to systematically improve advertising monetization across the group. Naturally, as we optimize monetization, there'll be some movement between CPM and sponsorship revenue. If we can replace lower yielding programmatic revenue with higher value direct sponsorship revenue, that is precisely the trade we want to make. And we can now see that in the numbers. In Q2, sponsorship revenue increased 39% to €16 million, while CPM revenue declined 16% to €6 million. Taken together, advertising revenue grew 18% year-over-year to €21 million, and it's becoming an increasingly meaningful part of our overall revenue base. For the first half of the year, combined advertising revenue grew 13%. Importantly, Advantage also creates spillover opportunities for performance marketing, enabling us to bundle broader commercial partnerships and increase the value of individual deals. As this strategy develops, the distinction between sponsorship and CPM is also becoming less meaningful from a management perspective. From next year's annual report, we therefore intend to combine the two into a single advertising revenue line. which we believe better reflects both how we manage the business and our long-term strategy for monetizing our audiences. Please turn to the next page. Let me now turn to prediction markets, another growth opportunity that contributed positively during Q2. North American CPA revenue increased by 50% to 5 million euros, primarily driven by strong momentum within prediction markets. As mentioned previously, prediction market partner agreements are currently structured on a CPA basis. The strong NDC development within the category therefore translates into an immediate revenue contribution. The opportunity extends beyond the current revenue. User interest remains strong, while increasing competition among prediction market operators is supporting demand for efficient distribution and high-quality customer acquisition. For Better Collective, this expands our addressable market and increases the monetization potential of the high intent sports audiences we already reach. We continue to scale our execution across our own media brands, social first content, product integrations, and paid media. This multi-channel approach positions us to capture rising demand across the category. Prediction markets remain an emerging revenue stream However, the development in Q2 demonstrates that the category is already contributing positively while creating an additional growth opportunity across our platform. Please turn to the next page as I hand over the word to Flemming.

speaker
Flemming Pedersen
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Jesper, and good morning to you all. Let me start by breaking down the revenue development in the second quarter. In Q2 last year, revenue amounted to 82 million euros. During this quarter, the business generated approximately €11 million of growth, primarily driven by talent-led media, paid media, prediction markets, and HLTV. This growth more than offset two external headwinds. First, the increase in UK remote gaming duty from 21% to 40%, effective from April 1st, had a negative impact of approximately €2 million. Second, regulatory changes in Brazil had a further negative impact of approximately €2 million. As a result, revenue increased 9% to €89 million. Turn to the next slide. Let me now turn to the development in recurring revenue. Recurring revenue increased by 2% to €53 million during the quarter. This was driven by revenue share income which increased by 5% to 44 million euros and now represents approximately 82% of the recurring revenue base compared to 79% last year. The revenue share growth was supported by strong development in North America and paid media despite the regulatory headwinds in the UK and Brazil. As the chart illustrates, revenue share remains the core component of our recurring revenue base and continues to provide long-term visibility and compounding value from our preferred customer cohorts. Please turn to the next slide. Let me break down the EBITDA development during the quarter. In Q2 last year, EBITDA before special items amounted to €23 million. The net revenue growth delivered during the quarter contributed approximately €7 million to earnings. At the same time, Cost increased by approximately 3 million euros. This primarily reflects higher activity around the FIFA World Cup, increased event activity at PlayMaker HQ, and additional investment in paid media campaigns. Importantly, these higher costs were activity related and focused on areas with attractive commercial opportunities. Staff costs declined during the quarter, while other external expenses remained broadly unchanged. Overall, total cost increased by 5% to €62 million. The result is that EBITDA before special items increased by 22% to €27 million, while the margin expanded by 2 percentage points to 30%. Please turn to the next slide. Let me now turn to cash flow and our financial position and capital allocation. Cash flow from operations before special items increased by 59% to €30 million, compared to €19 million last year. This corresponds to a cash conversion of 111%. During the quarter, we repurchased shares worth €8 million, bringing the total share buybacks during the first half of the year to €14 million. We therefore continue to execute against the annual share buyback target of €40 million, running until 3 March 2017. At the end of June, capital reserves stood at €80 million, comprised of €25 million of cash and €55 million of unused bank facilities. Our total bank credit facilities amounted to €319 million. Our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged. Maintain leverage below 3x, invest in attractive organic growth and selective accretive M&A. and return excess capital primarily through share buybacks. Please turn to the next slide. Concluding on the financial development, strong performance during the first half of the year keeps us on track to deliver on the full year guidance. Organic revenue increased by 9% in constant currencies during the first half of the year, while EBITDA before special items grew 14%. This places us within the full year guidance range of 7% to 12% organic revenue growth and 8% to 18% EBITDA growth. Cash conversion before special items was 106% during the first half of the year. We completed the share buybacks of 14 million euros while net debt to EBITDA before special items stood at 2.3x. Our guidance for 26 therefore remains unchanged. Overall, the first half-year performance supports the trajectory we have set out for the year and our longer-term financial ambitions. With that, I'll hand the word back to Jesper for concluding remarks.

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Thank you, Flemming. Let me close with a few reflections on what Q2 says about the direction of our business. The most important takeaway from Q2 is not any single KPI. but it's the momentum we are now seeing across several parts of Better Collective at the same time. We delivered solid growth and expanded our EBITDA margin while absorbing regulatory headwinds in the UK and Brazil. To me, that demonstrates the earnings power and scalability of the business. The momentum is also becoming broader. The revenue share transition in North America continues to deliver. Talent-led media and sponsorships are developing strongly. Prediction markets are already making a positive contribution, and paid media continues to grow while directing investment toward the most attractive opportunities. Together, these developments are creating a more diversified and resilient business. Equally important is the work we're doing to improve how Better Collective operates. We are accelerating the work with AI to simplify the organization, reduce fragmentation, and build a more integrated technology foundation across our house of brands. By consolidating platforms and applying AI across content, product, data, and selected commercial and support processes, we can scale our capabilities more efficiently. The FIFA World Cup was a good illustration of what the organization can achieve. After more than a year of preparation, teams across our brands, products, platforms, and commercial functions delivered the activity levels we expected. I would like to thank all employees for their continued dedication, with a special thank you to everyone who worked long hours before and during the tournament. I would also like to thank our customers and commercial partners for their trust, and our shareholders and other stakeholders for their continued support. We entered the second half of the year with strong momentum and a clear focus on executing our priorities. With that, we're ready to open for questions.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the box and click submit. Thank you. We will now go to our first question. One moment, please. And our first question today comes from the line of Hjalmar Ahlberg from Redeye. Please go ahead.

speaker
Hjalmar Ahlberg
Analyst, Redeye

Thank you. Yeah, maybe starting with the prediction markets where you gave some flavor on the development there. which I guess is still small numbers but pretty good growth in Q1. Could you say anything about what this kind of beast by relate or any specific sport and also if you can give some kind of sense what we should expect from here?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, yeah, we were pleased with how the prediction markets are developing in the US and I think Basically, we started the year with one player being active there, and then during the second quarter, we got one more into the market. And obviously, we know for US sports, the start of the NFL is a major milestone. And we are really excited about the competition that the market will have leading up to the start of the NFL. and quite clearly the ambitions that the prediction markets players demonstrate. So all in all, we've seen good development in the first half of the year with the prediction market players and expect also an exciting development for the second half of the year.

speaker
Hjalmar Ahlberg
Analyst, Redeye

All right, thank you. I'm also curious a bit, I mean, if you look at the development of the FIFA World Cup, it sounds like your performance But I mean, if you look at the kind of, I mean, I guess it's a different market now with more AI search and so on. But if you compare kind of how your products and all your tools work, this World Championship compared to maybe the previous Euro or previous World Championships, do you see any major differences?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, I can speak quite concretely to how we have been creating content and utilizing AI during this World Cup. Obviously, a big part of what users are coming to some of our brands for is tips and getting sort of expert opinions. And here we've been able to basically scale that content, utilizing AI more than tenfold with sort of tips and expert opinions being produced for one brand in one market that we can then scale utilizing AI across many more brands. So it's really driving efficiency on how we produce content. So for me, that's a pretty clear example of a change for this World Cup in how we develop the content and how we're able to reach a lot of users with high quality content originating from a few of our brands to all our brands.

speaker
Hjalmar Ahlberg
Analyst, Redeye

Right, thank you. And also a question, maybe two questions in one. I mean, you mentioned UK there, the tax hike had some negative impact. What do you see from that market region from here? And also, if you can comment anything on Brazil, if there's any change, there is still kind of a flat market.

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, so in the UK, it's mostly our paid media business. where we have sort of felt this change. But that also comes with auctions then adjusting to sort of a new landscape, lowering bid prices. And again, I think our paid team, they have displayed excellent performance and really being on top of this. So it's of course a headwind they need to manage, but I think have done so very well. For Brazil, it is now several quarters where we have seen the impact of adjustments to the taxation and the regulation in Brazil, which is, of course, from a user and player perspective, sad because it does drive more people into the non-regulated market and thus less consumer protection ultimately and less tax revenue. But it's also an environment we are now used to operating in So for us, it's daily business, you could say.

speaker
Hjalmar Ahlberg
Analyst, Redeye

Understood. And maybe a final question. I mean, you mentioned some continued operational efficiencies here, also supported by using AI. How should we view this going forward? Do you think cost could come down even further, or is it more likely to drive top-line?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, for us, AI is affecting our business in many ways. It's on the product side with Playbook as a very good example of that. It's on our content production, which I just alluded to in the World Cup. It's also a lot on the internal processes where more or less all functions in BC are adopting AI at a high pace. and it's the new normal and I really feel a strong buy-in from the entire organization in Better Collective which I'm very proud of and very pleased with. So it's just the new normal of conducting businesses that we are empowering ourselves with AI across.

speaker
Hjalmar Ahlberg
Analyst, Redeye

Thank you very much.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Thank you. We will now take the next question and the question comes from the line of Paul Jessen from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

Yes, thanks for taking the question. Just coming back to prediction market and the impact here. The increase you had sequentially in the number of CPA indices, is that mainly prediction market or is there also an uptick from the traditional part of the market given the World Cup?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, it is mainly driven by prediction markets. There's also an effect from the World Cup, but because we operate prediction markets purely on CPA, the main effect is from prediction markets.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay, and if we do the math, then the average CPA is down something from 300 to 175 in the quarter, which is the previous quarter, meaning that the average price for a prediction market CPA should then be in the range of 100 or slightly above. Is that fair that when we look forward and try to model the inclusion of gross prediction market that that's the number or the level we should use for that part of the market?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

I think what is probably worth mentioning here is that with the market more or less starting this year with just one player, it's of course in terms of pricing and competition not the most ideal scenario having just one player. Now we are seeing Another being active, we expect more to come. So from a pricing perspective, that is, of course, good for us and something we will, of course, as much as possible implement in how we strike deals.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

So we should see rising prices potentially also from the traditional market to take up competition with prediction?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, as I said, of course, we cannot predict deals, but that environment is exactly what drives prices when it's very competitive. So for us, it's how we would like to see it play out.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

OK, thank you. Question on the fact that you want to combine CPM and the sponsorship in one line from next year. Makes sense. But I was just wondering, advantage, is that also impacting the sponsorship part of it? I would have assumed it's mainly for the sell side of CPM more than its sponsorships. I guess sponsorships are not bidding into the system. They are more making a one-to-one negotiation of a price for a longer period than it's based on an auction system. Why am I wrong?

speaker
Flemming Pedersen
Chief Financial Officer

Flemming here. Thanks, Paul. I'll try to answer. You can see the initiatives that we have under the umbrella of the ADVANTAGE project that we installed a couple of years ago are multifold. And you are right that you can say on one part, as you described, that is one thing. But you can say it also comes with different initiatives, being our fan beach project we discussed also. increasing focus on selling more direct of our inventory. And of course the tail of all this is the CPM revenue where we sort of have the lowest income per mill. So it's really multifold and hence also why we're looking at this as a holistic effort rather than just one initiative. Advertising revenue is really, you can say, a focus and it comes in with many sub-projects basically.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay. And then you're also commenting on events after the end of the quarter and there you talk about a number of integration optimization and organizational changes. Does this only impact the fact that you want to operate better or is there also a cost element part of this initiative?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, I think as I also alluded to in an answer just before is that overall we are very focused on being as efficient as possible in order to allocate resources to the biggest opportunity that we see in Better Collective. But no doubt that AI is impacting significantly on all parts of Better Collective. So it's something we're really embracing and that does allow for an efficient business to be run. And again, it's something we will just continue to utilize as much as possible. And as I said before, I'm very proud of how our organization as a whole are really embracing this path that we're on. So we will just continue to adapt AI wherever it makes sense for us. and that would drive efficiency and allow for us to invest into the biggest opportunities of Better Collective.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

I have just a follow-up on that one. The restructuring charts you put into the Q2 numbers, is that part of these initiatives in the third quarter? Or did that relate to action in the second quarter?

speaker
Mikael Mohn-Jakobsgaard
VP Investor Relations and Communications

Sorry Paul, did you ask whether the comment to after the quarter is hitting Q2 or Q3? Was that the question?

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

You had a restructuring cost of 1.4, 1.5 million in the second quarter. Then you announced that you are doing some optimization in the third quarter. I was just wondering if that provision in the second quarter related to what you did in the third quarter or if it was actions in the second quarter.

speaker
Flemming Pedersen
Chief Financial Officer

It's actually in the second quarter, sorry. I did not hear the question. So new initiatives, you will see that in the following quarters.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

There will be a special item there as well in the third quarter.

speaker
Flemming Pedersen
Chief Financial Officer

Yes.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

I have two minor questions. In the media partnership, you do an investment of €11 million. I was just wondering, is that a new partnership or is that extension or expansion of existing ones that might be running out of contract?

speaker
Flemming Pedersen
Chief Financial Officer

It's partnerships in general where we are investing in new acquisition of new rights also including the talented part of the business.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

And the last one is that Thotta was out doing a Part of the profit when they came here was because they had apparently not noticed that the NFL is starting one week later this year. So just for planning or budgeting or modeling for the third quarter, will that have an impact on your US business in the third quarter that it's starting one week later than last year?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, it's five days to be precise. And no, we don't see that having a significant impact to our business.

speaker
Paul Jessen
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay. Thank you. That's all.

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Thanks, Paul.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Thank you. We will now take the next question. And the question comes from the line of Sebastian Grave from Nordea. Please go ahead.

speaker
Sebastian Grave
Analyst, Nordea

Hi, Jesper, Flemming and Mikkel. Thanks for taking my questions. Congrats on another quarter of steady sailing in a still dynamic market environment. I have a few, I'll just take them one by one if it's okay. First I'd like to ask about the World Cup uplift here in the quarter. Yes, you referred to activity around the tournament playing out, I should put it, you know, broadly as expected. Could you maybe help us, you know, being a bit more specific on what you actually saw in the quarter in terms of revenue and indices? relating to World Cup activities? I believe you've previously provided those metrics in connection with other tournaments, so I guess this could be very much helpful here at this time around as well.

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Well, I think first off, the Q2 here covers roughly half of the World Cup, so the second half of the World Cup hits Q3. But to speak to where we sort of see the positive impact, it's on the new deposit in customers that we were able to deliver where the normal part of this year is lower performance on indices where like for the World Cup we saw a good performance on indices. In our advertising and sort of sponsorship business we have productions that will focus solely on the World Cup and thus sponsorship sales related directly to those shows and overall just higher demand for advertising towards our audiences whenever it was football related. So I would rate that as sort of the main impacts along with activity in our revenue share databases where we also flagged that we had an all-time high for value of deposits Also there the World Cup played a part.

speaker
Sebastian Grave
Analyst, Nordea

And as I recall it back in Q2 25 you provided this bridge from the Euro 24 and I guess as I recall back then the impact was around 5 million Euro revenue and EBITDA from what you referred to as tournament comparisons year on year. Is it broadly the range we're in here for the World Cup as well, or is that, you know, is that number off?

speaker
Flemming Pedersen
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think in this quarter clearly it had an impact, as Jesper said, and was part of our, you can say, also our expectations. So I think it was in line with that number you mentioned is likely, you can say, representative also for this, you can say, 14 days of the World Cup. I think also we saw quite good traction on the finalization of the NBA in this quarter with a lot of activity. where we had, as you can say, success with especially the talented side of things. So the World Cup was important, as Jesper said, and I think we also said before, the major impact is the uptake in newly posting customers, but of course also on activity level. So, yeah, I think that's...

speaker
Sebastian Grave
Analyst, Nordea

Okay, that's fair. No, thank you, Flemming. No, that's fair, that's fair. Then secondly, congrats also on strong momentum in the US. As my colleagues, I would also like to hear a bit more about the prediction market momentum here. You alluded to Jesper, more operators coming online during the year here. I know you're not specific on how much an absolute revenue you get from this vertical here in the quarter, but still, is it fair to expect more from this vertical going forward in Q3 and Q4? On the former point, could it be possible for you to provide a bit more specific on the actual impact for the quarter?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Yes. Well, as I said, this is overall driving a change in market dynamics. So it's not just a direct impact from prediction market, it also spills over to our sports betting customers in their behavior. So that is something we are really pleased with. I spoke to the fact that we started the year with just one in the US market. We now have two very active players and that is affecting how we can sell and the prices we can get. So for the second half of the year, we are really excited about this development and expect this to be growing further and really a significant part of the growth we expect for the second half. So we are really excited about these developments and believe that the competition will see for this half of the year will directly translate into the financial performance of our business.

speaker
Sebastian Grave
Analyst, Nordea

Thank you, Jesper. And then just my last question. Similar to Paul, I also did the calculation on the implied CPA per NDC, and I get to the same numbers, meaning a quite steep step down from the previous quarters. I understand that there might be some prediction market dilution in this number but is that the only dynamic or are there any other dynamics to be aware of on why the implied CPA is significantly lower this quarter?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

There are other factors such as like in our paid media business how the hybrids are structured so if we take more of a revenue share the CPA component will be lower So there are more factors to this number. But I think we can lean forward and say on the prediction markets, because of this development, we are seeing prices go up. So that will have a positive impact compared to the first half of the year and then looking into the second half of the year.

speaker
Sebastian Grave
Analyst, Nordea

Okay, good stuff. Thank you, Jesper Flemming and Mikkel.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 1 on your telephone. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the box and click submit. I will now hand the call back to Michal for webcast questions.

speaker
Mikael Mohn-Jakobsgaard
VP Investor Relations and Communications

Thank you. And I think maybe the first one is for you, Flemming, on the North American EBITDA margin expansion and whether the 26% is a sustainable baseline or whether a seasonal high margin revenue stream inflated it temporarily.

speaker
Flemming Pedersen
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think you can say discussing margins per quarter is difficult, but the result is basically impacted by two things. Our performance in the U.S. or North American revenue share databases was really strong, and as some will know, we have weighted that and also invested a lot into revenue share in North America for a long time. And that is now beginning to fill relatively more in the performance as recurring revenue. And then, of course, as we have discussed now a few times, the new market dynamics around prediction markets also hitting this quarter. which is normally quite slow for sports in North America is also helping this. So yes, I would expect if we look on the full year clearly that is sustainable and likely also higher than this. So it's a very good development that we're seeing in that region. Thank you.

speaker
Mikael Mohn-Jakobsgaard
VP Investor Relations and Communications

And then we have several questions around Brazil that I will combine into one, but they're all around whether there have been any changes to the Brazilian market and the regulation also that we show in our bridge and also a few comments to the election in the second half of the year and what our expectations are for the markets in general.

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

Yeah, and I also touched a bit upon that earlier in the webcast that We are affected by the regulatory changes and taxation in the Brazilian business. And there is an upcoming election which obviously also sparked some debate and opinions about the development of the market. But fundamentally, I personally believe that with the amount of tax revenue that the Brazilian state is seeing now, that yes, there will be constant discussion, but they will also want to protect this tax revenue combined with the ability to protect consumers in a regulated and licensed market. And whenever they weaken the regulated market, it unfortunately spills over to the non-licensed market with no consumer protection and no tax revenue coming in. So it's a balance that is happening and being discussed in all markets, and especially in Brazil right now with an upcoming election, I think the topic is then filling a bit more than normally.

speaker
Mikael Mohn-Jakobsgaard
VP Investor Relations and Communications

Thank you Jesper, and then I have The final but one again I will combine because there are quite a few questions related to other players in the industry that are reporting different numbers than us and we don't comment specifically on other companies of course so I will try and make it a question about ourselves but what are we seeing in the broader competitive environment right now also towards our partners and the general performance in the market?

speaker
Jesper Søgaard
Co-founder and Co-CEO

I think, first off, I think Better Collective is on good track and I think you can tell that in the performance of the first half of this year. There's no doubt we are in a fast-moving industry with constant change and everybody has to adapt to that. I'm really proud of how Better Collective, several years ago, has been very focused on diversifying our business, meaning that If we go all the way back to our IPO, we were more or less a pure affiliation business with almost all revenue stemming from revenue share and just one line to now where we have developed into many more markets, not just Europe. We are in North America and South America. We have expanded to a paid media business. We have added esports as a new category for Better Collective very powerful brands and big audiences. And we have launched new products, engagement products like Playbook. We have a big talent-led business which is very creative focused and living on social and driving strong sponsorship revenue for us. So we have really been focused on diversifying Better Collective and I think that is helping us right now in the fast industry and the change that we experience here and giving us a very attractive position in this ecosystem with a lot of optionality in many directions. So we are of course not immune to changes as we've also seen in the past but we are really resilient with this business. We're back to growth and the focus for us is just continued disciplined execution of the business. with all the opportunities we see in Better Collective and ahead of us. But I very much agree with the questions that this industry is just constantly changing and everybody needs to adapt and be ready for that.

speaker
Mikael Mohn-Jakobsgaard
VP Investor Relations and Communications

Thank you. And that was the final question. So with that, thank you for the questions and thank you very much for showing interest in Better Collective. Have a nice day.

Disclaimer

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