Evolution AB (publ)

Welcome to Evolution Q4 Report 2025 presentation. During the Q&A session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now I will hand the conference over to the speakers, CEO Martin Carlison and CFO Joachim Andersen. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the presentation of Evolution's year-end report for 2025. My name is Martin Karlsson, and I'm the CEO of Evolution. With me, I have our CFO, Joakim Andersson. As always, I will start with some comments on our performance, and then hand over to Joakim for a closer look at our financials. After that, I will conclude with an outlook, and then we'll open up for questions. Next slide, please. So let's start with the financial and operational highlights in the quarter. Overall, we saw somewhat better performance in Q4 compared to Q3. The net revenues came in at €540 million, corresponding to quarter-on-quarter growth of 1.4%, but a year-on-year decline of 3.7%. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to €341.5 million, giving a margin of 66.4%. Asia turned back to modest growth quarter on quarter, signaling some progress in our hard work to battle the cybercriminality in the region. As pointed out several times before, there is no quick fix to these issues. We constantly adapt and develop our technical solutions to win in the long run. We believe that it's harder to steal our content today than it was a year ago. Latin America, North America and Africa also showed growth, whereas Europe declined both on a year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter basis. Our live revenue declined by 4.5% to €438.6 million, while R&G increased by 1.7% to €75.7 million. I believe our slop brands have great potential ahead. Live is currently affected by both Europe and Asia, while North America and Latin America continue to do well. In the U.S., we believe Live will continue to grow its share of the total online market, and in the quarter, we launched Azugi as the second brand in New Jersey. Talking more about games, our headline title for 2025, Ice Fishing, is gaining in popularity following its launch this summer. More and more players enjoy the fast-paced and highly entertaining format. We have actually seen a doubling over the last three months. It's trending on social media, and at times it has been close to player numbers that we've seen in crazy time. Amazing. And speaking about speed, the quarter also saw the launch of Red Baron, our third crash game that is simple and fun, both for veterans and beginners. Operators and players love it, and the numbers are steadily increasing. Since this year, this is an end-year format of report, let us also quickly zoom out and look at finances for the full year. Net revenues were almost flat, with an increase of 0.2% to €2,067 million. Adjusted EBITDA decreased by 3.2% to €1,366 million, giving a margin of 66.1%, which is just within the communicated range of 66-68% for the year. To conclude the slide, looking at both the quarter and full year, operationally, I believe we did great. The financial outcome could have been better, but given the many challenges we have faced, we still managed to defend our revenue and deliver a solid margin together with a very strong cash flow. We all want to do better, and we look forward to continue our hard work in 2026. Despite what happens around us, it's vital that we stay ahead of the game and increase the gap to competition through expansion and innovation. I'm fully convinced that we have succeeded in that 2025, and even more convinced that we will do it also in 2026. Two weeks ago, we founded ICE in Barcelona, and our roadmap for the year is breathtaking. I will get back to that later. Next slide, please. If we then move on to our operational KPIs, first consisting of headcount and game round index. On headcount, we are growing by 5.8% on year-on-year basis and 3.8% on quarter-on-quarter. And we now see a better, more cost-effective distribution of all delivery. The game-run index can be seen as a general indicator of activity throughout our network over time. For an individual quarter, it can vary a lot and does not always correlate with the revenue development. In the second half of the year, activity went down somewhat connected to our measures in both Europe and Asia. But if you look at 2025 versus 2024, we actually saw a slight uptake of 1.8% for the full year. Next slide, please. At this year, this is the end-year report. We also have yearly KPIs on the customer dependency and number of tables within life. Currently, we have about 870 customers, a number that has gone up during the year, mostly linked to the new relationships and operators in Brazil. We have decreased the dependency on the five largest customers from 46% of revenues in 2024 to 39% in 2025. The largest customer represents about 12% of revenues. The number of tables have increased by 300 during the year, linked to new studio openings in Brazil, the Philippines, Romania, and the U.S. The resource mix have been improving during 2025 and we look forward to further improvements in 2026 and also better supply to market. We will continue to expand in 2026 among else with a new studio in Michigan. Next slide, please. In this report, we're introducing a real breakdown of our revenues based on our customers location. The absolute majority of our customers is based in Europe, followed by North America and Latin America. All of our revenue is regulated as a basic requirement to become a customer with Evolution is to hold a license from an approved regulator. You also see revenue split based on our customers and their players, our customer's customer, which is an estimation based on the IP number of players received from our customers. This is the breakdown of revenue we have included in historic reports. Connected to our customers' players' IP addresses, about 47% of the revenue estimate is regulated. Next slide, please. I will now give a few comments on each of the major regions based on the estimation of revenue based on our customers' IP number. As highlighted in the beginning, Europe declined quarter-and-quarter. We believe that we currently have the most strict ring fencing measures among all providers in Europe and in some market we see that players turn to unlicensed operators instead of the official channel and instead of the regulator and the channelization declined significantly. The current challenge is not the actual ring fencing but instead the channelization decline in some major countries as a result of regulatory measures. Simply put, the players are by the regulation pushed out of the regulated remit and are to a large extent playing on unregulated operators that we don't accept. This is bad for the industry and pushing out the most vulnerable players, but long term we believe that the regulatory scale will find its balance again. If looking beyond short-term performance, we see that players shift more and more towards game shows, and with the best roadmap ever in 2026, aiming at exactly these type of entertaining games, rocket-fueled by Hasbro brands, I really look forward to the development in 2026. Speaking about Europe, we can note that we haven't heard anything from the UK Gaming Commission since last summer in relation to their investigation. We don't know when they will come back, but have been very cooperative and, as already stated, have very strict ring-fencing measures in place since very early last year. For Asia... I've already said that we have made some progress in the cybercrime mitigation. The overall regulatory dynamics continue to be somewhat challenging. But at the same time, we see good development in the Philippines where the regulatory framework is getting more stable. Next slide, please. North America and Latin America both reported all-time high in terms of revenues. Growth-wise, North America has been somewhat modest during the year, and the regulation pace is very slow if looking at the U.S. as a whole. But after year-end, we saw some positive development with an iGaming legislation that was passed in May. The potential in existing market also remains strong, as live casino share has a lot of potential. I already mentioned that the launch of the Sugi as our second live brand initially in New Jersey. Speaking about U.S., we are still working to get the necessary regulatory approvals to complete the acquisition of Galaxy. Only two states remain, where Nevada is one. Nevada recently announced a guideline for licenses that operate in online gaming in other jurisdictions. And I have seen some speculation that this may cause an issue for us to get the approvals. The process is moving forward and we are still within the timeline of closing before 17th of July. And I have no further comments at the time being. Moving on to Latin America, where growth continued to accelerate both year on year and quarter on quarter. Brazil is driving growth as the new regulation is settling in. During the quarter, we also noted that the main competitor in live decided to close down operations in Argentina. We have seen this in several parts of the world in the past, that despite large resources, it's highly complex and expensive to build a live at scale. Next slide, please. Okay, let's take a step back and look at our global footprint of studios. 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of Evolution, and up until 2013 we operated with only one studio out of Latvia. Fast forward to today, we have 24 studios, with the four latest being located in Brazil, the Philippines, Romania and New Jersey. In the very beginning of Evolution's history, it was possible to target several markets from that one studio in Latvia. But as the regulation has evolved, more markets are putting demands on local presence. Even though it requires a large investment, this is great for evolution, as we have an unrivaled experience in building studios with very short lead times. It's a know-how that provides us with a competitive advantage, raises the barriers to success for others, and also speaks to regulators that we can quickly set up operations and offer job opportunities in their local markets. Another aspect of the scale of evolution is that our students are connected in star network and we can use and direct usage independently, creating scalability over all time zones. Next slide, please. I already mentioned the breathtaking roadmap 2026. As you remember, last year we entered an exclusive partnership with Hasbro for online live casino and slot games for Monopoly and other Hasbro game titles. It's an exclusive worldwide deal that covers online content for all our brands in live and RNG, a true milestone that will enable us to bring fantastic games to our players. Two weeks ago, we showcased some of the titles that we will launch during this year at ICE, which is the industry's largest yearly exhibition. Normally, we state that we have one big showcase title, like ICE Fishing last year. But this year, it is impossible to pick one. That's how strong the lineup is. Let me just mention a few highlights from 2026, and let's start with Game Night, which will be the largest game show to date and the feast of bonus games based on Hasbro favorites such as Connect Four and Hungry Hungry Hippos. It will use the largest money wheel in the whole world, but instead of a flapper, it will have a roulette-style bouncing ball and a wheel that is set at 45 degrees angle. The wheel itself is enormous, but so are the hippos. Funnily enough, it will only be the biggest game show for a few months, because later in the year we will launch Monopoly Filthy Rich. This will be a gigantic Hollywood-style game show, in a studio that would make any movie maker jealous, with five exciting bonus game rounds on Monopoly features, plus a super bonus, Monopoly World. Also based on Monopoly is Monopoly Roulette, which will be the only roulette with two bonus games, and Monopoly Rollem, a two-dice game with a Monopoly-style board. We will also launch several new Monopoly titles within the RNG universe, the first one being Monopoly Deluxe from BTG that is already live. In addition to the Hasbro titles, we will launch many other games that will appeal to both traditional players and others. Dragon Dragon, which might be the coolest name ever on the game. It's a simple, fast-paced guessing game where players bet on whether two cards would be yellow, red, or both. In 0-6 Blackjack, the dealer card is 0-6, which provides a more predictable game. From Azugi, we have Arcade Roulette, which is a unique alternative to the classic roulette using a classic claw machine as a very nice piece of engineering, by the way. In total, we have more than 110 new games and RNG releases planned for the year, and I could not be more excited. Our CPO, Todd Horshalter, described this year's roadmap as all about fun, fun, fun. And that is exactly what it is. 2026 will increase the gap to any competitor more than ever. But more importantly, we are creating great entertainment for every single player. And with that, I will hand over to Joakim for a closer look at our financials. Next slide, please.

Excellent, Martin. Thank you. So let's now spend a few minutes on the financial details. I'm now on slide 10 and will repeat a few messages that Martin opened up with. You will on this slide see our revenue and adjusted EBITDA development over time. The full year 2025 has seen a flat revenue development, whilst the quarter-by-quarter trajectory shows a somewhat uneven trend. In the fourth quarter, we are reporting 514 million of revenues, 341.5 million in adjusted EBITDA, and consequently a 66.4% margin. As Martin said, with this quarter, we are ending up at 66.1% in EBITDA margin for the full year of 2025, which is within our margin guidance. Let's go to the next slide. On this slide, we will have a more detailed look at our profit loss statement. I have highlighted a few key takeaways from this slide, and I will comment on them one by one. So first and again, net revenues of 514 million. In this quarter, we have 51.7 million of other operating revenues, which is due to a reduction of an earn-out liability. This is the only amount we are adjusting for when we talk about our adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin. As you can see, and as I have highlighted on the slide, we had similar adjustments also in Q3 and Q4 2024. Moving on to the second highlight, total operating expenses amounted to 215 million, which is 6.3% higher than Q4 last year and up 2.1% quarter on quarter. Despite the costs being slightly higher quarter on quarter, we are beginning to see the benefits of our initiatives to drive operational efficiency. Several initiatives are ongoing when it comes to optimization of our tables and studios, as well as the way we work with our supporting functions. What is important to note is that this is not a one-off cost-cutting project, but something that we will work with continuously. If we then move to the third highlight, it's our profit for the period that amounted to 306.8 million in the quarter. And for the full year, we had a profit of 1.06 billion. Finally, our earnings per share, EPS, after dilution amounted to 1.54 euros. Let's move on to the next slide, where I'm going to show you the development of our cash flow. First, on our left hand side, we have our operating cash flow after investments, which amounted to 262 million in the quarter. One factor behind the relatively low cash flow this quarter was the seasonally weak working capital. While elevated year-end accounts receivable is a recurring pattern, we are actively addressing it and we have seen good progress in January. The graph shows that in-year fluctuations are not unusual. However, the overall more uneven performance on top line in 2025 has driven greater volatility in our cash flow this year. Cash conversion remains solid and was at 82% for the fourth quarter. Then turning over to the other graph and our capital expenditures, we can see that we are slightly up quarter on quarter with a total capex relating to tangible and intangible assets of 38.5 million. That also means that total capex for the year was 134.8 million. Next slide, please. On this page, you will find a summary of the balance sheet for 2025 compared to what it looked like at the end of 2024. The main items that I usually highlight, which are all signs of our financial strength, are the value of the bond portfolio of 104 million, our total cash balance that amounted to 818 million, and the equity position that at the end of the year amounted to almost 4.1 billion. Although a minor point, as mentioned earlier during the P&L review, we have made an adjustment to our earn-out liabilities. Consequently, the other liabilities category on the balance sheet shows a slight quarter-on-quarter adjustment. We continued with the buybacks in the fourth quarter and in total, we invested 93.7 million and bought back 1.6 million shares. In total, we invested 500.2 million in 2025 and got 7.3 million evolution shares, which today corresponds to 3.6% of the company. And when talking about buybacks, we wanted to highlight what a total shareholder remuneration has looked like over the last years. On this slide you will see dividend payments in blue boxes and buybacks in green boxes. There are a few takeaways from this slide, but I would like to point you to two of them. Firstly, as illustrated by the grey bar to the right, we have returned more than 3.5 billion euros to our shareholders since 2020. Secondly, during 2025 alone, total shareholder remuneration amounted to almost 1.1 billion euros, which equates to a yield of 9.3% based on the market cap at year end. With that remark, I will hand it back to Martin.

Thank you Joakim. So let's summarize and then move on to the Q&A. Operationally, it was a good quarter and year, maybe the best ever. We increased efficiency, maintained margin, delivered fantastic games, and continued to expand our footprint just as we should. But we also handled many challenges, always standing up for what we believe in, always trying to do the right thing. The situations we have been put up against and are still handling are not something any company could do, especially not while also being able to maintain revenues, deliver both a solid margin and an excellent cash flow. It shows what a fantastic management team we have, with the right values, as well as the thousands of experts and young talents across the globe that build evolution to the strong company that we are. I would like to send my sincere thank you to each and every one of those. And speaking about the excellent cash flow, I would also mention that the board will decide and announce its recommendation regarding capital allocation for 2025 earnings later this quarter. All in all, we are, in spite of the financial development, proud of 2025. But with that said, we want to do more 2026. We will deliver an absolutely fabulous product roadmap 2026. Expansion will be at full speed in the U.S. and Latin while we continue to invest in Europe and at the same time deliver margin in line with 2025, meaning 66%. I really look forward to the rest of 2026. Now, thank you for listening, and we will open up for questions. On the Q&A slide, you will also find a link that takes you to a video, almost like an early Easter egg, with a sneak peek of the amazing roadmap that you can watch after the call. Please click it. Have fun. Next slide, please. And then we'll open for questions.

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Ed Young from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Good morning. I've got three questions, please. Good morning. First of all, on the new games, I think for anyone who went to ICE or has seen the roadmap, the opportunity for this year seems almost obvious with the Hasbro releases. But for 2025, you discussed being really happy with the operational performance that obviously wasn't matched financially. What would it take in 26 for the progress on the content and operational side to be more matched in the financial performance? The second question, if I'm okay to ask them together,

My memory is very, very good, but short. So, no, but to deliver in 2026, just a stable environment. If we just could have a stable environment, solve a little bit continuously, meticulously, get a little bit better in Asia, that's it. No more, no less.

Okay. There was a sequential decline quarter on quarter in Europe. Could you perhaps give us a bit more color? Obviously, as you mentioned, ring fencing measures went in early last year. Was there any particular extra regulatory development or change? Or are you seeing any underlying change at a customer level or in the markets that can help explain that? And how should we think about sequential European growth as we head into 2026?

We're not happy with the quarter in Europe. There are a lot of effects on the regulatory measures and the instability of the market. And some countries are not developing according to what we want. So it was not a good quarter. The overall situation in Europe where the channelization now drops to 50% level in certain countries or some countries which are developing. good that affects us we only target 50 of the market and and the regulation is not balanced right now so so players are pushed out of the regulatory remit so that affects us so the total situation in europe wasn't good in the quarter okay um finally um could you give us an insight of why you've given this new geographic disclosure what's the message you're you're giving us it's not too much smoke signals, it's There's a lot of focus on regulatory aspects and where players are coming from and so on. And we feel that it's important now to disclose and show this is our revenue. This is our customers. This is where our customers are. Then the geographical split of revenues, that's our customers provided IP address of their players. And it sounds like it was time to disclose that and show that to you to put a little bit of emphasis on that.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

The next question comes from Georg Atling from Pareto Securities. Please go ahead.

Morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll just start with what you alluded to in Nevada. So the direct question is really if you think there is a need for further ring fencing to complete this Galaxy acquisition. Thanks.

We are progressing with the Galaxy acquisition. The Galaxy extension is not large enough to affect our business model in general. So we are moving forward according to the business model that we have.

Okay. Second question on the CapEx here in 2026. How should we think about this given you gave no guidance? Is it in line with 25 or a ramp up from that base?

We will get back on it. It's just a couple of weeks. It will be well in time for the AGM. So we look forward to disclose a good capital allocation policy and action for 2025 figures quite soon.

Okay. And then just a final question on Asia. I mean, it's been very choppy here the last three quarters. What's your view on, you know, the underlying development in trying to combat these cybersecurity problems? Has it been stable since the last three, four quarters, or is it really an underlying improvement here in Q4?

The market development in Asia has been also shocked a little bit in some countries and it's not been super stable, but still good. I mean, we had a not so good quarter three and now we're slowly taking back a little bit. We're happy with that movement and we're doing a little bit of action slowly, slowly getting to terms with the cyber criminality and hoping to see better development, of course, forward. We don't know exactly when that will happen.

When you look into 26 in Asia, do you see that this will largely be resolved or will it take longer than that?

I can't guide you on that. We are working day and night to find ways to do it. It's a very complex environment, and someone is really stealing our product. And we do what we can, and I know that there are others that experience the same thing. So we'll see how and how fast we can resolve this.

Okay. That's all I have. Thanks very much. Thank you.

Thanks.

The next question comes from Martin Arnold from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.

Good morning, guys. My first question is on the situation in Europe. You said it wasn't good in the quarter and we saw that. But is it anything that suggests that it will or could improve in the coming quarters here?

I think we can do better than what we did now. That's a little bit the same as I answered to add like, what do you need to do better? A little bit stable environment, then it will look really good.

So it's also in your hands and not only in how the regulatory markets are working or?

You can always do better. I mean, even if we would have a growth of 50% in the quarter, and you would ask me, we can always do a little bit more. Now, adding the games that we have on the roadmap will, of course, make a difference. And I look forward to do that. So there's more to do always. But the baseline is that a little bit stable environment would be very nice.

And on that topic, what's been the reception so far when you conclude from ICE in Barcelona, for example, on the new Monopoly games among your big customer network?

They are flabbergasted. I don't know to find the... Everyone looks at the games and like, wow, when are we going to get them? Everyone looks at the games like there is nothing in comparison. There is no one else doing anything else that is even remotely doing what we do. So when they look at our roadmap, they are like, oh, when can we have it?

Sounds interesting. And when is the first game launch? Is that April on the Monopoly 1 of the 33?

We will release a couple of games now with RNG. As you saw, Monopoly Deluxe is already out. They will come, and we are eager to do it as soon as possible. But Q1, Q2, a couple of games, and then throughout the year. final question for me there was a lot of discussions on ai at barcelona in ice and you know how could that impact live casino can you clarify your view on that i think ai is a great opportunity i think that that we will use ai we will probably have a product with a virtual dealer just like we have first persons which are games that are the top of the line best in the world Then I think that, as I stated before, AI is 2026, maybe up until 2030, the best support tool there are. You will give a person meeting another person all the information that they need to have and how to handle it and all the customer information or whatever it is. I don't think that you or me would like to have an ai bot answering the questions or doing that all the time many times we still want the human interaction and and the development with tick tock and that type of videos is going in the other direction so so you have to we have to do it it will happen it will be there there will be an ai dealer doing it and it would be absolutely smashingly beautiful but real life, real physical events will still be there for the years to come. Thanks, Ralf Geist. Thank you.

The next question comes from Monique Pollard from Citi. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. I mean, the first question was just on the EBITDA margin. So that's coming at 66.1, obviously, for the year. So the low end of the guided range of 66 to 68. And then, you know, obviously, 2026, you're saying similar to the 66.1 you achieved in the 2025. I'm just trying to understand if over time, you know, there's been a bit of a shift, obviously, in where the studio capacity and studio locations are. and whether that is putting upward pressure, sorry, downward pressure on the margins, or whether it's just a lack of being able to scale the top line, because the top line's been coming in slightly weaker than expected.

It's a good question. I would answer it like, there's always ifs and buts. But if we wouldn't have ring fans, you would have seen a much higher margin, because we simply would have had higher volume on the same capacity. If we wouldn't have had the situation where we actually took down the delivery out of some studios due to the strike recently and then moved it around, we would have had a higher margin. So it's a combination that now the resource mix is much better and we're slowly getting back to the right capacity. And, of course, if we would have had a little bit more revenue, it would have fell through and the incremental margin would have been good on that revenue. So it's a little bit of both.

I can maybe add, and it's also a little bit in the future, because when new countries or regions open up with new regulation, then it's very much up to that regulation and the kind of rules for the regulation and the rules to operate with local studios, etc., which always will have an impact on the margin going forward. That's difficult to speculate on.

Understood. And then the Second question was, you mentioned, obviously, the working capital, you know, it's seasonally weaker, but also there was this sort of issue with the accounts receivable, but that you're having some good progress with that in January. Could you talk us through sort of what you're doing there to try and sort of combat that rising accounts receivable?

Yeah, what I meant in the seasonally week AR is due to year-end Christmas holidays and breaks. I think it's a very common theme. I think that we also mean as a big company, strong financials, maybe we customers a little bit taking advantage of that and using us as a little bit of a bank over year-end to polish their working capital. So, I think that's the main reason for why we saw the build-up in December. Then, I mean, naturally, in January, we follow up on everything where it's outstanding. We've seen a lot of customers paying because of the fact that we have passed year-end. So, nothing, nothing, no drama, although the numbers were a little bit higher maybe than expected. No drama, and then we see the swing back on working capital now. Okay.

That's clear. And then I had a question just on Europe. Obviously, you've mentioned you now have the strongest ring fencing measures in place amongst the suppliers. I just wanted to understand whether you had progressively ring fenced any more markets? during 4Q in Europe or whether the markets that you ring-fenced back in February were the same that have been ring-fenced out? I didn't know if there had been any progression on your part in terms of what you were doing.

No, it's about the same. There's no big difference. I think that the channelisation is one challenge and a little bit instability in general in the markets is one challenge during the quarter. And we look forward to get a more stable environment 2026.

Excellent. My final question was just on the RNG growth rate. Obviously, that slowed slightly in the fourth quarter after a stronger 3Q. I just wondered, you know, whether you think either the roadmap of product that you've got coming in for RNG and 1Q or other things could sort of help re-accelerate that growth rate as we go through 2026.

I think we can do even, we can do more in R&D, yes. And I think that for sure monopoly, but also our own brands will help a lot.

Understood. Excellent. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.

The next question comes from Ben Shelley from UBS. Please go ahead.

Good morning, guys, and thanks for taking my questions.

Good morning.

So firstly, in the release, you spoke about a primary focus on the US and Latin America. Can you expand a bit on this, please? And is there a shift in the strategic focus here that we should be aware of?

No, there's no shift in this strategy. All markets are equally important and we continue doing exactly. So there's no shift. It's just that in the coming period, we have quite a lot of things happening in the U.S. We're launching Izugi and we're expanding in Latin America. So they come out as first where we are doing. And then, as I stated several times, We hope for a little bit more stable environment and then, of course, we continue to invest in Europe, but not as much because we don't need that in the same way.

Thanks. Very clear. And then just on the UK Gambling Commission, I know you still haven't heard anything, but it looks like you have changed your wording slightly in your release regarding the review. Does that reflect a change in your expected outcome?

I don't know anything about the outcome more than what I knew before. No, actually, no. No, no intentional change in wording. It's just that months passes and I don't know what to make of that. We're patiently waiting and we're doing what we're doing and we've done ring fencing since the beginning of last year. We'll see. No, no intentional change.

Thank you, thank you. And then in your last release at Q3, you spoke about volatility in the Philippines and India. Obviously Asia has grown quarter on quarter. Is it right to think that these markets have stabilized now?

Philippines more stable, yes. India more stable, yes.

Thank you. That's all from me. Thanks very much, guys.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

The next question comes from Andrew Tam from Rothschild and Co. Redburn. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Just two from me. A first one, just a segue from Ben's question on India. Given the Nevada industry guidance and India being on that list as one of the 10 countries, are you planning to stop operations there, given your commitment to the Galaxy acquisition?

We are not planning to change the business model as of now due to the Galaxy acquisition as I said before. We will look into the policy and see what comes out of that and no decisions in that direction. Understood.

My second question, just trying to assess, it looks like Russia is considering regulating online casino. Will you be applying for a supplier's license there, or are you planning on stopping supply into the Russian market until that legalizes, given the Nevada guidance?

We are not. There is a lot of rumors, and Putin says one thing or other. I would just spontaneously see it's very difficult to apply for a license there, but let's see whatever happens in the world. Understood.

Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thank you.

The next question comes from Rasmus Engberg from Kepler Shoebrew. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I was just a little bit confused with Europe. Throughout your reported history, Q4 has never been weaker than Q3, and now it is, and it's quite materially weaker. I'm just trying to understand it. Is there anything you can do to help us understand why that happened? Is it a new level going into 2026, or are there some sort of one-offs in Q4 that we should adjust for?

I can't say that there is any material one-offs that I can give and state that. It's a bad quarter and there is a number of different aspects in the markets. There is no difference in our performance or the way that we act or relation to our customers. Everything is fine. But the market was not in favor during Q4. That's a fact. Okay.

And considering this, could you update us on the group level? How we should think about activity in Q1 in constant currencies relative to Q4? Is it roughly similar, or how does it look seasonally?

If we take online gaming as a global phenomenon, I would say that q4 is stronger q1 is a little bit weaker than q4 but still a good quarter but then of course you have february with eight percent lesser days i don't know if it's a shot or this year or not but it's a little bit q1 is okay but a little bit weaker than q4 on a global scale thanks and just just a final question you still report much more tax than you pay

So you sort of accumulate that. Is that something you're going to continue to do going forward? How do you look at that from, you know, it's kind of a global question in a way.

It's the pillar two, and it's really, if you ask me as CEO, it's a little bit up in the air. So we will see where that falls down eventually. But we, of course, according to pillar two, deduct for the 15% tax. So that's why it's on the balance sheet. And then there are rules of how and when and whatever that's going to be paid.

So no change there?

No change. All right.

Thanks.

The next question comes from Richard Stuber from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Apologies if you said it right at the very top, but could you give a bit more of an update in terms of the litigation with Playtech and whether you've actually sort of named them as a defendant and when we next hear on the next phase of litigation? And similarly, has this impacted any of your sort of commercial discussions with any new or existing clients? And the second question is just You talk about this year you'll be going, you think, in line with the general markets in the different regions. Could you just give us an indication what you think the market growth rates are in Casino? Thank you.

There is no real update when it comes to the main litigation, meaning Playtech. It has its due course. It's continuous and it's always slow and it will be with us for a while. There's no material update. So we look forward to move forward with the lawsuit. customer reactions to to to the way that our competitor have been acting and the type of companies that they have engaged and the way that they did interviews and whatever else they did with the former employees and so on is of course shocking for many. Exactly what comes out of that, I don't know. But it's shocking. It's not good for the industry. It's not good for anyone. And it's shocking for our customers. When it comes to we have, of course, we want to take market share, we have the best products, we're moving forward, and we really want to grow faster than the market. Now, the market growth is, it's very hard. I mean, our figures are public, but many others are not. It's very hard to judge that. And often when we get the market growth, we get it afterwards. So we are a little bit in the dark, as you are. Then there are 3I and different various institutes trying to measure it, and they are more often wrong than right. So I don't have that. But once we look at the market growth, we want to be ahead of it. So that's the target.

That's great. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

The next question comes from Jack Cummings from Barenburg. Please go ahead.

Good morning, guys. Good morning. My first question is just on North America. I think the North America growth you reported is still a bit slower than what we see in terms of the market rates. And you think the relaunch of Izugi is going to help kind of close that gap? That's the first one. And then the second one, you mentioned in the prepared remarks in the release that you're still going to invest in Europe, but slightly less aggressively. I just wanted to clarify kind of what exactly you mean, that less capacity going in, less studio investment. What does less investment in Europe look like? Thank you.

Okay, let's start with the end. So less investment, it's like in comparison to other investments. I mean, we're going to build a lot of products, new studios, all the Hasbro games that you will see will be built in Europe. So there is a strong investment in the European set and that will be distributed out there. And we will see to that we cater for all the growth in different markets and adding whatever. But in comparison to, for example, the build up that you see in Brazil, That is stronger. We need to invest more in relative terms in Brazil to build up that market. And we see that ahead. And that goes for the U.S. as well. When it comes to SUGI launch in the U.S., we believe that that is the second option for the players and for the operators. And we believe that we will accelerate the growth with that, of course. We also think that the share of live now when the market a little bit more mature will increase. So there's potential in that when it comes to, for example, US and North America. What was the first question? I think that I answered that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

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