Evolution AB (publ)

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the presentation of Evolution's Interim report for the first quarter of 2026. My name is Martin Carlesund 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 an outlook and then we will open up for your questions. Next slide, please. So let's start with the financial and operational highlights in the quarter. Net revenues were Euro 513 million corresponding to year-on-year decline of 1.5%. EBITDA came in at 335.3 million corresponding to a margin of 65.4%. The regional development was somewhat mixed in the quarter. Europe is not performing well at the moment, whereas Latam is having a great momentum. North America continues its steady growth at a slightly higher pace than in Q4. In Asia, we made some further progress on combating cybercrime. Live revenue was hurt by the development in Europe and declined 3.1% on year-on-year basis. R&G took a step forward with a higher growth than what we have seen in the past quarters, up 8.1% year-on-year. During the quarter, we have continued to expand our student network with new additions in Latvia, the US, and Argentina. We have also started to deliver on our amazing product roadmap for 2026. I will talk more about that later in the presentation. Now, next slide, please. If we then move to our operational KPIs, first consisting of headcount and then game rounds index. On headcount, we are growing by 2.9% year-on-year and 1.7% on quarter-on-quarter basis. We are on a good path with expansion and we will continue to optimize the distribution and cost mix throughout 2026. The game rounds index can be seen as a general indicator of activity throughout our network over time. For an individual quarter, it can vary quite a lot and does not always correlate with revenue development. The long-term trend should be an increase in game rounds as game sessions in general gets faster and with smaller bets. I'm satisfied with the development in Q1, especially with the backdrop of the development in Europe. Next slide, please. In the last report, we introduced a real breakdown of revenues based on our customers' location, where Europe is dominant. Compared to the fourth quarter, North America and Latin America have grown their respective share of the total revenue, which reflect the overall development in the first quarter. As we require all our customers to carry a license in regulated jurisdictions, all our revenues are regulated. You also see a revenue split based on our customers and their players, our customers customer, which is an estimation based on the IP number of players received from our customers and purchased by a third party geo information. This is the breakdown of the revenues we have included for several years. Seeing from that perspective that all our customers are regulated, our revenue is regulated to 100%. If instead looking at the estimation of the year position and approximation of revenue based on our customers' customers' players' IP address, about 48% of the estimated revenue is regulated. Next slide, please. I will now give you a few comments on each of the major regions based on the estimation of revenue based on our customers' customers' IP number. As already mentioned, Europe did not do well and continued to decline quarter on quarter largely due to regulatory volatility and subjectivity, which hurt our play activity. It has now also been almost a year since we introduced our extensive ring fencing measures, which ensure that the players can only reach evolution content from licensed operators within their respective market. It was the right thing to do, and in a world of perfect regulation, it would not have caused any issues. However, due to that regulation in some markets fails to strike the right balance between player protection and entertainment, players continue to access unregulated operators and channelization is decreasing fast and significantly. This harms the total business and the most vulnerable players lose the player protection of playing unregulated operators and certified products from Evolution. Looking at the operational side, we have opened a second studio in Riga in the quarter. It is currently the home of our UoS 6 Blackjack tables, but later this year it will host both game shows Game Night and Monopoly Filthy Rich. Looking at Asia, this is now the second quarter in a row with a quarter on quarter growth. This is, of course, a positive signal. We are in a better place right now than a year ago. However, as the silence has been somewhat of a cat and mouse game, we remain cautious. Next slide, please. Both North America and Latam reported yet another all-time high revenues. Growth rate in North America improved compared to the fourth quarter. It looks somewhat soft in our reporting currency, Euro, but in US dollars, year-on-year growth was roughly 21% compared to 19% in Q4. In the quarter, we launched several monopoly-themed titles, which have been off to a great start. Last week, we also launched Monopoly Live in Connecticut. uh which is an important milestone as we know that the monopoly franchise is particularly strong in the u.s market it will be rolled out in additional states going forward we have also completed the construction of a second studio in michigan locally located in grand rapids it's a milestone as well it's now going through inspections and regulatory approvals and we are expecting to launch it in the next few months hopefully earlier Looking at the regulation, we know two positive developments. In the US, the main governor has now signed the iGaming bill into law. In Canada, Alberta will regulate its iGaming market in July. We have had presence in the province since 2021, serving the only available online gaming service run by the local government with live casino games. Now the market will open up for more operators. Last note on North America is the ongoing process to acquire Galaxy Gaming, where we are still working on the necessary approvals before the 17th of July deadline. We don't have any new information to share today. More than that, the process is ongoing. Latin America is doing really well at the moment. A highlight from the quarter is that we have completed the acquisition of a live studio in Argentina from a competitor who has decided to withdraw from the market. The studio will form the base for further growth in Argentina, and we are now adapting it to evolution standards. In Brazil, we continue to perform well after regulation, which was about a year ago. We have launched a localized version of Crazy Time that is sure to attract a lot of new players in Brazil. Latam truly is exciting. We're in full expansion mode. In addition to Argentina, we'll continue to expand our presence in Brazil and in Colombia to fully leverage the big market potential. We don't have a specific chart for other markets, which mainly comprise of Africa. It continues to grow from a small base. Crash gains are widely popular in the region and our recently launched Red Baron has so far exceeded expectations. Also, our RNG offering is starting to gain traction. To conclude this slide, the US and Latam are where we will invest the most in 2026. Both regions have high potential with life still being in early days. Next slide please. As you are aware of, we have a spectacular roadmap for 2026 where we will take fun and entertainment to yet another level. Over the past month, we have made some initial releases like OS6 Blackjack and Dragon Dragon, but the big splash is still ahead of us. Based on our exclusive partnership with Hasbro, we will continue to expand our portfolio of Monopoly games and closest in time for release are Monopoly Roulette and Monopoly Roland. Monopoly is an extremely strong franchise that is continuously gaining more popularity and I think that it will be an important piece of the puzzle when continuing to push the boundaries for entertainment. Another exciting development is the introduction of a new feature that we call SidePlay. It will allow players to enjoy slots alongside the live game attraction With just a click, you will be able to activate selected slots from our RNG brands, such as No Limit City and NetEnt. Within the live interface, a mini lobby will make personalized recommendations to keep content relevant and engaging. I think this is a great feature, as it brings together live casino slots in one streamlined view. The best of two worlds. And yet another feature and advantage of OSS One Stop Shop. Since Evolution was founded 20 years ago, we've been obsessed with the end user satisfaction and the entertainment factor. And delivering the satisfaction is not just about innovation, it's about getting the fundaments right every single day. Top notch gameplay, a flawless lobby, world class studios, a game integrity that sets the global benchmark. We often highlight what's new each quarter because innovation is exciting, but I want to be crystal clear. These basics are absolutely crystal critical for the experience because if the fundamental slips and users notice immediately. So with that said, 2026 is going to be another great year of innovation while we also continue to enhance overall experience with playing our games. A combination of the two will ensure that we will bring the most entertaining experiences to the players and increase the gap to competition more than ever before. With that, I will hand over to Joakim for a closer look at our financial. Next slide, please.

Thank you, Martin. As usual, I have a few slides that will focus on the key highlights as we go through them. Starting with this slide, slide eight, which shows our revenue and EBITDA development over time. If you look at the data on the far right, we can again see the Q1 revenue of 513 million, represented by the blue bar, EBITDA of 335.3 million in the gray bar, and our EBITDA margin of 65.4% shown by the line above. Let's go to the next slide. And here we have a more detailed look of our profit and loss statement. As before, I have highlighted the key takeaways on this slide, and I will talk you through them one by one. First, the net revenues of course amounted to 513 million, which is down 1.5% year on year, but practically flat quarter on quarter. Second, total operating expenses were 220 million, which is 1.3% higher than Q1 last year and up 2.5% quarter on quarter. Personnel expenses increased by 4% quarter on quarter. However, on a rolling 12-month basis, we continue to see a deceleration in the growth rate each quarter. Third, profit for the period amounted to 251.9 million. And as the fourth highlight, our earnings per share after dilution amounted to 1.26 euros. Let's move on to the next slide where I show you the development of our cash flow. First, on the left hand side, we show our operating cash flow after investments. This amounted to 311 million for the quarter, representing a solid improvement compared with Q4, partly driven by a recovery in working capital. The last 12 months cash conversion remains strong and stays around the long-term trend with 81% in the quarter. Turning to the chart on the right, which shows our capital expenditures. Total capex related to tangible and intangible assets amounted to 34.6 million for the quarter. This remains stable as a share of net revenues as illustrated by the black line. Next slide, please. Turning to our financial position, and as you can see on this slide, there are no major changes compared to recent quarters. We continue to be in a very strong position with total cash of 1.2 billion euros, including our bond portfolio and total equity of 4.3 billion euros. With that, I'll conclude my remarks for this quarter. And overall, it was a fairly uneventful quarter from a financial standpoint. I'll now hand it back to you, Martin, to wrap things up. Thank you very much.

So let's summarize and then move to the Q&A. If we look beyond Europe, 2026 has started really good. We grow across all regions, we maintain the margin, and we have started to deliver on the amazing product roadmap. I'm a little bit frustrated that the majority of our showcase games will be launched during the second half of the year, but they will be worth the wait. Europe is the main headache right now, but the long-term positive view is intact. I've talked about it many times before. Regulation changes over time, and right now the balance is not where it should be. But as channelization continues to decrease, regulators will eventually have to adapt to protect the players, and not by force, but by sound regulation, get them back into the regulated part of the market. We're doing what we can to mitigate the current development, working smarter and harder, releasing the best games, pulling the players back. As highlighted, we will continue to invest mostly in USA and Latin, alongside our return to focus on product innovation. Some further expansion in Europe will also be needed, but we are naturally more cautious in the short term. I don't want the US litigation against a competitor to take focus from the results, but when a competitor sets aside all rules and deliberately try to hurt us, we must take action to protect our shareholder value. They have stated that they stand behind the defamatory report. But please remember that they paid enormous amounts of money during four years to not be exposed as the commissioner of that said report. Please also remember that the report was based on a success fee structure where the report producer was being paid based on how severely they could hurt our shareholder value. Evolution works hard. We are methodic, we are patient, and we are very disciplined. We believe in right and have strong and good culture based on morale and solid ethics. And as a last note in the quarter, the board has proposed that no dividend will be distributed for 2025, as it has assessed that the cash dividend currently is not the best way to create long term shareholder value. The board has not made further decisions on the capital allocation for 2026 yet. It's not dramatic, rather refreshing. When further decisions are made, we will let you know about it. So with that, we thank you for listening so far and now we open up for questions.

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. To enter the queue, if you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Praveen Gondhale from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Hello, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Firstly, on capital allocation, I appreciate that board of directors have not decided to propose any dividends. Could you explain what are the reasons behind those decisions and when can we expect any further communication in this regard? And secondly, on Europe, What are the key countries in Europe where you flag that channelization is decreasing at faster pace? Has that materially accelerated in Q1? And when do you expect that to stabilize? Thank you.

On the capital allocation the board is responsible for that and they will take a decision that is creating the most shareholder value and they are thoroughly and taking this question serious and looking at it and as a result they cancel the dividend for 2026. As soon as they have made their analyze taking the decisions they will get back and we will communicate what to do with our excess cash. I cannot at the moment give you any more clarification than that. When it comes to channelization in Europe, and if we split this in two, channelization in Europe in a number of countries are not really known. The ones that make some of the investigations and estimations of that could be UK. They have a low channelization, it's dropped significantly over the years. Netherlands the same, but there are also others such as maybe even Sweden. It's quite hard to get those figures in total as the market, the unregulated market is growing and not clear. So that's the comment on that. There are also other countries taking other regulatory measures or governmental measures that affect the situation in Europe as well. So that's the background or backdrop to Europe.

Thank you. And if I sort of follow up on that, Could you just elaborate on what is the subjectivity part of the impact which is impacting the player activity in Europe and in which countries?

I think that, I will briefly comment on it, but I think that the regulation in many countries stays the same. but the subjective evaluation or the implementation of the regulations have changed so so even though the regulatory framework stays the same suddenly they it's applied in a different way that's what i mean with the subjectivity thank you very much and this is really helpful the next question comes from georg atling from pareto securities please go ahead

Good morning, Martin, and Joakim. I have a couple of questions, starting with Asia, so another quarter of sequential growth. And also, when I look at the player data here in April, it looks very strong for Baccarat. So I'm just wondering what makes you reluctant to calling the trend shift here in Asia for the rest of the year?

I think that... We need to be cautious. We need to be also prepared. As I write, it's a little bit of a cat and mouse game. And we methodically, systematically work on the situation, as you can see. And we're very happy with the two quarters in a row where we grow. But we're just a little bit cautious in our communication.

Yeah, OK. On Europe, another question. You alluded to it earlier, but I'm just wondering, is this a broad-based decline across most countries or focused on a few countries with large declines?

I think you would say that it's a little bit of both. There are war, oil price situation in the world, and it affects, I think, Europe quite a lot. You can also see that it affects the dollar and other. And there are specific countries taking measures, and it's a little bit of a mix.

Okay. Just to follow up on that, what do you view is really in your hands when it comes to Europe? There's only so much you can do with the channelization, and I assume you're quite keen to stop this negative trend in the region.

And user satisfaction, desire to play evolution games, strengthen and higher entertainment value. That's the key for us. We are even looking at it like... If we do even better games, higher entertainment, we will pull players back into the regulated environment, even though the hurdle has been created, which make them go away. So our core focus, as always, see to that we deliver the best games that the players desire, position them with the operator or the future operator, see to that we always are on top. That's the only thing that will matter in the long run.

That's clear. Just a final question on Latam, where growth is accelerating quite nicely. Just wondering what you view as the drivers to this acceleration. Is it market growth, studio expansion, larger game portfolio, or something else?

Great games, again, end user desire to play our games, studio expansion, market growth situation, and so on. It's a good environment to be in, but if we didn't have the games to supply to the market, we would be nothing. So it's a combination.

Okay, thank you. I'll jump back in the queue. Thanks. Thank you.

The next question comes from Nicola Kalinowski from ABG Sundahl Collier. Please go ahead.

Hi gentlemen, and thank you for taking my questions. I'm a bit curious on game shows. So from an outside-in perspective, game shows seem to be growing quite nicely with respect to player count, and the category seems to be becoming a larger and larger share of the player count. Are you generally seeing less a less volatile revenue profile from game shows compared to some of the other game categories?

No.

Short and sweet, thanks. And then a short question on ice fishing. Are there any regions in which this game is particularly popular or would you say it's equally popular all over the world?

Ice fishing is a super success, a great game, gaining traction all over the world. Actually a loved game, one of the best we made.

All right, thanks a lot.

Thank you.

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

Hi, good morning. I've got three questions. Question one, do you think margins can remain stable year on year given Europe and Asia are still declining and you are expanding capacity in Latin America?

I think that the incremental margin and the scalability of our business model is for sure proven this quarter. I think that in spite of the situation in europe we deliver good cash flow fantastic margin and it shows that the investments that we do are really really well placed so my view is yes okay and given channelization issues in europe how do you see the outlook for the uk amid material i gaming tax hikes and is there anything interesting you are seeing from operators in the market already I think that I will answer it in general terms. Everyone in the online gaming sector, in one way or the other, if you're an operator, supplier, or even if it's something else, you would know that If you have a tax level that is like somewhere around 25, 20, but even 15 is great and 20 works and 25. But as soon as you hit like the 30 bracket, it starts to be really difficult and you open up for lowering channelization and unregulated play. When you put taxes on 40% level and a lot of other hurdles, you make it so difficult and not nice for the player experience that players in quite large amounts seeks gameplay outside. I think that that will slowly come into play. Right now, regulators talk only about what they do as repressive measures, but they don't talk about what happens to the players that are outside the regulated remit. And I think that that needs to come into focus and you need to find that balance. I look forward to see that balance coming back.

Okay, thank you. And then just lastly, on competitive intensity in the live casino industry, are you experiencing any pricing pressures, any loss of share?

We are experiencing that all along. I mean, I've been in the company for quite a long time. I think that the only difference is that there are different names related to the competitors. Some during one period it's one name and the second period it's another name and so on. The pricing pressure from competition not able to to cover the gaps that we increase all along with the innovation and the game shows we do is always compact. It's always there.

Thanks very much.

Thank you.

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

Hi guys, my first question is on Europe and this discussion what's in your own hands and what you can do to improve. How important do you think the new game releases will be for Europe in order to come back to growth?

I have a positive view on Europe going forward and I think that game releases that we are going to do and also even the games that we already have will have an impact and is super important. I think that some of the games that we do are the creator of gameplay and entertainment and people, persons, and end users search those games. So the more of those games that we add, the more pull into the regulated environment we will have.

Yeah, and many of them are tilted to second half, but you have a few Is it correct that you have two new Monopoly games scheduled for Q2?

Correct. Yes, that's correct. But the major ones are in the second half. I already said it's a little bit frustrating for me, but it takes time. The big game, Game Night, it's a huge game. Hundreds and hundreds of square meters of game show and different environments, studios. You go in and you follow the player in those and it takes time to build. It's a really, really complex world that we are creating.

Interesting to look forward to that. Just also a question on orders from your clients on new dedicated tables. Has that changed anything dramatically or is it stable or how do you view it?

We don't guide on that. I would say that we are continuously doing well.

okay on on on or dedicated tables orders okay and and um final question would be on on this game show discussion the product mix when it comes to game shows are are the new game shows more lucrative for you than the old ones in terms of like player activity bet size etc

I'm sorry, I don't guide on profitability per game or new game or old games. I think that the type of games that we do now with the type of monopoly and Hasbro content is of course highly valuable for everyone, us and the operator and the player. Okay.

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

The next question comes from Ed Young from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. My first question on Europe, please. You've talked through the channelization angle and the subjectivity part of it, but if I look at your disclosure, the regulated mix is up. despite the European decline and some Asia growth. So is it fair to say that this is primarily a decline in your European jurisdictions that are not locally regulated in the quarter, rather than the channelization issue, which has obviously been ongoing?

um the second question okay let's take one question at a time sorry otherwise i will due to my lack of memory probably not answer uh you have to look at we're growing nicely everything more or less in latin is regulated we're growing nicely in the u.s adding money there as well adding a little bit of money in Asia, there is a percentage point here and there, and there are decimals to that. So I wouldn't necessarily draw that conclusion to its point. There are other regulations in Europe that are not regulated that are suffering, and there are regulated jurisdictions in Europe that are suffering.

Okay. Second, you obviously added Playtech to your legal complaint. Could you just maybe give your reflection on where you are now in terms of what you're aiming for through the legal process and on what timeline we should expect to get an idea of damages, including punitive damages that you're seeking?

uh we have had an opponent in this legal debacle that has been not been ongoing for four years and and we have systematically been uh progressing and and winning in court that's taken four years it will take a very long time and the opponent that we have is also taking

a lot a lot of measures to delay everything which we have seen in the past and we expect that in the future as well so think about years probably many years okay and then finally there's been some um confusion in some of the questions we have this morning so perhaps you could help clear this up in terms of the Argentina studio acquisition just clearly required the studio i.e the building of a competitor that's departed or have you acquired a competitor in some of their revenues in Argentina that have contributed to the quarter?

Studio.

Great.

Thank you. Thank you.

The next question comes from Karen Puri from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking my questions. Most of them have already been... Good morning. Good morning. Most of them have already been answered, but just quickly on the Argentina point, I just want to clarify, is there any inorganic revenue contribution coming from that acquisition for LATAM or not? No. Got it. And the second question, I actually just wanted to check on the UKGC, any further discussions with the regulator on this front? Any idea when this might be resolved?

I have no idea when it will be resolved. Nothing, no progress to report.

Just one quick one, if I can squeeze that one in. One on the RNG performance. It seemed like it came in much stronger than anticipated, at least on a year-over-year basis. Maybe can you provide some incremental color on this, please?

I think we're doing great in RNG right now. Fantastic gains on no limit. We're gaining traction. We are on our way. We systematically, methodically work with it. And I think that we're doing better and better.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

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

Good morning. Just one for me. Good morning. We've just heard from some of the operators out there about some of the headwinds in terms of the Turkish market. To what extent, just curious, did Turkish weakness contribute to the weakened European result?

I won't quantify market specifics in Europe, but that also contributes to the decline in Europe, yes. Thanks. Thank you.

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

Hi, good morning. Morning.

Good morning. I took a sip of popcorn, that's why I was a bit slow.

In the Americas, both North and Latin, Which business is growing faster? Is it RNG or is it live?

Live is going faster. In both? In LATAM in total. I don't want to go down to specific. We're doing a little bit better and better on RNG in total. But live is the main show.

Okay. And second question, your rate of expansion with new studios this year compared to last year, is it higher or lower or roughly the same?

Good question. The decisions we will take during 2026 will be a little bit more forward leaning. And expansion will be maybe in actual terms about the same, but we are doing more for 2026, 2027, 2028 this year than we actually did 2025. I look forward to that.

And I don't know if you can answer this, but is Evolution going to have a board meeting after the AGM? Or in conjunction with the AGM?

I actually don't want to answer that to avoid any speculation.

There is a constituent called me in connection with the AGM. That's correct. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you. Interesting question.

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

Sorry, thanks for squeezing me in again. I just wanted to ask on accounts receivables and compared to your quarterly revenues, they remain elevated year on year and broadly stable quarter on quarter. Are there any updates on your Q4 comments here?

Yeah, I can pick that up. Hi. No, I mean, yeah, you said any updates from Q4? Yes, Q4 was definitely on an elevated basis and we are constantly looking into it, constantly reminding customers constantly chasing overuse. When we review, there's nothing alarming in there. So we are now kind of more methodological, whatever that word is, thoroughly doing this work and with a higher discipline than before. So we saw a roughly 10 million reduction during this quarter, and I expect that to continue down. Thanks very much. Thanks. Thank you.

The next question comes from Jamie Base from Citi. Please go ahead.

Good morning, guys. Just the one question from me, or two parts to one question, I guess. So firstly, are you feeling relatively confident that a solution will be found for Galaxy Gaming before the deadline? And if not, is the deadline you've got now, is that a hard deadline or can that be extended again?

I can't, I don't want to guide on it. Of course, we are working hard to solve everything outstanding and it's progressing. And right now the deadline is hard. So then that comes down to, is there any possibility with some to postpone it? Right now the deadline is hard. Very clear. Thank you. Thank you.

There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.

Thank you very much for participating, listening to us here today, and looking forward to see you in a quarter again. Thank you. Bye-bye.