East Side Games Group Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. And welcome to the Eastside GAINS Group third quarter 2025 results conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session for analysts only. I would now like to hand over the conference to the speaker today, Jason Bailey, Board Chair, CEO, and founder of Eastside Games Group. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Hello and welcome everyone to the Eastside Games Group Q3 2025 earnings call. I'm Jason Bailey, Board Chair and CEO of Eastside Games Group. Today we will share highlights from the third quarter ended September 30th, 2025. I'd like to remind you that certain statements made on this call are forward-looking within the means of applicable securities laws. This call contains references to non-GAAP measures and please refer to our fourth quarter press release and MD&A for cautionary statements relating to the forward-looking information and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to GAAP results. References to all figures are in Canadian dollars on an IFRS basis and must otherwise notice. Additional materials can be found on the investor section of our website at www.eastsidegamesgroup.com under the financial information section. Q3 was another solid quarter with another consecutive queue of revenue growth. We launched two new match titles that are driving strong engagement and laying a solid foundation for continued growth in this new genre for us. As of the end of Q3, Matt is accounting for 22% of our total revenue. The team will now provide further insights and details. First up is Mr. Chan. Thank you, Jason.

Hi, everyone. I'm Jason Chan, interim CFO of Eastside Games. Today, we report our results for the company's third quarter and year-to-date periods ending September 30, 2025. As a reminder, all amounts provided are in Canadian dollars. Our total revenues for the three nine-month periods ended September 30th was $20 million and $57.8 million, respectively. Revenue for the third quarter decreased by $1.3 million, or 6%, compared to Q3 of last year, and increased by $800,000, or 4% sequentially, compared to Q2. Excluding one-time publisher payments, revenue growth would have been 12% sequentially quarter over quarter. As a reminder, this quarter reflects our first quarter of the newly launched RuPaul Match and only one month of Squishmallows Match, where we've invested heavily into scaling the player base for these two games, as we have seen strong payback windows and retention numbers. This quarter represents peak spend, where we are aggressively acquiring users and spending on marketing within disciplined return criteria to grow these games. We have confidence that this spend will return in the next two to three quarters, and then we'll generate sustained cash flow thereafter as we start to harvest and fully monetize these retained users for years to come. These top line results also reflect stability in our core game portfolio and growth in our new game launches in the second half of 2025. We continue to see stability in our core game portfolio with mixed performances across titles and good investment opportunities in BFIT, Milk, and Cheech Kush. We finished the quarter with a daily active user count of 227,000 players, which represents an increase of 12% quarter over quarter. ARPDAU was $0.97 over the same period, which represents a decrease of 6% as a result of the influx of new users from the new game launches. Our priority remains to efficiently scale our two new game titles for the remainder of 2025 and beyond. Adjusted EBITDA for the three 9-month periods ended September 30, 2025 were $-$3 million and $600,000 respectively, compared to $2.5 million and $9 million respectively for the same period ended 2024. This represents a decline of $5.5 million in the comparable period in 2024. This decline can primarily be attributed to the development, launch, and marketing spend associated with the launch of RuPaul Match and the Squishmallows Match titles. As mentioned previously, we made a significant and strategic investment in our Match portfolio this quarter, allocating roughly 60% of our total marketing spend to support its future growth, including new supplemental marketing initiatives like TV ad placements, where we have seen the strongest returns on our investment. We expect to see these investments return in the next two to three quarters, And it is our belief that at the current time, this quarter represents a trough in our adjusted EBITDA margins with the existing portfolio of games as we look into Q4 and 2026 and realize the returns on these acquired users. Future spend on these titles could remain elevated if we continue to see attractive returns. As a reminder, our core studio portfolio profitability remains consistent and stable. The company had $3.2 million in cash and $2 million in debt as of the end of the third quarter 2025 for a net cash position of $1.2 million. The company continues to generate cash flow from its core portfolio that is being used to support the launch and future growth of the new game titles as previously mentioned. Accordingly, with the company's strong cash generation from operations in the core portfolio and available financing, the company continues to be well positioned to execute on further growth opportunities to provide further value for our shareholders. We will continue to repurchase our shares through the NSIB program, adhering to the exchange restrictions. In Q3, we bought back 147,000 shares and cancelled 168,000 shares. And to date, we have acquired and cancelled a total of 4.5 million shares and it cost us $3 million dollars. We're going to continue to balance investing in the future growth of the company. We're returning capital to the shareholders via the share buybacks, as we believe the market is currently undervaluing our shares. I will now pass things off to our chief product officer, Jim Wagner.

Hello, I'm Jim Wagner. Q3 was a productive period marked by meaningful progress in product development and portfolio expansion. While we continue to execute on our core strategy of leveraging our narrative idle and mobile match three expertise, Our recent launches also surfaced important learnings and challenges to address in the months ahead. We launched two new Match 3 titles based on strong IPs, each showing encouraging but distinct results. Squishmallow's match achieved high ratings and strong player sentiment, though we see opportunities to further optimize its performance over time. RuPaul's Drag Race Match Queen demonstrated promising monetization performance and effective product marketing, with ongoing opportunities to expand its audience and engagement. Both titles provide valuable insights that will help refine our approach to future updates and launches. The launch of Squishmallow's Match got off to a strong start, driving more installs than any of our previous match game launches and receiving positive early feedback from our players. with the game currently sitting at 4.6 stars on Google Play and 4.8 stars on the Apple App Store. Our recently introduced feature, Super Lightning Ball, has contributed to nearly a 20% increase in ARCDAO during AV testing across our other match titles. Looking ahead, we plan to roll out eight monetization enhancements in Q4 aimed at supporting sustained growth and further strengthening the player experience. RuPaul's Drag Race Match Queen had a solid launch last quarter and has maintained positive momentum with the rollout of new features, currently achieving a $0.97 ARPDAU, the highest ARPDAU across our match game portfolio. While we're encouraged by these results, we recognize there's still plenty of work ahead to build on this momentum and deliver the best possible experience for our players. We've introduced a second weekly pass to the game, which now contributes a meaningful 7% of our in-app purchase revenue, highlighting the strength of our monetization segmentation strategy. The launch of our daily goals feature has successfully increased daily return rates and overall player engagement. Additionally, we continue to enhance content by releasing eight new queens through our weekly Queen Pass. Other key highlights from Q3 include Bud Farm Idle Tycoon, the event piggy bank tested through an A-B test experiment, proved to be a monetization highlight, delivering a 4.5% lift in total revenue. We plan to replicate the success across our other titles in the portfolio. Cheech and Chong Kush Kingdom, our Mass 3 game, experienced impressive growth and scaling, with revenue increasing by 260% over the quarter. And Doctor Who Lost in Time, we launched a brand new collection feature alongside a monthly pass for monetization, which has shown strong early results and established an additional steady revenue stream for that game. Based on the momentum of Q3, our Q4 roadmap is focused on deepening engagement, increasing retention, and layering in new monetization opportunities across our top titles. In terms of engagement and retention, we're revitalizing several games with new ways to play and connect. The Office Somehow We Manage is launching a new minigame, while RuPaul's Drag Race Mash Queen will roll out a daily leaderboard based on a popular segment from the show to boost engagement and competition. Trailer Park Boys Greasy Money will introduce in-game chat, a studio first, to deepen community and retention. Milk Farm Tycoon is expanding the core loop with new production areas to enrich the overall experience. In terms of new monetization streams, we'll be adding additional passes. Match Queen will introduce a collab pass for brand-slash-influencer integrations to drive new players to the game. And in Squishmallow's Match, we're adding a pass to increase collectible incentives. Following great Q3 success, we're planning a wider rollout of a new way to buy in-game currency to Trailer Park Boys Greasy Money, RuPaul's Drag Race Superstar, and Cheech and Chong Bud Farm. In summary, Q3 was a period of high-impact execution, with new game launches and feature releases driving growth across our key performance indicators. While we recognize there is still progress to be made with RuPaul's Drag Race Match Queen and Squishmallow's Match, we remain confident in the strategic plans we have in place. We believe our focused approach in Q4 will sustain momentum and deliver long-term value to both our players and shareholders. Over to Lisa Scheck, Chief Operating Officer.

Hi, I'm Lisa Scheck. Squishmallows Match is our fourth title in the match genre. This marks a major milestone in diversifying our portfolio and continuing to expand into new audience segments. Working with Jazzwares, we've delivered a game that not only honors the Squishmallows brand, but also brings it to life through high-quality and engaging gameplay. We're also excited to be testing new marketing initiatives with Jazzwares, including early access to real-world content drops exclusive for our mobile players. Our core titles remain profitable, allowing us to experiment and invest in the long-term growth of our match business through new channels, partnerships, and innovative initiatives. This quarter, we saw strong results from our first ever in-show TV placement on RuPaul's Drag Race, which attracted our most engaged players to date, driving a 300% increase in first week player value for that segment. Building on this success, we're planning additional high-impact collaborations that extend our games into cultural moments and entertainment spaces where our audiences already live and play. Looking ahead to Q4, we'll double down on our top performing match games, supported by holiday driven events and seasonal content. With these initiatives, we're well positioned to close 2025 strong and set the stage for continued success in 2026. Over to Hakeem Harrison, Head of Growth.

Hello, I'm Hakeem Harrison, and I lead ESG's growth initiatives along with the wider marketing organization. Looking back at Q3, Our biggest win on RuPaul's Drag Race Match Queen came via strong collaboration between organic marketing, growth, and analytics to capitalize on the final two in-show placements on RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars in July. After seeing how the first two in-show placements boosted installs, we increased our marketing spend by 66% the weekend following the July 18th placement. Normally, that kind of jump would make installs more expensive and returns lower. But in this case, cost stayed steady and early returns actually improved. We also prioritize building a strong foundation for our organic marketing ecosystem, launching high-engagement campaigns and co-branded collaborations with jazz wearers to grow our community from the ground up on Meta and TikTok. This strategy is central to driving authentic word-of-mouth momentum, strengthening fan loyalty, and fueling sustained, cost-efficient growth paired with UA initiatives. Q3 was a strong quarter for Core Portfolio UA as we were able to increase investment 25% quarter over quarter while staying in the pocket for our breakeven targets. As we prepare for Match Queen's appearance in every episode of the new season of RuPaul's Drag Race, marketing and growth will test screens and speakers, channels in Q4, including connected TV and digital podcasts and radio. The goal is to replicate organic and non-attributed install volume by placing Match Queen mid-reel on Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video, and other IPs with strong streaming audiences. Pairing audio with targeted CTV advertising, has shown a 20% incremental performance lift per iHeartMedia. To offset high seasonal pricing in the U.S. and Tier 1 Western markets, Q4 will emphasize localized international expansion. This includes refining geo-targeting, language adaptation, and creative testing to drive installs and lower CPI across new markets. We're expanding creative outsourcing to broaden appeal beyond the core drag race audience and attract more casual gamers, lowering acquisition costs and increasing campaign diversity. In parallel, we're deepening player segmentation across match titles to sharpen targeting, creative direction, and live ops campaigns, driving install growth, stronger retention, and higher ARPDAU through localized personalization. By leveraging our existing marketing ecosystem, including social channels, newsletter, and landing page touchpoints to build early awareness, drive adoption, and establish an authentic player base along with paid scale, evaluating opportunities to apply full funnel learnings from RuPaul's Drag Race Match Queen and Squishmallow's Match across other titles, from creative strategy and UA pacing to influencer integration, community engagement, and live ops retention loops. The goal is to create a repeatable insights-driven launch framework that maximizes both organic momentum and paid efficiency across the ESG portfolio.

Thank you, everyone. Q3 was another growth quarter. We continue to build momentum in Q4 with our growth efforts and match, as well as keeping our core portfolio of idle games performing. Match is now a significant contributor to our top line revenue at an average of $1.5 million in September and with a DAO of $77,000 and an ARPDO of $0.64. This ARPDO is well above industry standards in this genre. As Hakeem mentioned, we are pushing hard with marketing on these new gains in areas outside of paid UA campaigns within the usual networks. We continue to buy aggressively in the traditional networks, but we know that out-of-the-park success will be found through non-traditional means. We hope to see these efforts pay off in Q4 and especially in 2026. Though EBITDA was significantly negative and cash on hand decreased significantly, this is directly attributable to our successful investments in these new titles. We are extremely confident that this investment and ongoing investments will pay back with positive ROI in the next two to three quarters. These are players and games with multi-year lifespans. Heavy investment now will pay dividends for many years to come. We especially see this with our titles in our core portfolio. Some of the games are approaching their 10-year anniversaries and continue to be our top performing titles. We expect to continue our deep investing period for these titles through Q4, a positive sign for the health of our success and our foray into the match genre. Thank you for joining today's call. We look forward to updating you on our continued progress next quarter. We will now take some questions from our shareholders and analysts.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star 1 on your touchtone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star 2. If you're using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment please for your first question. Your first question comes from Neil Gilmer of Haywood Securities. Your line is already open.

Thanks very much and good afternoon. You know, in the prepared remarks, you referred to sort of this Q3 as sort of the trough. You know, the sales and marketing spend, not quite, but almost double sort of, you know, what we've been seeing recently. And, you know, obviously you touched on that in various aspects of your prepared remarks. How should we be, you know, thinking about that going forward? Obviously, that spend is to drive the revenue growth. So we can expect, you know, an increased growth rate on the revenue side of things. Do you need to continue investing at these sorts of levels or your reference to sort of this being the trough, meaning that there's going to be a little bit of a scale back on the spend from the $12 million that was in Q3?

Hey, Neil. Good to hear from you. You're correct. You understand that, right? Our most aggressive spend was in Q3. Q4 spend is still going to be high, but not quite as high as Q3 was. We're still pushing hard, especially with getting Squishmallows off the ground. Roo Match has kind of hit a nice momentum, and we feel really, really good about that. We have really good insights on where we're spending and how that's coming back. We have huge plans for that, especially in Q1. But, yeah, I don't remember the exact numbers off the top of my head, but I want to say it was somewhere around $6 million that we spent just on marketing these new match titles. and it's not going to be quite as high in Q4.

Okay, appreciate that. And so, you know, again, I take it from the prepared remarks, it sounds like, you know, Q4, maybe Q1, you're going to stay sort of in that EBITDA negative territory until that, you know, really sort of inflection of revenue sort of helps offset these increased costs, and that we should be looking sort of that back to the EBITDA positive, you know, in and around mid of 2026.

That's correct. That's a good assessment as well. We're shooting for longer payback windows in Match than we do with Idle. With Idle, we generally shoot for kind of 90-day payback windows. In Match, we're shooting more for 180-day payback windows. So the cost of user acquisition is a little bit higher, but the retention rates on Match are also higher. We see a lot better, a higher number of players who install today still playing in a year from now. So we know that that longer-term investment is worth it. And, you know, as mentioned in the prepared remarks, you know, some of our titles are approaching 10 years and still performing strong, and we expect the same thing to happen here with these match titles.

Right. And so that's just the nature of the different genres and, you know, the customer base?

Yeah. So it's the opportunity, really, of knowing that they have those stronger retention rates and that the games are a little bit stickier or so. we're able to spend a little bit more aggressively with the user acquisition now and knowing it will pay off in the long run.

Okay, fair enough. You tapped your line of credit a little bit in Q3, it looks like. What's your philosophy of plans going forward? Are you going to continue to draw based on how you see the return on this user acquisition spend, or how should we be thinking about that?

We're happy with the early results and the numbers and the experience coming back with our user spend now, so we're going to keep that aggressive. I do expect us to probably go into debt. Right now we're tapping our line of credit a little bit just for cash flow management, but we still have cash on hand. I expect that through Q4 we'll probably eat up some more of that cash and go into and be actually tapping our line of credit. but not terribly significantly.

Okay. All right. Thanks very much. I'll pass the line.

Thanks.

Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you have a question, please press star 1. There are no further questions at this time. I would hand over the call to Jason Bailey for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Thanks for attending, everyone. I appreciate it. You know, the last couple of quarters, we've done the earnings video, and then we've decided to kind of go back to this earnings call format. So it's probably going to take a bit to kind of get the momentum back on it and then do an annual video instead of a quarterly video. But I strongly suggest you go on YouTube and check those previous quarter videos out. Thank you for attending this call. And as always, you can reach out to me, Jason, at EastsideGames.com. and I'm happy to engage with anybody who has any questions. So thanks for your time, and talk soon.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.

Thank you.