Everplay Group (LSE:EVPL) — FY 2024 Results

0:01 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the EVERPLAY GROUP PLC investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time via the q and a tab that's just situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today, and will publish those responses where it's appropriate to do so on the investor meet company platform. And before we begin, as usual, we would

0:32 just like to submit the following poll. And if you'd give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. And I would now like to hand you over to the executive management team from EVERPLAY GROUP PLC. Steve, good afternoon, sir. Thanks very much for the for the intro, Jake, and welcome everybody to our f y twenty twenty four results presentation. And this is obviously our first presentation that we've given under the name EVERPLAY, and I'll go on to talk about that in a little bit more detail later on. In terms of the next forty minutes or so of presentation that we will be giving, I'm gonna give an introduction and an overview from an operational perspective with with the business, talking about team seventeen, AstraGon, and StoryToys in a bit more detail as far as how they performed in 2024.

1:18 I'll then be handing over to Rashid, and Rashid is relatively new. He's been with the business about six months now. He's our relatively new the new CFO and COO, and he'll be talking about the financial performance in 2024. And then I'll finish off the presentation talking about the strategic priorities within the EVERPLAY GROUP, how we're progressing against that, and also touch on the outlook, both for 2025 and the midterm. So how did we perform in 2024? Well, 2024 was a strong financial performance for the business. Our revenues were a 167,000,000, which is a 5% increase from where we were in 2023. So that's the consistent market beating growth that we've been used to since 2018 when we floated the business.

2:08 Our adjusted EBITDA was at 44,000,000, so a 46% increase. That's a really strong recovery in profits from a very disappointing 2023. And what it does show is the strategy that we set within the business in 2023 is really working hard for the business and paying back in the way that we wanted it to. Our cash position at the end of twenty twenty four was 62,900,000, so a really robust balance sheet which serves us really well for the future when we're looking at other forms of investment and and potentially m and a. And we're also gonna be paying a maiden dividend in 2024, which is for 2024, which is a great step forward, and Rashid will talk about that in a bit more detail. What it does show is that the business is in a really strong position, and it proves the strength of our portfolio strategy that we have across team seventeen, AstraGon, and StoryToys.

3:05 Going into things in a little bit more detail from an operational perspective, we delivered double digit growth on our first party IP, and that now contributes 37% of group revenues. And, again, I'll go on to talk about this in a bit more detail in terms of the importance of first party IP to the business. Consistent strong back back catalog performance with revenues up 27% with contribution from over a 130 titles across a wide range of genres and release years. So, again, it's a really important factor, the fact that we don't rely on one title across the business. We have a broad range of titles that are bringing in revenues on a day to day basis within the EVERPLAY GROUP.

3:51 Very strong community engagement, and that's such an important thing for the business, making sure that we are publishing and developing games that are loved by millions. And you need to invest in that. You need to make sure that you've got the right levels of engagement around the community of a particular game. Hell Let Loose is a really good example where if you look, our concurrent users peaked at 45,000 in 2024, which is a 90% increase year on year from 2023. And that actually rose to a 140,000 post an epic promotion that we ran in January 2025. So the concurrent users are the number of people that are playing that game at any given time, and it shows the strength of the community within that game. So it's a really important thing for us to look at concurrent users when we're looking at games like Hell Let Loose, which is a great a great title for us.

4:47 We're attracting sort of deepening gaming experience within the business, both at board level and at senior management level. And I've already touched on Rashid coming into the business, and Rashid's got vast experience working at Codemasters and also working at Jagex. And we've also brought in somebody called Harley Homewood, and Harley worked at team seventeen for eight years within the business, then went somewhere else, and we've managed to attract him back. And he's come in as group product acquisition director. And Harley's got nearly thirty years experience working in gaming, is an expert when it comes to acquiring and finding games within the marketplace. We also successfully rebranded the group to EVERPLAY PLC, and I just wanna touch on that now without going into too much detail.

5:34 And EVERPLAY was a really important step for the business, and we didn't rebrand just for the sake of rebranding. It was really important that we had a topco brand that made sense of the future strategy for for the business. But team seventeen, ASTRON, and STORY TOYS are still very, very important parts with their own brands and their own importance and their own strategies, but that strategy feeds into the overall EVERPLAY strategy. And EVERPLAY has gone down fantastically well both internally and externally. What it's done, it's removed the confusion that there was within the business because people were confused about, is your game label games label the same name as your PLC? How do Astragon and Story Tours fit in within the overall positioning?

6:19 So it simplified our position as well and also allows the divisions to own their own identity, whereas before, they didn't really feel as though they had their own identity within within the group. It signifies growth and also our ambition, and it supports the delivery of efficiencies that are gonna be so important to make sure that we don't have duplicative skills in the three individual businesses. We've got the right level of expertise and seniority sitting at EVERPLAY that can add high added value strategic support to the three businesses we have within our group. And what it also does, it future proofs the business. So a really important step forward for what was the team seventeen group, now the EVERPLAY GROUP. I'm just gonna spend a minute or two now talking about the the businesses that that make up EVERPLAY, and I'm gonna start off with with team seventeen.

7:13 So overall revenues fell by 5% in 2024 for team seventeen, and that's down to two main reasons. First reason was a number of the releases that we launched didn't quite meet internal expectations that we had for those titles. 2024 was the most competitive year ever in the world of gaming with over 19,000 titles launched on Steam in 2024 alone. So it was really difficult to cut through the marketplace in terms of creating that visibility that's required from a gaming perspective. But we also decided to put a number of titles that were planned for 2024 into 2025, And that's a really important thing that we did. And we did that because we sat down with the developers, and we sat down as a senior leadership team within the business and made a conscious decision that sometimes you do need to craft a game just for a little bit longer to give it the best possible chance to deliver the success that we feel as though it can have.

8:14 A title called Sworn, that was a title that was due to launch in in 2024. We decided just to give it another three months just so to to actually craft the graphics and the gameplay of that. That launched in early access in February this year and has done fantastically well for team seventeen. The review scores are very high. The sell through is high. The full launch of that game will be in the second half of this year. But, again, we're very, very excited about that, and that's sort of proven the fact that putting that title back by three or four months was absolutely the right thing to do. There was excellent back catalog growth within team seventeen, thirty nine percent, with contributions from over 80 titles and just as importantly, 1,200 digital revenue lines.

9:01 And the digital revenue lines are a really important metric. If you compare that to 2023 where we had 900 of those digital revenue lines. And what that means, every digital revenue line is an opportunity for us to promote a certain title. So you have premium editions, you have gold editions, you have deluxe editions, You have various routes that you can actually make sure that your promotions are always on at any given time. So that's a really important life cycle management skill that we have within the team seventeen games label. Our standout performers were Hell Loose, Golf With Your Friends, Overcooked, Dredge, Blasphemous, and Trepang. Strong year on year first party IP, Hell Let Loose delivered record revenues five years after launch, And some people naturally presume that after year one, the revenues will decline on a particular title.

9:55 If you spend the right amount of time, effort, and money building and growing a community, There's no reason that that should be the case, and Hell It Loose is an amazing example, as I said, after five years having record revenues in in 2024. Consistent contribution from The Escapist, Worms, and Golf With Your Friend Friends, which is our which are other first party titles that we have within team seventeen. 10 new games were launched during the period of 2024, including Conscript, which was award winning and reviewed particularly well within within Steam. And we also made refinements to the Greenlight process to increase the confidence that we have in signing new titles moving forward. And the refinements were around seniorizing, simplifying, and making sure that we have the ability to be able to spot a great title and just as importantly, sign that great title within the right time frames.

10:50 So I feel really positive about the green light process, the people that are involved in it from a seniorized perspective, and also our ability to find and sign great titles. If we go on to Astragon, strong growth across the portfolio, 22% revenue growth in '24 2024. First party IP revenues increased by 16%, now accounting for 70% of the sales of Astragon. Two new games were released, including construction simulator four as well as the physical or the boxed distribution of farming simulator in the German region. Five existing first and third party IP games were released on additional platforms. And, again, that's a really important thing because if you're launching on additional platforms, you're growing your target audience, you're creating a more a more important and excited community around what's going on within that particular title.

11:48 And we also put 12 paid DLCs to the market in 2024 on existing titles that people are are playing on a day to day basis. So a very strong performance from Astragon in 2024. And finally, moving on to story toys, another year of stellar growth. Revenue growth of 25% within that business. Three new licensed apps were were were launched during 2024, Sesame Street Mecca Builders, Thomas and Friends, and the highly successful LEGO DUPLO, Peppa Pig, which did fantastically well from day one of launch. Barbie Color Creations is launched on Apple Arcade, and our relationship with Apple goes from strength to strength. The the SLT team from StoryToys were invited out to Apple HQ to talk to their leadership team about the significant strategies that are in place when it comes to children's gaming aged between two and seven. So we're held in such high regard by our strategic partners that we're working with, and Apple being being a key one.

12:50 531 app updates were put to market in 2024, which is almost two app updates every working day of the year, which just shows how efficient the the team are within StoryToy is to be able to update the apps with the app updates because that's the business model. You need to make sure that if a child is playing an app, they wanna they want additions to that app on a day to day basis. So being able to do that just shows the strength of quality that we have within that studio. Our active subscribers continues to grow now exceeding 337,000. And StoryToys has 11,000,000 monthly active users, which is an incredible number. Number of total lifetime downloads now exceed 240,000,000. And StoryToys, their their apps were nominated five times at Kids Screen Awards in 2025, which is almost like the kids Oscars across both film, TV, and gaming.

13:46 And we're also in the process of launching a new label in 2025 for StoryToys. So tapping into all of the experience that they have around working with the likes of Lego and Disney and BBC and Hasbro and Mattel, and and it goes on and on and on. So how can we take the experience that we've got and the relationships that we've got there to target a slightly older audience? Because StoryToyz is firmly between the two and the seven year old target audience. But after seven, the audience just drops off. So what can we do to try and engage that audience as they become eight, nine, 10, 11, and older? And it's a really exciting strategy that we've got in place that's going to be a good growth driver, and I'll go on to talk about that later on in more in more detail. But it's all around licensed games, licensed brands for for StoryToys.

14:38 So, hopefully, that gives everybody a flavor for what's going on across team seventeen, Astragon, and and story toys. I just wanna hand over to Rashid now who's gonna talk about the financials for 2024 in a bit more detail. Lovely. Thank you, Steve. So ever played PLC or previously team seventeen, as it was known, as a group, is is a company which I've admired for many years, due to its talents, the diverse IP, and exceptional back catalog. The group has been hugely successful since IPO, and some would even regard it as the darling of the listed video games companies in The UK.

15:20 I'm extremely pleased and really excited to be here and leading the charge alongside Steve and the wider wider team in my dual role as CFO and COO. In addition to our strategic priorities, which Steve will move on to, shortly, other focus areas for me include creating operational efficiencies and synergies across the group, professionalization of support functions to ensure we adopt best practice, supporting existing talent and creating world class functions which drive the business to the next level. And there are great opportunities to increase revenue and profitability both organically and through our m and a strategy.

16:06 I'm really excited for 2025. We have started the year really well, and we have at least ten ten new games and apps in the pipeline. Let's dive into the numbers. So as I've mentioned, excellent start, to my maiden year end results. Group revenues increased 5% year on year, which was substantially ahead of the market at just 0.6%. 2024 for EVERPLAY's seventh consecutive year of delivering growth since IPO. The growth was generated organically through existing businesses from a combination of new release and extensive back catalog, demonstrating the benefits of EVERPLAY's portfolio strategy and exceptional life cycle management.

17:03 From a divisional perspective, team seventeen revenues declined slightly by 5% mainly due to titles moving out into 2025, of which, as mentioned by Steve earlier, Swan has already got off to a really good start in q one of, '25. Astragon and StoryToys delivered 2225% growth, respectively.

17:31 Moving on, let's have a look at our revenue split. First party IP revenues contributed 62,000,000 or 37% of our total revenue, which was an increase of 10% year on year, driven by strong performance from games such as Hell Let Loose, Construction Sim, Police Sim, and Golf with Friends, all of which remain in the group's 10 top 10 selling titles. Third party game rep revenue grew to a 105,000,000, led by great great success of Overcooked and Dredge. The group's back catalog enjoyed, another amazing year of growth, up 27% year on year, representing a 144,000,000 of total revenue.

18:22 This is a testament to the quality of the group's portfolio and the team's skills in life cycle management. Standout performance from Overcooked two, Hell Let Loose, Policing, and Dread. And then new release revenue reduced 45,000,000 to 23,000,000, mainly driven by team seventeen. As as I've mentioned earlier, this was due to a combination of title slippage, for example, Swan, which is already released in 2025. But we've got a very strong pipeline to to to follow through in in the New Year. Now let's move on to gross profit and gross margin.

19:13 Gross profits increased sharply in FY '24 by 21%, and gross margins improved by 5.5 driven by a number of factors, including lower title impairment contributing to over 50% of the variance. Other factors included reduction in royalty fees driven by stronger first party titles, improvements in development team utilization and greater use of outsourcing, higher physical cost for farming simulator 25. Moving on to adjusted EBITDA and EPS.

19:57 Adjusted EBITDA rose sharply by 46% or to 43,500,000, resulting in a 38% increase in adjusted e b EPS to 24.1p, contributed by strong revenue growth, underlying margin improvement, reduction in in group's overall cost base due to tighter controls, materially lower title impairments, and increased acquisitions related adjustments driven by final management incentive payments. Finally, the headcount for the group at year end was 344, flat versus f y twenty three, which was at 348. In terms of capitalized development costs, year on year reductions on capitalized development costs, reduced to 25,000,000 after a material increase in f y twenty three driven by acquisitions and some larger third party game development investments at team seventeen.

21:07 F y twenty four was a 7 a 7,000,000 reduction in Cap Dev year on year, 10,000,000 reduction in team seventeen, and a 3,000,000 increase in Av and Astragon. And finally, on cash, group remains highly cash generative, cash conversion ratio of 97%. And the board have proposed a maiden dividend subject to approval at AGM and payment due in early July. Thank you for listening. I'll pass you back to

21:53 Thanks very much, Rashid. Appreciate you going through that in in quite a lot of detail. What I wanted to do now is just spend a bit of time talking about strategic priorities. And those of you that were able to dial into these calls over the last eighteen months or so, you'll understand it's a really important part of our business to talk about strategically what's important to us, and more importantly, how we're progressing against the strategic priorities that were set eighteen months ago. The first of these is around EVERPREENE brands. It's around the games themselves. So what exactly are we doing? How are we making sure that we're signing the best games in the marketplace, and how are we making sure that those games are delivering the right community engagement that we actually feel as though we need to deliver the results that we've set within the within the business.

22:39 What I wanted to do is rather than me just talk about the games that were actually got slated for 2025, We've pulled together a short video where we've got people from within the business. We've got brand managers, and we've got people who are executive producers who are living and breathing these games just to bring to life why they're excited about the titles that we'll be we'll be performing. So, Jake, could you just play the video, please, in the section?

23:16 The game itself has a really kind of group of unique gameplay features that really allows people to live and breathe that world, and then what happens is that the voice acting itself wraps around and creates this, like, bundle of joy and excitement and sadness and just over like, overwhelming your senses basically with everything that's going on in the game. It's something that dating simulators do not do, and that's why it's so exciting because at Team seventeen, we like to push boundaries and this game is pushing every single boundary in that genre. We've had such a good start with Swan already. We're very positive on Steam. It's going really well. Players are loving it. But we are gonna have so much coming this year. There's gonna be a whole new biome, new bosses, a new new boss fight after Arthur.

24:03 It's gonna get broader, it's gonna get deeper. The whole roguelike experience is just gonna get better and better, and I think it's gonna be absolutely brilliant. So what's exciting for Nice Day for Fishing is that we're bringing a fantastic IP from Viva Le Dirt League to the gaming world. And for years, they've made comedy sketches about video games, but now that world is coming to life in a pixel adventure format. And it's such a great game that people are gonna love it, whether they're a fan of the comedy group or not. The developers made such a good job of capturing all the meta humor, while keeping the gameplay fun and fresh. Plus, we've already had such a good result with how successful it's been at NextFest. So it's really showing great promise as we head towards launch in May. Firefighting simulator ignite is the latest installment of our IP firefighting simulator. The game is unique because it has a blend of a lot of features that work very well together. We have the co op game that up to three friends, so overall, players.

25:03 We have the features of water and fire physics in there, look which really awesome. And you have lots of emotions when you actually do work on the different cases, different missions, because you need to plan ahead. You need to be careful about how you engage with the fire. The blend and mix of the features we have together with the emotions that come while playing it and the licensees we have create this great mix of of interesting and engaging gameplay.

25:36 Seafarer the Ships in is the maritime career simulator ship fans have always dreamt of. Players can embark on three different career paths such as cargo transport, coast guard operations, and marine life preservation. Thanks to Armenian two five and the media wave works technology, the game renders realistic ocean simulation and varied weather conditions. We're developing it together with our internal game studio, Independent Arts Software, and we do look forward to kick out this new brand and develop a new audience for us in the next couple of years. It's a huge deal. I think it's one of the most streamed shows in the world right now. We really just want to engage them in something that's kid centric and fun and delightful. It's everything I've ever aspired to make. It's quality, it's educational, light, and just a little bit of chaos and fun in there as well, know. So, Story Toys has got that, you know, in spades.

26:46 So, again, just some incredible games that we've got coming up in 2025, and and that's just some of them. We obviously can put them all within that that very short video, but it just gives you a flavor of games that I think are super high quality, innovative, different, engaging, and that's what you need in the marketplace today. If we flick on to some of our first party IP, and, again, we spend a lot of time talking about the importance of first party IP. And that's not just because we have complete ownership of the first party IP, and therefore, the margins are that much higher. But we're also talking about titles that have communities and revenue streams that are, as you can see, in the tens, if not the hundreds of millions. So if you just look at the first party IP that is in development at the moment, we've got the ESCAPIST that has lifetime revenues for the EVERPLAY GROUP north of $60,000,000, HELLET LOSE over $80,000,000, POLICE SIM 40,000,000, a 100 mil is what we're talking about from WORMS, GO F WITH YOUR FRIENDS 30,000,000, and 40,000,000 from from construction SIM.

27:55 So the exciting thing over '25, '26, and '27, all of these first party titles are in development and will be launching. And the great thing, we've got people that love these games already. We need to make sure we're doing the best possible job to bring these to life, but this is a massive opportunity for the EVERPLAY GROUP to really look at first party and make sure it continues to grow. And I talk about the direction of travel when it comes to the percentage of revenues that come from from first party IP. But with all of these in flight at the moment, I'm really excited about where that can go. And finally, I just wanted to spend a minute talking about life cycle management skills because you'll hear myself and Rashid and other people within EVERPLAY talk about life cycle management skills and the importance of life cycle management skills to basically ensure you're realizing good revenue streams and profitability, not just in the first year of the launch, in the first ten years and beyond.

28:57 So if you look at what we do and what our sales team and our commercial team do, it's around things that you would probably expect, discounting, premium additions, bundling games with other games that may be outside of the EVERPLAY GROUP to suddenly create more exposure and awareness, licensing deals and preorder campaigns. And if you break that down more specifically within Steam and console, it's basically around being always on, making sure you've always got promotional presence. Because if you've got promotional presence,

29:29 you will have visibility. If you have visibility, then you will do well. Because the thing is with so many games that are launched on Steam and console, you've gotta make sure that you're front of mind, and you've gotta make sure you're working within the boundaries you're given to be able to deliver that. So things like publisher sales, things like feature slots, things like curated events, and things like NextFest, and also curated promotions and spotlight series. All of these things are what our sales and commercial team are looking at for every single game on a day to day basis. And that's why our back catalog is so strong. It's not down to to luck or chance. It's down to very, very considered strategic plans around every single title.

30:15 And what that generates is obviously long term profitability, player retention, and brand loyalty.

30:22 And what we have done within the pie chart on the right hand side of this slide, it's just to give you a flavor of the revenues that come into the EVERPLAY GROUP and how long those titles have been been around. So almost 50% of our revenues come from titles that are five years old or older, and that doesn't have to decline. Hell Let Loose is just a great example that I mentioned earlier in terms of that game is in growth and it's five years old.

30:48 So so this just gives you a flavor as to the importance of life cycle management within the the business model that we that we operate within. The next strategic priority is around relationship builders. So that's making sure we've got the depth of relationship with Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Steam, Epic, all of the partners that we would have, but also with the developers, making sure that the developers feel as though we understand what they're doing and we're in partnership with them. That is absolutely critical as well as media, as well as influencers. And a really good example that we actually, that we did about a month ago in Wakefield, we had a two day event in a country house in Wakefield where we invited all of the developers from the titles that we're launching in '25 and '26.

31:37 We also invited Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Netflix, as well as a number of influencers and media to all come together to hear the developers talk about the games, and more importantly, allow them to play the games, get excited about the games, and therefore put it in their slates for '25 and '26 moving forward from a license or a promotional perspective. So we've just pulled together a very short video. It's about a minute that just gives you a flavor for this, in effect, trade marketing event. And the interesting thing, everybody that came along said they've never ever been invited to anything like this. They've never been in a room where Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Netflix are all together, basically looking at titles at the same time. So it set an amazing precedent for us

32:22 in terms of how we should be launching and how we should be communicating the titles that we're developing. So if you could play the video, Jake, this would be great. We flew all the way across the world for this, and it was worth every minute.

32:49 Getting to see all of your faces, in real life and not just on emails and Discord was a treat. Getting to spend quality time with you and your partners, the distribution platforms, the media platforms, and seeing everyone's game and meeting all the devs was an amazing experience. I think, it was cool to meet everybody from team seventeen, the other devs, the platform holders. Me as the game developer, it was a good opportunity to touch grass and socialize with other people. Everyone's been amazing. Everyone's just seemed interested in in the game and really excited which really motivates you, you know. It's good to sort of catch up with the people who care.

33:32 So we're kind of used to just seeing kind of games in just an office or just travel in and just to have this lovely presentation put up from team seventeen and the partners looking after us, feeding us, and showing us some really great games today. So, yeah, I'm more than happy. So, again, hopefully, that shows a really good example of how we're building these relationships with the the partners that are critical to our our business moving forward. In terms of the next two strategic priorities, I'm not gonna go through these in the the same amount of detail, but the first is around synergies and collaboration.

34:18 This is around the organizational structure. It's around how EVERPLAY and the people within EVERPLAY interact with StoryToys, team seventeen, and and Ashtragon. And Rashid has touched on this already, making sure we've got the right

34:30 teams that are operating centrally and the teams that are operating within the individual businesses as well. There's more collaboration going on within the EVERPLAY GROUP than there ever has been, and it's making huge, huge benefits in terms of how we're learning and sharing those skills across the various parts of our our business. The next is around talent and culture. And I've touched on this earlier on, making sure we're attracting the best quality talent in the marketplace. And more importantly, making sure we retain those people so they feel as though they're getting an incredible experience from their career, and they've also got a very strong culture within the business. The final point is around innovation and m and a. And what we've done here is we've put it into the levers for growth within the business. So, obviously, on the left hand side, we have EVERPLAY today, the business we are today, which is around back catalog.

35:26 It's around new releases. It's around license deals. It's everything that we spent the last half an hour talking about. But we wanna make sure that we are growing the business, that we're delivering growth. We also make sure that we're innovating, and we're looking at where the market is going. And this forms five different pillars. The first is around a new label. Touched on this already within story toys. So making sure that we don't just lose the target audience at the age of seven, that we're targeting them after the age of seven, and we've got great licensed gaming that may go on console, may go on mobile, be tapping into Roblox, tapping into Fortnite. So it's a really exciting area of the business. The next is around flexible publishing models, making sure that we're listening to what is going on in the marketplace, making sure that we understand that certain developers are deciding to self publish rather than go to a publisher.

36:22 So we need to make sure that we're offering flexible solutions to the type of publishing relationship that they will want moving forward rather than saying you have to work with us across every single offering that we have within within the group. The next point is back catalog acquisition. I've I've touched on Harley and Harley's involvement within the business, but making sure that we are looking in the marketplace, and this is an active strategy around acquiring back catalog titles and realizing the value of those back catalog titles over a period of time. There are thousands of games out there on Steam and on console that are not being worked on in the right way from a from a business perspective. So we need to make sure that we're out there, we're talking to those developers, we're working alongside them, and where appropriate, we are acquiring the back catalog of that particular game.

37:16 We also need to make sure that we're at the forefront of new platforms, looking at our IP, looking at the games that we actually have, and also making sure that we're thinking about where those games can go, whether that be mobile, whether it's on streaming platforms, or also new generation consoles. And, obviously, the new variant of Switch is all over the press, and everybody's talking about it. Switch is a very important part of our business, and we're hugely excited about what's going on within Nintendo and and Switch. So just making sure we're at the forefront of that. And finally, m and a. We've got an incredible track record of m and a. We've done StoryToys and Astrogon and Golf With Your Friends and Hell Let Loose, so both IP and studios. And we're very, very actively looking in the marketplace for the right sort of m and a opportunities.

38:05 The one thing I would say, we're not gonna rush into it. We've never rushed into m and a because you rush into m and a, and it will come back and bite you further down the line. It's gotta be accretive. It's got to be the right type of opportunity for us, and it's got to feel as though it's value additive to what we do strategically as a business. But the m and a is something that Rashid and I spend a lot of time looking at. The board are heavily behind it. We've got good cash reserves, and we wanna make sure we're doing it, but it has to be at the right time with the right opportunity rather than just doing it for the sake of doing it. So finally, I just wanna talk on on the outlook. So to start off with in terms of the midterm, continued growth in revenue and profits. We have ten first party IP that I've spent quite a lot of time talking about from 2025 and 2027.

38:57 Continued portfolio strategy, so making sure that we continue the trajectory that we have been, making sure that we don't become overly reliant on any one title because that breadth is such a key part of what the EVERPLAY GROUP actually is. Further progress against all of the strategic priorities I've spent some time touching on earlier on. Growth from new revenue streams and also m and a, strong underlying cash generation, and a progressive dividend that Rashid has touched on already. And then more specifically with 2025, we've had a really good start to the year, really encouraging start to the year. And Sworn, which was the title that we've touched on, has started very, very well for us. We have at least 10 new games and apps, including two first party IP titles.

39:42 And those IP titles are the astragon titles that were shown in the film earlier on in terms of seafarer and firefighting. Solid back catalog performance continuing with the life cycle management skills that we've touched on. Growth in revenues, profits, and margins supported by robust cost controls. Make sure that we are we have the right checks and balances in place to ensure that we're not overspending on anything within the within the group, and then also the maiden dividend that is proposed. So we expect to deliver full year 2025 results marginally ahead of current market expectations based on what we can see at the moment. And the final slide is the key strengths, the key strengths of the EVERPLAY GROUP. First is around IP and talent and the right IP and talent in place to deliver accelerated growth.

40:30 With 37 of our revenues coming from first party IP, I think that can be very clearly seen, and that group will continue to grow. Diversified portfolio across multiple platforms, over a 140 titles that generate revenue for us on a day to day basis. So back to this point around, we're not overly reliant on any one title. EVERPREEN brands and proven franchise creation and life cycle management. So we have over 12 titles within the group that generated lifetime revenues north of 20,000,000. Dependable back catalogue providing midterm visibility. So between 2018 and 2024, the average percentage of our back catalogue our back catalogue has contributed to revenue has been 76%. So that is an incredible foundation to have within the business.

41:19 Consistent track record of market beating growth. So from 2018, we've grown at 21%, whereas the market has grown at 5%. And then a very strong balance sheet and cash generation to support m and a optionality, which we've already touched on nearly 63,000,000 at the back end of 2024. So that's it as far as the presentation. So I said it was gonna be forty minutes. It's just over forty minutes, but, hopefully, that gives everybody on the call a really good insight into what's been going on in 2024 within the EVERPLAY GROUP, the importance of the strategic rigor that we set at the end of twenty twenty three when things were challenging, and more importantly, the success that we've had and the trajectory of travel that we're going on at the moment. So I'm I'm sure there will be a number of questions that have come into people's minds whilst we've been whilst Rashid and I have gone through this. I'm sure some of them will be sort of posted that James will be looking at now. But but but thanks ever so much for, one, finding the time on a Friday afternoon, Sterling, and to listen to Rashid and I, and two, for your continued support as well as as really valuable investors and partners to to the EVERPLAY GROUP. But let's open up for questions, and, you'll get a greater insight into the business from from those questions.

42:34 Perfect. Steve, Rashid, I may just jump back in there. Thank you very much indeed for your presentation this afternoon. What I'll do is I'll just bring back up your cameras there for the q and a. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab that's situated on the right hand corner of your screen. But just while the team take a few moments to review those questions that have been submitted already, I'd just like to remind you that a recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a can all be accessed via your investor dashboards. Guys, as you can see there, we have received a number of questions throughout your presentation this afternoon. And thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions. But, James, at this point, sir, if I may hand over to you to chair the q and a with the team. And if I pick up from you at the end, that'd be great. Thank you. Thanks, Jake, and thank you, everyone, for your questions. I think the first one, Steve, this one's probably for you.

43:29 Do you have any targets for what you would like first IP sales to be as a proportion of of revenues in the in the medium to long term? Yeah. It's a good question. And, obviously, I've spent quite a lot of time within the presentation talking about the the importance of first party IP. As I said, one, because of the margin, two, because of the community already in existence on most of the first party IP that we have. That's not to say there won't be new IP that we'll be launching, but most of the IP that we're developing at the moment has a ready made community who are highly engaged and excited about that. And the third part is we have have obviously complete creative license around the the development of our own our own IP.

44:14 37% is where we we are in 2024 as a percentage of revenue. I talk about it as a direction of travel in the midterm, and what I mean by that is I want to continue to increase that percentage as we move forward. And the reason I'm not saying, oh, it's gonna end up at 40% or 50% or whatever, because there will be certain years where the third party mix may be higher because we have some incredible successes from third party titles, which will obviously drag down the percentage that we have, on first party IP. But but over the next three to five years, we will continue on this trajectory, this growth of first party IP. The fact we have 10 games in development at the moment, and we have very clear three year skew plans against all of our first party IP, makes me have high degrees of confidence that the percentage will continue. But I haven't set an overall percentage as to where I think it will get to because I don't think that's necessarily the most sensible thing to do at this stage.

45:20 Thank you, Steve. Next question, I think, for Rashid. Can you give any any color onto your expectations for revenue growth in the midterm? Yeah. So, obviously, as we've discussed in the presentation, the group as a whole has beaten the market since our IPO, which is fantastic. And even in '24 versus the market backdrop, again, we've exceeded the growth expectations by a significant margin. In terms of forward looking numbers, the guidance analyst is a steady growth. However, you know, there are games in the pipeline which we haven't announced, And, hopefully, that will help bolster our growth, you know, in the outer years. But, again, that's that's all to come.

46:17 You know, I can't talk about those today, but there are fantastic new games which are in the pipeline. And, hopefully, they will definitely help improve our our growth percentages going forward. Thanks, Rashid. And and maybe building on that, Steve, generally, what do you what are you seeing in in the marketplace now in in terms of growth for the Indian market in particular? Yeah. I think 2024 was a well, in 2023 when there were about 14 and a half thousand games that were launched on Steam, everybody, and I mean pretty much everybody, said there's no way that there's ever going to be that quantity of games that are launched in any year.

47:07 2024 had 19,000 games that were launched on Steam. And and that just shows the growth that was actually occurring within within the world of gaming. What we have seen in q one of twenty twenty five is about a 10% decline on the number of games that are launched on Steam compared to 2024. So we're expecting a far more normalized view of the quantity of games that are gonna be are gonna be launching on on Steam. And and Steam is obviously the easiest place for us to actually draw data data from. I think the things that are quite interesting about 2025, there's almost that there are two factors that are happening in 2025 that wouldn't happen in normal years.

47:52 One of them is the the launch of Switch, the new variant of Switch, And I think that's that's hugely exciting for the industry. It'll be the first sort of new hardware within the marketplace for a number of years. So that's that's hugely exciting. Switch is a really, really important part of team seventeen's mix. So we're really excited about where that is going to go. And the other outlier is Grand Theft Auto six, which will be probably the biggest game in history. The predictions are it's going to launch at the back end of this year, although there are certain murmurings that are saying it might be later into 2026. But nobody really knows, but most people are thinking 2025.

48:37 If you're a triple a publisher, then you would be quite concerned about that because I think g t a six is gonna almost suck all of the oxygen out of the triple a marketplace for a fairly long period of time. But I'm really excited about g t a six, and the reason I say that is because I think it will bring a new audience to gaming that haven't necessarily been in the world of gaming for a number of years. G t a six is one of the only titles that I think people will go out and potentially buy a PlayStation or an Xbox to just play that game. But what that does is it grows the number of people involved and interested in investing in gaming, and the whole world of AAAs and indies almost work hand in glove. So you don't just play AAAs or you don't just play indies. You tend to play both.

49:26 Because the thing about indies that's quite interesting is indies give you an opportunity. Indie games give you an opportunity to actually complete a game, whereas most triple a's are never finished because they're so vast. So I'm really excited about the market in 2025. It is still challenging. The growth levels are nowhere near where they were in 2020 and 2021, so during the COVID crazy times that there there were. But we feel really optimistic. It is still a highly competitive market. There are still a number of businesses who, over the last three or four years, have lacked focus and will find things very difficult. But I'm so glad when I look at the stability within our business, the portfolio within our business, the the diversity that we have within our business, but the clear strategic focus that we have within our business to be able to benefit massively from from where we are in 2025 and beyond.

50:28 Thanks, Steve. Next one for Rashid. Could you talk about the decision to pay a dividend and if that has any implications for m and a potential. Yeah. So we discussed the different options at board, and we also consulted with our banks, took feedback from our investor community as well. Because as we've mentioned during the presentation, we have substantial cash reserves, and we want to get back to, a, the investors, but also attract a new investor community. So that was the decision behind paying a dividend.

51:14 But we are highly cash generative, as I mentioned earlier, and there is sufficient cash for m and a. And there are other options available, you know, to generate funding for a meaningful m and a should that, you know, come to fruition in the future. But it's a progressive dividend. You know, again, it's it's we're very pleased as a board to be announcing that. And we've already had, you know, positive feedback from new investors, you know, on the back of that announcement. So, yeah, overall, it's been received really well. Thank you.

52:04 Steve, given the rise of AI and game development, are you integrating AI driven tools to enhance efficiency or game quality? The the short answer is, yeah. We're we're constantly talking, looking, investing in the world of of AI, but but not to the extent that a lot of triple a publishers will be. Obviously, the games that we actually develop and the games that we publish are far smaller in terms of the development spend. So therefore, the the role that AI plays within that is nowhere near as considerable as as it does with with with triple a and and double a games. We we spend a lot of time talking to a number of players in the marketplace who are investing significant amounts of money within within AI. And AI is being used in in in testing areas and also the areas that humans don't necessarily want to or get excited about developing sort of moving forward. So it's definitely there.

53:09 It's nowhere near as prevalent as I think some people think it is in the world of gaming. And within the world of indie, which is obviously what we're interested in, it is around the idea generation. It's around the the concept of of the game, and AI is a long way away from being able to develop conceptual creativity that can make amazing games. What it's great at is speeding up the process of certain areas of game development, but we just have to be careful that we don't get carried away with it. It's been around the industry for a long, long time, so it's not a new thing, the fact that AI is being is being used. As a business, we're looking at AI in lots of different areas, so the game development just being one of them. But it's not a significant focus of ours. It's not that we've got huge amounts of investment funds to go into AI and artificial intelligence. I just think it's it is there.

54:06 We're aware of it. We're using it where appropriate, but it's not a fundamental shift in what we do or how we go about doing it at this stage. Great. Thank you, Steve. Okay. That is all of our questions. So, I'll just hand back to to Jake for any, last minute housekeeping. Perfect. Thank you, guys. That's great. And thank you very much indeed for being so generous of your time and addressing all of those questions that came in for investors this afternoon. And, of course, if there are any further questions that do come through, we'll make these available to you immediately after the presentation has ended. But, Steve, perhaps before really now, just looking to redirect those on the call to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company. If I could please just ask you for a few closing comments just to wrap up with, that'd be great.

55:00 Yeah. Thanks very much, Jake. Yeah. I guess I just want to reiterate what I said before as far as thank you for finding the time to to listen to Rashid and I. It's it's an amazing business. We're very, very proud of the performance of 2024. We feel as though the strategy is is clearly working, which is which is important after a disappointing 2023. We also feel as though we've got some great IP. We've got some great games that we'll be launching in 2025 and and beyond. And and I'm really, really excited about where we are now, but more importantly, where I feel as though we're going to go moving forward. So, yeah, thanks for your time. Thanks for your continued support. Thanks for investing in the business. We, genuinely appreciate the support because the market is tough. I know it's tough in lots of different areas.

55:51 So the fact that you've all found the time and continue to invest is a is a really important thing for us. So that's sort of all I wanted to say. Have a nice weekend, everybody, and, appreciate your time. Perfect, Steve. That's great. And thank you once again for updating investors this afternoon. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order the management team can really better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'd be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of EVERPLAY GROUP PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. So good afternoon to you all.