Gentoo Media (Stockholm:G2M) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 Hi and welcome to Redi. Today we are joined by Gentoo Media who will present their Q2 results and this will be followed by a Q and A moderated by me. If you have any questions, please send them through on the web. With that, I will leave over the word to Jonas Borre.

0:17 Hi. Welcome to Gentoo Media's Q2 twenty twenty six presentation. My name is Jonas Rohr. I'm the CEO of Gentoo Media, and I will be taking you through the presentation today. Gentoo Media connects high intent players with leading iGaming operators worldwide. We are leading affiliate marketing company in the online casino and sportsbook industry with a diverse portfolio of websites, products and campaigns. We help online sports books and casinos acquire high value players at scale through premium lead generation and compliance solutions. Our business model is essentially function as the digital storefront for the iGaming industry, where we connect high end players with leading operators using a mix of our owned websites and paid campaigns.

1:12 We do this to generate performance based recurring revenue share earnings supported by listing fees and CPA agreements. Going into our strategy, our strategic ambition, what we want to achieve, we want to build a leaner, more scalable, and cash generative affiliate business. We want to focus capital and resources on the highest performing brands, markets and channels. We want to increase revenue quality and player value to improve monetization, partner optimization and disciplined execution. We want to strengthen our flagship brands and also our local champion sites across key markets. We want to expand our multichannel acquisition capabilities across owned websites, paid media, and emerging AI driven discovery channels.

2:02 Then we want to transition fully into an AI enabled operating model across technology, product, content, automation, and commercial decision making. We want to achieve this through our strategic pillars. One, reduce complexity in the business. Two, build and expand our flagship brands three, win with our local champion sites in local markets four, expand and strengthen our multichannel acquisition capabilities five, continue to drive higher player value and six, continue to invest and expand our superior tech, product and design.

2:48 Going into the quarter, Q2 twenty twenty six showed continued operational and financial progress, although revenue came in below expectations. Player intake and player activity increased quarter over quarter supported by the World Cup and by higher marketing investments, but this does not translate into an immediate revenue uplift. Our cost, marketing spend, people cost and other OpEx decreased by 16% year on year, reflecting our continued cost discipline and our structural lower operating cost base. Operating cash flow remained resilient, impacted negatively by 2,000,000 in accelerated supply payments.

3:39 And if we exclude for these payments, operating cash flow increased 13% year on year. Investment continued across boards, product, technology, AI adoption and acquisition. Deleveraging continued in the quarter with net interest bearing debt being reduced, including deferred considerations, and with the leverage ratio improving also. Quarterly highlights, what I think here is the main absolute things to mention. If we look at player intake, this is a quarter where we are growing player intake quarter over quarter, and as you can see, we have gone through a period with decline to some degree expected to the strategic realignment where we have focused efforts on higher value markets.

4:31 But of course, nice to see that in Q2, we grow player intake now both in publishing and in paid quarter over quarter. We also see growth in player activity in value of deposits, both growing year over year and also growing quarterly. Unfortunately, we do not see this increased player intake and activity translating into revenue growth. So revenue declines 9% year on year, But what we see is that despite lower revenue compared to Q2 twenty twenty five, we see EBITDA growing and our EBITDA margin expanding. Cash from operations remained resilient, notably when we adjust for the €2,000,000 that we did in accelerated supplier payments.

5:28 Financial highlights. Revenue at 22,900,000, down 9% year on year as higher World Cup player activity did not translate into an immediate revenue uplift. Marketing spend ended at 6,800,000, down 19% year on year, but up 25% quarter over quarter, reflecting increased investments around the World Cup. Personal and other operating expenses ended at 7,200,000, down 12% year over year and 11% quarter over quarter.

6:04 Combined marketing spend, personal cost and other OpEx decreased by 2,600,000 or 16% year over year. EBITDA before special items increased 5% year on year, ending at 8,900,000, also with the margin expanding to 39 from 34% in Q2 last year. Operating cash flow remained resilient, ending at $6,400,000 in Q2 twenty twenty six. Looking into revenue, recurring revenue share remained the largest revenue source at 60% with listing fees and CPA contributing respectively 2812%. This is very much in line with previous quarters.

6:52 Europe contributed 59% of revenue, The Americas 18%, and global 23%. If I have to highlight one thing here, I would highlight our global revenue, our revenue from global markets that increased 14 year on year. And I think this is very much driven by our flagship brands that are becoming better and better at monetizing worldwide traffic.

7:21 If we turn to player intake and value and deposits and look into the details there, we can see that player intake increased 25 quarter over quarter, driven by growth across both paid and publishing. Player intake ended 25% below last year, driven by lower marketing investments and stricter focus on higher value markets and players. Value of deposits reached an all time high of $2.00 7,000,000, increasing 3% quarter over quarter and 6% year over year. The combination of growing player intake and record deposits demonstrates stronger player activity and provides a foundation for future revenue growth. Looking into our cost base, we continue to become more and more efficient.

8:12 Our total cost decreased by 2,600,000 or 16% year over year. Marketing spend increased throughout the quarter, up 25% from Q1, reflected increased investment around the World Cup while remaining 19% below Q2 twenty twenty five. Combined people cost and other OpEx decreased by 12% year on year to 7,200,000 and by 11% quarter over quarter, equivalent to 900,000. This is in line with the outlook communicated in Q1 twenty twenty six. What we can see here is that we are fewer people, meaning that we see a big reduction in people cost and then some of that people cost being moved to other openings.

9:02 But essentially, at the end of the day, a leaner, a more focused business with a more scalable operating model. In the quarter, we also continue to derisk and deleverage the business. Since Q2 last year, net interest bearing debt, including deferred payments, has been reduced by 10,600,000. And in this quarter, we did 1,000,000 of deferred payments, and we also reduced 1,000,000 in loans. This also means that our leverage ratio improved to 2.58 from 2.99 last year. So essentially, you can see here that the deleveraging of the business continues as our refinancing process advances.

9:50 Our profitability and credit metrics have improved over the past twelve months, with adjusted EBITDA last twelve months increasing 6% and our net interest bearing debt decreasing 9% year over year. Leverage ratio improving from 2.99 to 2.58. Looking into our debt structure, we can see that we are we have sort of three facilities here. Our bonds that matures in December this year at 91,500,000, and then we have our shareholder backed loans with the bulk of it maturing end of next year.

10:34 The board and management are evaluating a range of refinancing alternatives, including a new bond and private debt structures. The objective is to secure an appropriate long term solution with sufficient flexibility, including the ability to distribute cash while maintaining disciplined cost of financing. No preferred structure has yet been selected, and the market will be updated no later than 10/01/2026. Going into the operational highlights. Our websites in our publishing business, execution remain focused on strengthening core brands, improving monetization, and allocating resources to the highest potential markets and products.

11:20 Product development centered on as game plus, CasinoVicer and enhanced sports products and features targeting the World Cup. The casino platform migration continued and was completed after the quarter ended. Also, further websites were migrated to our next generation content platform, reducing complexity and enabling faster product content and SEO execution.

11:47 AI adoption also advanced with the launch of an internal assistant, increasing content production and editing efficiency across our publishing business. I'm very excited to see when we do these kind of steps forward using AI, how much it can transform the business and how much it can sort of increase efficiency. And this is very much a theme that we have been working on since last year, right? So excited to see what we can continue to do there being more and more AI adoptive. Looking into paid in all of our paid campaigns, player acquisition accelerated during the quarter with FTDs increasing 46% quarter over quarter, while the CAC, the customer acquisition cost, what we pay for one player remained broadly stable.

12:47 Higher operator bonuses and acquisition incentives reduced the initial revenue contribution from all the newly acquired revenue share players that we generated and paid. The expanded player base is expected to generate recurring revenue share values as players remain active over subsequent periods. In paid, similar to in publishing, we also saw continued AI adoption, AI driven site creation and real time performance optimization became fully operational, improving execution speed and supporting further scalable growth.

13:26 Revenue in Q2 was below expectations and did not yet reflect the positive development in Play Insect and Player activity. The company continues to advance initiatives aimed at improving monetization and supporting a return to revenue growth. So just wanted to take the chance here to speak in broad terms about the key drivers that we are working on here. First of all, partner optimization. This means strengthening commercial terms and relationships with leading operators across priority markets, supporting stronger and more resilient monetization as player activity grows.

14:14 Traffic optimization, directing traffic towards partners delivering the strongest conversion, the highest player value, and the strongest or most sustainable long term revenue contribution.

14:28 We also invest in brands, products and technology in our flagship brands and also in our local champion brands, in sports products and technology and high value markets to strengthen traffic, engagement and player value. And then we are scaling paid acquisition selectively where campaigns demonstrate attractive conversion, monetization, and payback. In a quarter where we see that we have grown player activity, and if we look back over the last period where we have continued to grow player activity, it is of course a key focus point for management and for Gentoo Media to see that we also grow revenue while when we grow player activity.

15:16 So this is absolutely a focal point for the second half of twenty twenty six.

15:23 Summarizing the quarter and looking ahead, revenue declined 9% year over year, while EBITDA before special items increased 5% to €8,900,000 The margin expanded by five percentage points to 39%, reflecting our structurally lower cost base. Player intake and player activity increased during the quarter, supported by higher marketing investments and the World Cup. However, this increase in player activity did not translate into a short term uplift in revenue in the quarter. People cost and other OpEx developed as expected. The cost base is expected to decline further during the remainder of the year as processes are optimized and AI adoption continues.

16:13 Cash generation remains strong while the de risking and the deleveraging of the business continued. Looking ahead, we will continue to invest in our flagship brands and in our local champion brands, continue to invest in sports products and sports related acquisition capabilities, and we will continue to invest in paid acquisition capabilities.

16:38 All of this, of course, to support future revenue growth. Commercial optimization is a key priority for second half of twenty twenty six, focusing on improving partner terms, partner relationships, and not the least, on converting growing player activity into revenue growth for Gentoo Media. Following the completion of first half of twenty twenty six and notably revenue in Q2 coming in significantly below expectations, Gentoo Media is revising its full year guidance. We are guiding now revenue at 97,000,000 to 100,000,000 for 2026, adjusted EBITDA at 44,000,000 to $47,000,000 and cash flow from operations at 32,000,000 to $36,000,000 Lower

17:30 than expected first half revenue reduced the full year outlook, partly offset by continued cost reductions and resilient margins. This concludes our presentation. Thank you for tuning in. Adding a bit of afterthought to the presentation, in Gentoo Media, we know what steps we need to take in the next period ahead of us. We have done many things correctly. We have seen financial and operational progress. We are growing player activity. But of course, we need to deal with the fact that we have not grown revenue. This remains a focal point for the organization and for management going forward. I want to thank both investors and employees for the support in the last period that we have gone through, and I can say on behalf of all of Gentoo Media that all of us are looking very much ahead

18:26 to see what we can achieve in the remaining months of 2026. Thank you. Okay, thank you for the presentation. Then moving over to Q and A. Starting with maybe the revenue here in Q2, also get a few questions here from the webcast. Maybe trying to explain, I mean, as you say, we saw a good after the intake revenue, deposits grew, but you didn't see any revenue growth quarter over quarter. I mean, you mentioned the bonus effect to some extent. But could you give some more flavor on why we didn't see any kind of revenue growth in the quarter, if you can put some color on that?

19:16 Yeah. I think if if we split it up into an external and internal factors, of course, you know, know, you can say there were some external factors. We didn't earn what we expected on on the World Cup. There were some maybe tax changes in UK, but I think the what I would like to address here are the internal factors, what we can control. So, you know, as as part of the portfolio simplification we have gone through, we have, of course, reduced investments in some markets and then also expected a a decline in revenue there. And I think that effect has been higher than expected. Then we did all of this with our eyes wide open, to invest in fewer markets, in higher value markets in order to drive long term revenue growth. And clearly, the initiatives that we have tried to execute there have not delivered the results fast enough and high enough in order to sort of make a better result for Q2. So I think we can see a lag there. Then, of course, also, we are in a situation where we have grown player activity, but we have not grown revenue for the

20:21 business. We can control that, of course, as part of the commercial optimization that I talked about in the presentation. So, in short, what we can control internally in Gentoo Media, we have not moved strong enough and fast enough on the initiatives to grow revenue in the higher value markets as we wanted. And we have not delivered, I would say, on the commercial optimization in the sense that we are not growing revenue right now when we are growing player activity, and that's the short version of it. I'm not going to blame a lot of things here beyond that we should have done better on the revenue part. Okay. Thank you. And also looking at the deposits here, which has kind of climbed every quarter here sequentially and also pretty good FDD intake this quarter.

21:11 Can you explain about I mean, is this a forward looking indicator that revenue should go up and what kind of lag is there of the deposits compared to revenue? And there was also a question on webcast here, if you could say something about have you seen the the kind of revenue improving from this KPIs looking into into q three? Revenue should improve as as we grow player and save activity. I think, you know, I think we have gone through a period where we have been very focused on on streamlining the business and on on cost reductions. And I guess in that process, maybe we have a little bit lost focus on on the commercial parts of it, meaning, you know, ensuring that we work with the right partners, that we have the right deals, that we promote the right offers, and we earn the right amount of money as we should working with our partners in

22:03 long term. There is always a fallback option if we become unsure about the sort of long term sustainability of revenue sharing, and that is shifting more and more towards CPA and towards listing fees. But at this stage, we believe that revenue share is still the main income source for us as this will generate the highest long term revenue for Gentoo Media. Then we just need to take some steps now to also prove that revenue is growing now when play activity is growing. Thank you. Looking at I mean, if I look at at some of your larger brands, CasinoMise, Gas Gamblers, it's looked like traffic at this as scammers has been stable at a higher level. Like, as soon as it to be improving. Is that something you can confirm internally that that that you see this as well?

22:53 I think as scammers have had you know, there's always Google updates that can either be good or bad. I think the last Google update was slightly negative for as gamers, whereas it was quite positive for for Casino Meister, for instance. So, you know, as as we have always talked about, we we enjoy having a diverse portfolio of websites in order to not be dependent on singular horses whenever there is a Google update, but there's a lot of things we are doing to improve our publishing websites now, and we are growing also and investing in sports. I don't think I have anything sort of notable to say for q two when it comes to to, for instance, as game plus developments beyond the fact that we keep working on the site and we keep investing in design. If there's anything, would probably say that as Game plus has become better in q two at monetizing what we can call global traffic from the rest of the world where we also see an increase here.

23:53 Another question from from the webcast here looking at paid media specifically, which had the negative EBITDA. Was that kind of deliberate to invest in the FIFA World Cup, or can you talk a bit about that? Yeah. We chose to invest big in the World Cup with the opportunity that that was there. I think I'm quite we are quite satisfied to see that we kept our CAC or the customer acquisition cost cost per player stable despite growing player intake with the amounts that we did.

24:25 Of course, we also expected then to see some revenue coming out of that in in q two, and that uplift did not come from various factors. And I think as we also described in the report, in in in sports in general and in paid, we work with fewer partners here, so we are more dependent on on singular part operators' choices, and we saw that some operators also saw the World Cup as an opportunity to to increase player intake by being more, you can say, higher positive on the bonuses and by giving higher player incentives, which affected earnings short term for us there. Understood. And if you look at the kind of FTD intake in the last couple of quarters and this quarter as well, I mean, is it do you see the same kind of quality, so to say, in terms of FTDs, or is there any change in that that you see?

25:19 No. I wouldn't say we have seen any changes in the in the quality of of the players that we are making. This strategy is very much intact there in the higher value markets that we are choosing to invest in, in line with what was implemented in last year. So it's essentially just continuing the decision that we took there. So no, I don't think you can say that there's either a lower quality of traffic or a higher quality of traffic.

25:46 And a question on the operational efficiency you have carried out. You mentioned also that you have implemented more AI for content. Can you kind of is it tangible the effects you see in terms of the financial impact, or can you elaborate a bit on how the impact of that comes through? Yeah. Of course, everything in the world of content and SEO is a bit more long term. Right? You will see the effects more long term. But I think what we can see is that our employees are able to do far to be far more productive, but not the least, also work with far higher quality in what they do.

26:25 When I see the system now we have built and how we can work with our sites from a content and SEO perspective, It is really different from when I started out in the industry many years ago. There's really so much you can say assisting below where you are giving advice on how to take the best decisions for how to get the site to rank better. And I'm quite excited to see that. Actually, the same in paid where, you know, now we have full site generation driven by AI in the sense that our market shares can simply just describe what they want, and then that is that is being built. And then also, you know, on the data part here, being assisted by by AI. It's, yeah, it's very exciting to see what we can do next step here. It really is something where, for me, being in the industry for that many years, it really is mind blowing to see what you can do with with AI when you do it correctly.

27:23 And and a question on the on the regional development. Looking at Americas, you mentioned that Latin America grew, I think, and North America was down. And also a question on the webcast. Mean, do you see Brazil, is that kind of stabilizing at a low level or what's helping Latin America growing

27:40 in the quarter? Yeah. A few other markets than Brazil, but, of course, I would I would highlight Brazil as the main market in Latin for us. Right? And then, yeah, US was was down in the quarter. I think it was expected that we should see growth in Latin America with the World Cup, of course. Understood. And a few questions on the cash flow and the bond refinancing. There's a lot from the webcast. Maybe starting to cash flow first. You mentioned some accelerated supplier payments in the quarter. Is that something you expect to reverse in Q3 or how should we view the kind of working capital development from here? Now I would say what we did there was simply we took the change to strengthen supply relationships and also try to improve pricing and commercial terms for us with our suppliers.

28:32 Don't expect to see the same thing happening in q three, but we saw an opportunity to do that in q two and went for it. And also a few questions on the bond refinancing update here. Maybe starting with, I mean, if you compare what you talked about in early of the year there, you talked about refinancing €120,000,000 I think it says here. Now you're looking at new alternatives. I mean, what has changed compared to then? I think what has changed is in this period we have been in now when we have discussed refinancing is at least that our credit metrics, if I call it that, have improved, and we have also managed to reduce debt during that period.

29:18 The board is evaluating a wider range of alternatives, and everything is right now being analyzed in order to take the best long term solution for the company. And as I said, there will be an update going out to the market no later than the October 1 this year. It's, of course, a big, you can say, refinancing is, of course, a big focus for us in the company right now, giving that we have a bond that matures end of this year. Just maybe to add a little bit about the volume there, we got that back when we launched the kind of the bond we find at the beginning of the year, we had an RCF facility we wanted to clear out by doing and increase the volume in the bond. We took the decision to step away from that process and instead, we took in a shareholder backed facility with a different maturity date. So that's also why the volumes are not necessarily as high as they were back then.

30:21 And can you comment on, I mean, longer term is that, or I mean, mid term, is that something you want to keep that kind of structure structure or do you want to just have one facility? There is no decision upon it. Of course, the aim here is to take find a financial structure that's suitable for the long term strategic ambition for the business. We are very pleased to have such a big support from the shareholders with a facility. If we are to continue with that, then that would be it, but of course, we are trying to find a solution that can balance the strategic ambition for the business, but also the cost of the facility. And right now, we are of course looking at all alternatives to try to balance these two things out.

31:10 And if you look at I mean, I think you mentioned that, I mean, the conditions probably have improved somewhat because you have a slightly lower net debt to EBITDA right now. If you look at the kind of macro environment and compare it to Q1, is that better or the same? I think I don't have any specific opinion about that. Of course, overall capital markets are changing from time to time, sometimes from day to day. It's of course a part of the overall assessment to see whether we believe that market conditions are attractive or not at a specific point in time. Alright. There's another question on the refinancing here.

31:58 I I think it says that note six in the report from the web, where it notes that you have shareholder support among the alternatives. Is that, I mean, can that include equity or is it shareholder loans you're talking about? All components is of course a part of securing the business going forward. Today as a part of coming out of the split from Gaming Innovation Group, the business have a negative equity. So of course, we are looking at equity components as well, but nothing has been decided and that would be the same kind of comments that we have had in the past. I don't know how much you can comment, but if you compare kind of the private debt alternative to the bond alternatives, what could be the benefits from one or the other? If you can elaborate a bit on that would be interesting.

32:49 You can say, overall, we have been in the bond market for many years and we have been glad about the support in that market. It's also a maybe not as flexible instrument for a business, especially as cash generative as we are. We have actually, as Jonas also mentioned in the presentation, delivered on a lot of stronger metrics in terms of credit over the past year. So when we are trying to balance out which financial solution is the best, it's not on on a short term basis, it's more or less to what do we want to achieve going forward, how and we want to secure a maximum of flexibility in our financial structure, and there can be benefits of having a private instrument to secure more flexibility.

33:37 There can be a way to look at it, but right now, again, we need to balance all aspects of choosing an instrument out, But that's some of the reflections, of course, we have had over the last year where we have looked into this. And also, I think you mentioned the two focus parts is to have flexibility to allow for distribution, but also interest rate. Can you provide some color on on what is most important if you have to to kind of weigh the two? I think that's a hard one to say. What is most important here, it's a it's a combined evaluation we are doing we are looking at here. Yeah. I agree. Got it. Okay. And and looking a bit on on the guidance here, you you lowered a bit compared to your your previous guidance reflecting slightly soft Kyoto here.

34:30 What will be the kind of main drivers of top line looking at the second half? I mean, is it the FIFA World Cup benefit and more benefit in Q3? Is it that you see this conversion of valid deposits? Or if you can elaborate a bit on that would be interesting. I think the the commercial optimization is, of course, a key theme here. Right? Improving relationships and terms with with operators in the markets we are in, and then also being a bit better at at traffic optimization, knowing where to send traffic, sending it to the right players with the right offers that will generate, you know, long term revenue for us. Then we continue to invest in in sports and in our websites and in our higher value markets.

35:16 Also expect to see something from this. And then, of course, also we have the Fort Lake here, which is scaling paid acquisition up in the markets and with the campaigns where we see a positive or attractive return on advertising spend. So I would call it those four sort of bigger legs that this chair has to rest on. The commercial optimization, some parts of that can be implemented quite fast and of course some of that will take a short period to deal with. So I think for the bigger part about the commercial optimization, I think we should start to see the real effect of that one in in q four versus if we're looking at q three and q four. But this is one where this is really a focal point for management of Gentoo Media to deal with this one.

36:11 If you look at your first one on the kind of macro environment, I mean, there's always things happening in different markets, but is it something that you feel is a higher risk than normal if you look at any regulatory changes in any market that you can see right now for H2? No. I don't think looking ahead that we see anything right now that sort of that worries us in that sense. There will always be things that will either improve market conditions somewhere or will decrease market conditions somewhere. Can we say that the last period has maybe been a little bit tougher than normally maybe? But, again, I'm not I'm not gonna use that as an excuse.

36:56 We have not delivered the revenue we should in q two, and that's just the gist of it, and we need to deal with that. And also looking at the cost structure, I mean, had continued focus on cost development in q two. You did increase marketing spend. If you look into to the next couple of quarters, do you think marketing spend will be higher in q three as there are some few more weeks of, obviously, the World Cup, or do you see that coming down a bit in the next couple of quarter? And also in terms of other OpEx and and employee cost, do you think it's fully realized, the the cost savings that you've implemented? Yeah. So in terms of marketing cost, think I it it's evident to say we expect August to be the weakest month in in second half of two thousand twenty six, then with an uptick, of course, in September, and then, of course, q four being the absolute best quarter in the year as it has traditionally always been. So I would expect also to see marketing costs being reflected there in q four being higher. If we look at people cost and other OpEx, we expect that to continue to decline going forward as we optimize processes, simplify the organization, and and adapt more and more into into AI.

38:08 Of course, that being said, you know, we have gone through quite some big cost reductions over the last year, and I think if we look two quarters ahead, we we are not expecting at all the same cost reductions, but we expect cost to continue to decline there as we optimize our organization and become more and more efficient. Okay. With that, we will finalize the Q and A. Thank you very much for joining. Thank you very much.