Playtech (LSE:PTEC) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 Good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us for our 2026 interim results. As always, I will begin with a brief overview, before handing over to Chris, who will take you through the financials and the outlook. I will then update you on our progress against our strategic priorities. H1 2026 has been a landmark period for Playtech. The strategic transformation of our business has delivered an inflection point both in terms of profitability and cash generation. These results reflect the culmination of many years of hard work and disciplined execution across the group.

0:46 Adjusted EBITDA increased 77% year-on-year to 163 million euros and free cash flow reached 101 million euros. This was underpinned by continued momentum across our regulated B2B business, where underlying revenue grew 21% alongside a strong contribution from our strategic investments. Importantly, this growth translated into meaningful operating leverage with adjusted EBITDA margin from operations increasing materially. The U.S. and Canada remained a key engine of growth in the half, with revenue increasing by 176%, supported by the strength of our partnership with Hard Rock Digital.

1:39 We ended the period with a strong balance sheet, providing us with flexibility to continue investing in future growth opportunities while supporting shareholder returns. This performance is testament to the strategic transformation of the business and the execution by the team. And that is something I'm extremely proud of. While we are very pleased with what we have achieved, we believe there is much more to come. I will now hand over to Chris.

2:17 Thanks, Mark. on to slide five please for financial highlights. I'm pleased to report on the group's excellent financial performance. As a reminder, in early July, we updated the market on trading and delivered our third upgrade of the year confirming that adjusted EBITDA would be more than 155 million euros for H1 and more than 270 million euros for the full year. Strong operational execution drove adjusted EBITDA of 163 million euros in the first half, an increase of 77% compared to the prior year. The group performed strongly in the Americas with a standout performance in the US and growing contribution from our investment from income.

3:04 We drove significant operating leverage with adjusted EBITDA margin from operations improving materially to 30.2% driven by the top-line performance as well as business optimization measures and addressing underperforming businesses which led to B2B costs declining 3% year-on-year. We also had €34 million in adjusted EBITDA from investment income with the majority from our associate Caliente. The group saw a step change in free cash flow which reached €101 million in H1 supported by growing investment income distributions. At the same time, we maintain a strong balance sheet, finishing the half with net cash of 39 million euros, even after repurchasing 1.8% of our equity capital in H1 for a total of 25 million euros.

3:56 On to the next slide, please. Looking at our B2B revenue performance. Reported B2B revenue was 395 million euros, up 14% year-on-year, and up 17% on an underlying basis. whereby we exclude the impact of the revised Caliente Agreement in H1 of 2025. On the same basis, regulated B2B revenue grew 21%, reflecting very strong momentum in the Americas. US and Canada delivered 176% growth in constant currency, driven primarily by our growth of Hard Rock Digital, as well as success with Tier 1 operators across live, casino, and the PAM Plus verticals. This performance is testament to the group's strong strategic execution in recent years.

4:47 In Latin America, underlying revenue grew 29%, driven by a strong half from Caliente in Mexico, as well as excellent growth in Colombia, which was supported by the continued constructive evolution of the regulatory environment there during the first half. Europe, excluding the UK, grew 2%, and when excluding a non-recurring hardware sale in the prior period, the region achieved growth of 10% driven by strong results in Poland and Spain. The UK was impacted by certain customer specific changes as well as the increased remote gaming duty. Turning to the next slide. Cost efficiency remains a focus for the group going forward, and in the first half of the year, we removed over 20 million euros of annual run rate costs from the business.

5:38 This contributed to B2B costs declining 3% in the period, while allowing continued investments in areas such as the Americas, where we see the strongest potential for long-term returns. In our live vertical, we continued investing strategically while also looking at table optimization initiatives and operational efficiencies, which led to live costs being broadly flat year on year. We lowered our R&D expenses through certain optimization measures in non-core areas while maintaining our core R&D investment. We reduced G&A costs, primarily reflecting tight cost control in certain central corporate functions. Our disciplined cost management alongside strong revenue growth drove meaningful operational leverage and a significant improvement in B2B adjusted EBITDA margin to 32.4%.

6:34 Going forward, we will continue to manage costs carefully, focusing investment on our areas of strategic priority, particularly in the Americas and live, while preserving efficiency and driving operational leverage over time. On to slide 8, where we look at how adjusted EBITDA translates into free cash flow. The strong growth in EBITDA combined with disciplined CapEx and capitalized development led to significant free cash flow of 101 million euros in the first half, which is a step change in cash generation compared to around 30 million for the full year of 2025. Slide 9, and now on to the balance sheet. Looking at our net cash bridge, we began the year with net cash of 29 million euros.

7:23 As a reminder today, the group has one bond of 300 million euros maturing in June 2028, and we are currently assessing our refinancing options. During the half, we executed a 25 million euro on-market share buyback program, repurchasing 1.8% of our issued equity capital. As I said in March, at the end of 2025, we had approximately 90 million of cash outflows remaining related to the Snytex sale and as planned in the first half, we paid over 60 million of these with the remainder to be paid in the first half of 2027. I am pleased that despite these outflows in the first half, the strong free cash flow from the business and our investments means that our balance sheet remains very strong and we ended the first half in a net cash position of 39 million euros.

8:15 As well as a reminder, we have our 225 million euro revolving credit facility, which remains fully undrawn. Next slide, please. As a reminder of our capital allocation policy, which I took you through in March, we look at it in three buckets. The first is growth. We continue to prioritize organic investments instead of priority product verticals, Such as live casino, and into high growth geographies across the Americas, including the US, Mexico, and Brazil. A key part of our framework remains our early stage investment by structured agreement models, where we typically partner with local heroes ahead of regulation, and as a result, directly participate in the future upside.

9:03 This approach has proven to be successful through our long-standing success, including with Caliente Interactive and more recently with Hard Rock Digital. The second bucket is all about maintaining flexibility for uncertainties, including for regulatory updates and tax changes, as we've recently seen in certain markets, as well as for potential M&A. While there is no immediate plan for M&A, we remain prudent but open to selective opportunities, particularly those aligned with our ambition to strengthen Playtex's position as the leading B2B technology provider. Beyond those two buckets, our intention is to return what we see as structural surplus capital to shareholders. We returned approximately 100 million euros over the last 12 months through share buybacks, and a strong balance sheet and more sustainable free cash flow generation provides increased flexibility to look at both dividends and buybacks in the future while preserving our capacity to invest in growth.

10:06 There are many factors we consider, including our bond, which matures in June 2028, but there are regular discussions at the board level to enhance returns to shareholders by dividends and or share buybacks. turning to slide 11 and our levers to achieve the top end of our median term financial targets of 300 million euros in adjusted EBITDA and 100 million euros in free cash flow. In the first half, we made rapid progress towards these goals with adjusted EBITDA of 163 million euros and free cash flow already reaching 101 million euros, reflecting both the strategic execution and operational efficiency that we promised. Starting with the U.S., the U.S. business is now profitable, sooner than we had expected, driven by strong performance across our live casino and PAM Plus verticals, but in particular by the significant success of our partnership with Hard Rock Digital.

11:06 Last year, I said we had around 20 million euros of losses at the EBITDA level and 25 million euros at the cash flow level from underperforming businesses. We've already taken significant action to address these, including the wind-down of HappyBet, which is now near completion. At the same time, our core B2B operations continue to deliver, and we continue to capture growth from regulated markets. We're investing to further improve and innovate our key product verticals, while also optimizing costs and realizing benefits of the attractive economics within our structured agreements. Partnerships with leading operators remain a core competitive advantage, and we are pleased with the excellent momentum we are seeing with Hard Rock Digital, Caliente, and several others across the Americas and Europe.

11:58 Collectively, these growth levers, coupled with a disciplined approach to cost management, and our focus on addressing underperformance are driving significant operating leverage. While we expect H2 adjusted EBITDA to be lower than H1, as we set out in our trading update on the 9th of July, we are ahead of schedule in delivering our medium term adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow targets. We are focused on execution in the second half and we will revisit our targets after the year end. Next slide, please. Finally, I would like to update you on our trading so far in the second half and the outlook. We've had an excellent start to H2, particularly across the Americas, where we continue to see sustained demand in the US, Mexico, and other markets.

12:49 In the US, the strong activity we saw in Q2 has continued into Q3 so far. However, as previously flagged, we expect the contribution from Hard Rock Digital to continue at a lower but more sustainable level going forward. In Mexico, Caliente continues to perform strongly and we expect a further uplift after a successful period of customer acquisition during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Taking these factors together, we are maintaining our guidance for the full year of 2026 adjusted EBITDA of more than 270 million euros. And I'll now hand back to Mark to cover our strategic priorities.

13:36 Thanks, Chris. I will now take you through our investment case strategy, the progress made so far, and our ambitions for the future. I want to give you a reminder of our evolved business model, which was a key driver of our performance in the first half. Playtech today is a high-growth B2B technology business, serving more than 200 operators across over 50 regulated jurisdictions, providing mission-critical infrastructure to many of the world's leading gambling operators. Our B2B business operates in some of the fastest growing regulated markets globally and combines leading content and platform technology through value-accretive business models.

14:25 This has enabled us to build long-standing partnerships with both major global operators and local hero brands. Alongside our core technology business, our multi-decade experience supporting B2B customers has enabled us to identify opportunities early and invest selectively, directly, and via our structured agreement framework. Through this strategy, we have built a portfolio of highly valuable strategic assets with a book value of more than 1.2 billion euros, including our stakes in Caliente Interactive and Hard Rock Digital and a number of other high-growth businesses. Together, Playtech's leading B2B technology business and portfolio of strategic assets creates a uniquely compelling investment proposition with multiple avenues for value creation.

15:22 We believe this leaves us exceptionally well positioned to deliver attractive, sustainable value to our shareholders. In March, I outlined our strategic priorities as a focused B2B technology business. Firstly, our clear focus is on regulated and regulating markets, where we continue to see attractive long-term growth opportunities. In H1, we achieved very strong performance in the US, Mexico and Colombia, and the opportunity across the board is very exciting. Brazil remains a key strategic focus for Playtech, and we are well positioned to capitalize on the opportunity ahead, even more so since launching our Sao Paulo studio.

16:12 Secondly, we continue to invest in products to ensure we stay at the forefront of innovation and I will talk more specifically on live in a moment. Finally, we continue to enhance operational efficiency across the business through ongoing cost optimization measures and actions to address underperformance, including the ongoing wind down of Happybit. We continued our deployment of AI across the business to drive revenue and cost opportunities. Like I said, I will talk to you shortly about our AI live virtual host product. As you can see, we continue to deliver against these priorities, which, underpinned by our sustainability strategy, provide a clear roadmap for Playtech to capture the significant opportunities ahead and create sustainable shareholder value.

17:10 On to the next slide. Mexico represents a meaningful growth opportunity for Playtech, underpinned by our longstanding and successful partnership with Caliente Interactive. The structural tailwinds are compelling. Mexico's online gambling market continues to grow rapidly, with industry forecasts indicating it could nearly double in size over the next five years, and online GGR per adult remains significantly below comparable markets. Caliente has established a clear competitive moat and remains the undisputed market leader in Mexico with more than a century of brand heritage, deep local expertise, and one of the most extensive sponsorship portfolios in the region.

18:02 In addition to the software from our partnership, Our equity holding in Caliente contributed around 30 million euros to adjusted EBITDA from investment income and delivered dividends of 37 million euros to our free cash flow while we have also continued to see very strong growth in our software field demonstrating the multiple avenues through which Playtech benefits from Caliente's success. The 2026 FIFA World Cup provided a meaningful tailwind to the online gambling market in Mexico. Co-hosted on local viewing times, the audience figures more than doubled compared to the 2022 World Cup.

18:49 The tournament further enhanced Caliente's brand visibility, driving successful new customer acquisition, a key driver of future growth. The combination of Mexico's attractive market dynamics, Caliente's market-leading position, and the enduring benefits of the engagement during the World Cup provides an exciting opportunity for Caliente and Playtech going forward. Turning to the next slide and our progress in the US and Canada. The US, as we indicated before, is the key growth engine for Playtech. In H1, we achieved further significant milestones. US and Canada revenue increased by 176% year-on-year, and importantly, the business achieved profitability, reflecting growing scale, strong customer demand, and the increasing returns from investments made over recent years.

19:51 Starting with operational expansion. During the period, we further strengthened our market presence to six regulated high-gaining states, following our launch in Connecticut. Demand from Tier 1 operators remains very strong, particularly across live, where U.S. revenue increased by around 25% erroneous. We also continue to expand capacity across our three U.S. studios, with more than 60 tables now in operation. Alongside this, we continue to invest in our customers through a number of new customers and product launches, including Fanatics across multiple states, FanDuel in West Virginia, and Bet365 in Michigan.

20:41 We also successfully launched our iPoker platform with FanDuel across several markets. Product innovation continues to be a key differentiator for Playtech. During the half, we saw the ongoing success of our past motor racing games with Hard Rock Bet in Florida, while further expanding our portfolio of bespoke and branded content through other partnerships with leading brands. Playtech Content is now live with 15 operators, spanning more than 50 brands across the U.S. market. Our PAM Plus platform also continues to strengthen its leadership position as the number one third-party iGaming platform in the U.S.

21:29 Customers such as Parks, Casino, and Ember Entertainment continue to deliver strong results powered by our platform technology. The progress achieved in H1 further strengthens our conviction in the U.S. opportunity. Despite the strong momentum delivered today, we believe Playtech is just at the beginning of an exciting long-term growth journey as the market continues to expand and evolve. Turning to the next slide. I want to highlight a key component of our U.S. growth story, our strategic partnership with Hard Rock Digital. Today, this partnership is stronger than ever.

22:15 Hard Rock has expanded its footprint across key North American markets and today operates with us across New York, sorry, New Jersey, Michigan, Florida, and Ontario. Utilizing a broad range of Playtech products including Casino, Live Casino, Sports, and our Pump Plus platform. Over the last year, we have launched many unique products with Hard Rock, including our dual play tables and live trivia in New Jersey. The most impressive has been the successful rollout of the Games Powered by Pass Motor Racing offering in Florida, which is based on historical motor racing results.

23:01 Our early investment in developing this innovative product meant that we were the first to market with Hard Rock, and this has been a key contributor to the exceptional growth delivered in the first half. In H2, the contribution from Hard Rock will trend toward a lower but more sustainable level as they introduce other third-party suppliers in Florida, as expected. However, we see further growth to come from that level. When we look back to 2023, Playtech invested $85 million in Hard Rock Digital, and the return on that investment has been very strong. As well as the software fees and dividends received, as of 30 June 2026, our stake has more than tripled in just three years, now valued at around 250 million euros.

23:59 This success is the result of years of strategic execution, and I'm proud to say that we are now benefiting from all of our hard work. The partnership with Hard Rock demonstrates the full value of Playtex partnership model, strategic investment, proprietary technology, and product innovation, combining to accelerate growth while creating value through both commercial revenues and our investment exposure. As Hard Rock Digital continues to expand, we remain excited about the opportunities to support its future growth and participate in its ongoing success. Life continues to be a high-growth, high-margin vertical, and one where Platek continues to gain share.

24:53 With a global live market projected to nearly double over the next five years, we remain exceptionally well positioned in key markets such as the US, Mexico and Brazil, where growth is forecasted to be particularly strong. Our internal data shows that live casino players generate nearly two times more revenue than traditional casino players, making live a highly attractive cross-sell opportunity. During the half, we continue to scale our live operations to meet rising demand. While our change in leadership last year has come with an increased focus on profitability, our priority remains on driving growth.

25:39 Live delivered 12% growth in regulated markets. while also improving margins significantly, which reflects improved utilization based on table optimization measures and narrowing losses in the US. At the end of June, we were operating 480 tables across 20 live studios globally, which includes venues with our live dual table activity. Innovation remains central to our live strategy, So in July, we were excited to launch our live virtual host with several customers. This product enhances the live gaming experience with an AI interface, the virtual host, that guides players through the game, delivering real-time commentary while integrating seamlessly into the live studio environment.

26:33 The virtual host is customizable by market and brand, further enhancing a localized and bespoke offering and deeper player engagement at scale. Early customer feedback has been very encouraging. Our ability to develop bespoke live casino content and localized experiences for specific markets is a key differentiator for Playtex. Our Sao Paulo studio further enhances these capabilities in Brazil, where we are seeing encouraging early success from locally tailored content. Through a combination of structural growth in regulated markets, continued investment in innovation, and growing operational leverage, Playtech is well positioned to drive sustainable, profitable growth in life while continuing to gain share across key regulated markets.

27:34 On to the final slide. As you've heard today, H1 2026 has been an exceptionally strong period for Playtech. We delivered a step change in profitability and free cash flow as the result of our execution under our evolved business model, as well as strong contribution from our investment portfolio. We achieved excellent performance in the US, which sets the base for strong momentum going forward, alongside attractive growth opportunities across Latin America and other key regulated markets. Our strong balance sheet gives us the flexibility to invest in high growth opportunities and to return further capital to shareholders.

28:22 At the same time, we remain focused on driving efficiencies and addressing areas of underperformance. Today, Playtech is a highly focused B2B technology business with leading capabilities across content, platform, services, and data. Combined with our portfolio of strategic assets, this provides a strong foundation for sustainable long-term growth and value creation. and finally, we continue to make rapid progress toward the top end of our medium term financial targets. Given the moving parts which we explained in our July trading update, we maintain our full year 2026 guidance of more than 270 million euros of adjusted EBITDA.

29:15 We enter the second half of 2026 with confidence Thank you for listening. Chris and I will now be more than happy to take your questions. That was quick, Ivo. Thanks Moran, Chris. So we're going to open the floor to questions. We're going to start with questions from the room. If you could please remember to just turn the mic on in front of your seat and just announce your name and organisation. Yeah, we'll start with you Ivor, as you were very eager. Yeah, always very keen to get started. I know you're still not directly involved, but in relation to the evolution case, what happens next and what do you think happens in the end?

30:08 So I know it's very interesting, but as I'm sure you can understand, we are not going to answer any questions on litigation. We are under legal privilege and confidentiality rules, and we can't simply take questions on the legal situation. We said what we needed to say following the spectrum report being released earlier this week, so that's all I can say at this point in time. Okay, thank you. I have lots to say but I can't. I thought it was worth trying. Yes. Chris, you said that you'll revisit targets in the new year, but it'd be really interesting to hear you talk about why it is you're so far ahead of delivering on those targets in terms of time.

30:55 I know there's past Mosa racing, you've talked about that, but going back to the time you set them, what have been the key things that have delivered this remarkable acceleration?

31:06 Yeah, thanks Oliver, good question. Obviously, I think we look at the targets and what we've achieved effectively 18 months into what were five-year targets. So we announced them at the full year results in 2025. The targets were actually set internally as we developed them with the board and everything in 2024. Obviously, I think we set very ambitious targets given, you know, the starting point for EBITDA was roughly, you know, the top end of the targets required effectively doubling the EBITDA in a five-year period. And the free cash flow was, you know, going from roughly a rebase starting point of zero to 100. So to be 18 months into those targets, and being well on track to meeting them either partially or in full and we're all working very hard towards achieving as much of them as we can.

32:04 I think we're very pleased with how we are but there's a lot of work that still needs to be done. We will revisit those at the end of the year. In terms of being so far ahead, I think We've had some amazing execution across the business. Some of the investments we've made into things like Hard Rock Digital have, you know, we obviously were very bullish when we made those investments and the opportunities that we had, but some of them have even surpassed our own lofty expectations. So I think we're just very pleased with the execution, both at Playtech and with some of our partners that we've invested in.

32:45 If I may just add one comment, right? I think that it actually means that it works, right? It motivated the team, it incentivized the team, we lost a lot of scale, we lost the scale we were at or the level of scale we were at before we sold SNAI. We gathered the team and we obviously made sure that everyone understands we're going through a process as part of which we reviewed the strategy, we set the strategy to become a true B2B Thank you very much. All opportunities that we still look to capitalize on in Brazil, for example, did not exist when we agreed the targets. So it is actually a culmination of a lot of work by the team, a lot of work by the team that, by the way, wake up in the morning and doesn't really think about this problem.

34:00 Thank you. Maybe just one more before colleagues ask questions. Could you just talk about the valuation of the assets at the first half? Because you said that you had increased the book value of Hard Rock, so I guess in the back of the notes we'll find out how. What about the valuation of the Caliente book? How close is that book value to, sorry, is the hard rock number now, do you think anything related to a market value? And more importantly, is the Caliente stake book value anything like a market value?

34:41 Yeah, I think the valuation of our stakes gets quite complicated and each one is sort of treated slightly differently from an accounting perspective. The Hard Rock stake that we have gets revalued every six months. We actually hire a third party firm to do evaluation of that. They factor in the current state of the business, obviously future projections, growth of the various markets, a business like Hard Rock is in, competitive dynamics, everything you might expect. They also factor in any relevant discounts for the fact it's a private company, et cetera. So I think, first of all, it's done by a third party, so it's a balanced and fair valuation. I think on balance, it's better to be conservative with these valuations rather than aggressive. And I would caution everybody, they are paper valuations, so to speak.

35:35 But I think the fact that the Hard Rock investment has effectively tripled in value since we made it just over three years ago shows the phenomenal success that that business has had. The Caliente valuation is different since the new deal, different from an accounting perspective and how we do it. It's actually quite mechanical now. It was the value when the new structure came into play in place with Caliente in Q1 of 20, well, sorry, 1st of April 2025, the new structure took into effect. So we took this stake at that point and it was valued and then becomes quite mechanical from an accounting perspective. So that is not revalued every period in the same way as the Hard Rock Digital stake is.

36:21 I don't really want to speculate about what that stake would be worth, but the fact that it was sort of rebased based on the valuation in 2025 and the businesses continue to grow, I think you can probably read into that what perhaps what a more reflective value of that stake would be. Does that mean that it'll only, in the future, I hope it won't happen, but it would only be impaired? It won't be revalued upwards as a matter of process?

36:44 Not necessarily. It's quite mechanical accounting-wise. We could talk you through this, but basically every period you add our share of the income to the valuation, so that goes up. But then if they pay it all in dividends, it goes back down. So it's kind of, you know, that's why it hasn't really changed very much in this period. In theory, in the future, if they didn't pay out the income as dividends, the value would increase based on how the income grows. Thanks, Ivor. Roberta, we'll come to you next.

37:13 Thank you. Good morning. It's Roberta Ciaccia from Investec. I would start with a question for Chris on the cost containment side of Indie2B. It was clearly great. I was wondering to what extent the games evolution and the evolution of revenue at Hard Rock Digital helped in H1 and therefore what kind of margin should we expect more, let's say, normalized from H2 onwards and if there is something, you know, then operational leverage starts again. That would be my first question.

37:47 Okay. So I think on a couple of things there. So I think on costs, as I said, we removed 20 million of annual costs from the business in the first half of the year. Those are in areas where we just either identified inefficiencies, had underperforming businesses. or maybe areas that are no longer core to the group. So we're able to address costs that way. And just to be clear on that, 20 million, but without putting a number on it, we're not done at 20 million. We see more opportunities for cost efficiencies going forward. On the Hard Rock Digital and the games powered by Pass Motor Racing product, we actually incurred a lot of the investment in developing that product in 2025.

38:32 So we didn't speak about it at the time, but we were basically absorbing in 2025 the costs related to that without any revenues. There was a small amount of revenues when they launched late in the year, but we did incur costs throughout the year that were absorbed in our 2025 numbers. Actually, what's happened in 2026 kind of showcases the beauty of the Playtech business model in that we've incurred the investment, and then once you go live with the product, most of the upside from revenue flows through the EBITDA and free cash flow. So that dynamic from that leverage combined with the cost efficiencies led to the significant margin expansion. Now, similar to how we talked about EBITDA as a whole normalizing in H2 and to an extent into 2027, there will be a normalization in the EBITDA margin as well.

39:21 However, the Even though there's that sort of somewhat rebasing of EBITDA and margins in this period that we've talked about, to be clear, once it's sort of rebased, we expect continued revenue growth, EBITDA growth, and further margin expansion, but there will be a temporary period of those numbers rebasing.

39:42 Okay, clear. Second question on Hard Rock Digital. What is next in terms of geographical growth? Expansion, if you can comment on it and if there's any plans.

39:53 We can't really say much. However, we will say that given the fact that it's now public, they extended within the U.S. They are now present in different territories together with us. It's New Jersey, Michigan, and Florida. Beyond that, you have Ontario. Recently, they launched in Mexico. And they do have a plan. They do have a program to extend into different additional states across the U.S. as well as additional countries outside. Just as a reminder, in the U.S. we provide them with PMR in Florida, for the time being only in Florida, and obviously gaming solutions, casino and live casino in the other states within the U.S. Outside of the U.S., in certain territories like Ontario, like in Mexico, it includes the Fan Plus, it includes casino, live casino, and in certain cases also sports.

40:43 So it's a very comprehensive arrangement. which is part of our structured agreement strategy which is always a combination of services and or an investment alongside a very comprehensive software arrangement.

41:07 Can I go for just a third one? On Brazil, what's the presumable evolution there? And the fact that you haven't yet I'll be very, very open and straightforward about it, right?

41:28 There were certain concerns that because it is an election year, and obviously gaming is a political issue, or there were references by politicians throughout the elections... about gambling. We have been, and given the sensitivity around that, we were kindly asked to collaborate with the government, with a prospective customer that we are in discussions with, to wait until the elections. However, I will say that the expectations remain the same to enter into an agreement and launch sometime by the beginning of, or at the beginning of next year. Thanks, Roberto. Rich, we'll come to you next.

42:14 Thank you. Richard Stieber from Georgia. Just a couple of questions there from me. Caliente obviously very strong this year. Could you say how much the contribution from roughly the World Cup was both in H1 and also presumably you know how it's done in H2 just so we can see the underlying run rate? and the second question is on the PMR products, it's going to be massively successful in Florida with Hard Rock Digital. Can you leverage that product in other states with other licensees in states which don't have online gaming?

42:49 Yeah, I'll cover the first one on Caliente and the World Cup and more can do the Hard Rock. Slightly complicated Caliente and the World Cup, there's a few different moving dynamics. both in terms of which KPI you're looking at, but also whether you're talking P&L or cash flow savings. So I'll try to explain, but if I don't do a very good job, we can take it offline. So Caliente, in terms of the World Cup, I think from a, you know, the most important KPI from their perspective and ours is customer acquisition. So less about the actual results over the period of the World Cup. and by all accounts, that was incredibly successful and they're very pleased with how the World Cup went. So I think that's the most important thing. In terms of how it impacts the numbers short term, in terms of the P&L and cash flow H1, H2, There was significant marketing as you would expect around to drive that customer acquisition.

43:44 The heaviest months for that were June and July. So you can expect on a P&L basis, given we take a share of income from that business, that the results of those months would be lower on a P&L basis, given the significant marketing investment they put into that business. On a cash basis, it's slightly different because we receive dividends on a monthly basis. and both of those dividends, so the ones related to June and July, will both fall into H2. So all else being equal, and obviously they're always subject to sporting results throughout the rest of the year, but on a cash flow basis, I would actually expect H2 to probably be lower than H1, all else being equal, just given the timing of those two months and the dividend payments both falling into H2.

44:32 And then I guess in terms of talking about specific results, any operator is... is exposed to the results of the World Cup or any other major sporting event. Without getting into too many specifics, they have a lot of exposure to how the Mexican national team does. I think Mexico had a good run through the games and mostly fell in the month of June. And then obviously were eliminated, which happened to fall into July. So you could probably read into that that you know July was a stronger month than June but there's a lot of variables at play but again I wouldn't focus too much on that the focus is on the customer acquisition and that driving growth for them in the rest of this year and into next year.

45:15 So in short even despite the World Cup you'd expect good progress next year as well?

45:20 Yes it is but you know by all accounts the World Cup was very successful so it's I think we're very excited about that business both the rest of this year and next year and you know there's a lot more growth left for them and the The World Cup only should only enhance that.

45:34 On PMR, Pass Motor Racing, I will say that this model exists in retail in certain states across the U.S., I would say, however, that we have been investing into this product for more than a year. We worked below the radar without anyone knowing, working closely together with the hardware digital to turn it into reality online for the first time, the way we have done that together with them. We launched the first few months, obviously, early days. It's only since the beginning of the year or just Before the end of last year. So it's early days. Obviously, it operates successfully, right? It delivers very strong results for both Hard Rock Digital as well as Playtech.

46:19 and we started looking into different other states. We started looking at different other countries. Obviously, very interesting. A lot of regulators and operators alike in different territories find it very, very interesting, both for the US and elsewhere. The interesting thing, and I mentioned it just now, that more than one regulator in the US already approached us and basically asked us about the PMR and said that they are looking to innovate in their own respective states. and wanted to hear more about it. So obviously it captures the attention of operators, it captures the attention of regulators and I would say that it's not only restricted to the US. Obviously where gaming is not allowed and only sports is allowed, this is a new format alongside sports betting that can be very compelling for end-user customers, operators, regulators, tax collectors or governments alike.

47:16 But it's early days. Can't refer to specific opportunities as of yet. Thanks, Rich. Should we come to Citi?

47:29 Perfect. Thanks very much. This is Lizzie Moore from Citi. I'm just asking a couple of questions on behalf of Jamie Bass, if that's okay. So firstly, I was just wondering if you could possibly provide some colour around how the success of the agreement in Brazil would impact your medium-term guidance. And then the second question, was just around, we're seeing a large amount of consolidation among operators. So just wondering how you expect that to impact your business as a supplier. Thank you.

48:00 Maybe I'll take the first one on Brazil and guidance. I think when we set the medium term guidance, as I said earlier, we set it in about 18 months ago at the full year results in March, 2025. At that point, you know, we sort of knew of the opportunity, but it wasn't specifically factored into the guidance necessarily. But I think when we set the guidance, we saw, you know, as I said earlier, there were ambitious targets and there were not necessarily specific contributors in terms of how you're going to get there other than looking at the overall opportunities across the group. As we're now, let's say, approaching the targets and pushing hard to meet Thank you very much. you know, how the business is currently doing and frankly enhance probably where the current market expectations are for the group in the years ahead.

49:17 And the second question on consolidation in the industry.

49:21 Yes, absolutely. So we have gone through a consolidation process or a consolidation period for a long time now, right? It started in the UK, you had Pedipower merging with Betfair, then merging with with others, and FanDuel, then they bought FanDuel, and then you had Entain, obviously, which was Gladbrooks and Coral coming together. So we are quite experienced with that. We saw also consolidation in other countries. It's really hard to say from the outset how it evolves in the short term, because sometimes obviously, and it depends on the arrangements that we have with the respective parties that consolidate. In some cases, it's a real opportunity for us, like in the case of ECOG. When 888 and William Hill came together, we have been a strategic supplier to William Hill. We hardly had any business with 888, and when you look together, and when you look now, not even now, soon after they consolidated, there was an opportunity for us to grow revenues Even in the short immediate term, and obviously over the medium longer term. So it really depends on the parties that consolidate.

50:32 I will say one thing that is extremely important and I think is the answer to this question. If you look back at all of our accounts, many of which have gone through consolidation process, they are by far bigger to them compared to what they were before when you combine the contribution of both parties before they consolidated. So on a medium, On a medium-long-term basis, I would say it's a fantastic opportunity for us. We have a bigger group to work with. They like what we do. They like the sophistication of the products of Playtech, the depth of the solutions of Playtech, which serves consolidated businesses.

51:19 And also, they have by far more firepower as a combined group to invest in, to market in, and expand internationally. And there, again, Playtech exists. participates in the expansion plan but also enjoys the fact that the consolidated group usually have more firepower to invest into marketing in different territories worldwide. Thanks, Livvy. We'll come back to Ira. I find it slightly unsettling, Rohan. You can recognize the back of my head. We've talked about beating targets today. but can we focus on SAS or what you call the SAS product has obviously done tremendously well as well and really related to the last question about consolidation, how penetrated, how much do you think Playtech has penetrated the market for SAS? Do you have all of the customers in all the world and now your opportunity is just to add more product into those customers?

52:25 What's the opportunity?

52:26 In recent years we were very focused on investing Thank you very much. is moving forward and we make good progress there, we see a real opportunity to also extend horizontally within the operator.

53:11 What we saw in our experience shows that once you set up the SaaS platform as the infrastructure and you start providing games, they want more games, they suddenly come to you and basically say we want live, we want poker, and in some cases even certain capabilities of the platform. So I will say that I don't believe that it is, I truly believe that there is still significant opportunity there, both to establish ourselves with additional brands, but alongside that, and this is something we intend to do in the remainder of the year and in 2027 and onwards, is also to work together with the SaaS platform partners to extend into different products or enhance the presence of Playtech within the sites of the operators.

54:01 So it's the existing game getting more exposure compared to other suppliers. It's additional products. It's extending together with them to additional brands for the same group, additional countries, and working together with them to expose the Playtech product as much as possible. Like I said, alongside additional brands that currently do not exist with it or that currently are not, that we don't have any presence with. Thank you. That's helpful. Can I ask a similar question about live? If US live was up 25%, what was the rest of regulated live? And you talked about improving margins. So it doesn't feel like as much top line growth as there should have been given what's happening in the market. So you're intentionally consolidating, you're changing the business model. What does the future look like for live?

54:56 Yeah, I can cover that. More may want to add. I think I mean, one thing to bear in mind, we did change the live management team roughly 12 months ago, I think it was. So I think normally in every other change in management, there's some changes. So that's why there's been some optimization and efficiency measures in that business. But to be clear, nothing has changed. We see live as a huge growth area. So there's no change in approach other than a short-term sort of rebalancing with the new management team and how they want to approach certain things. but you know the focus is the same it's a growth business it's a focus on unregulated markets and regulated market growth the US live business grew faster than the rest of the business but that that's as you'd expect because it's starting from a quite quite a small base I think we're pleased but there's a lot of opportunity for more growth than the rest of the business so we're not necessarily satisfied with where it is and I think you know that business needs to continue being a driver for for Placetac growing forward and we certainly It will require investment, as I said in the presentation, but it is a business we expect to be a material contributor to our growth going forward.

56:06 And last one, following up on Rich's question about Caliente, you talked about it in terms of cash flow around the World Cup. Could you just talk about what was happening at the revenue line? Is Playtech still providing a sports platform to Caliente? So are you benefiting in the revenue line from sports? and are you still accounting for the payment that was part of the deal to permit the restructuring of the deal? So were you kind of benefiting twice from the sports side?

56:34 Yeah, I mean, well, we're benefiting from, yes, we are their sports provider, so yes, that remains unchanged. I think you're talking to the about the 140 million dollar payment so yes there still is a component of that that we're going to receive that over many years so there was a component of that in our spread over eight years on the TNL so there's an eighth of that effective well half of an eighth if you know what I mean in that in the numbers so we do benefit from that and then we also benefit as a shareholder of the business obviously. Thanks, Ivor. Any more questions from the room? Roberta?

57:17 Yes, just one, first of all. On the potential changes to gaming machines taxes in the UK, do you have any opinions or have you calculated what it will mean for you?

57:33 I think I'll have more talk on maybe more broadly in terms of the financial impact. It's a very small business for us, so I think close to immaterial.

57:42 Yes, and originally we had a fixed fee per machine per day for some of the arrangements because we were a subcontractor of another company. So obviously the revenue share component is almost non-existent. So the impact on Playtech will be very, very limited. Very minimal. Super. Thanks, Roberto. I think we've got time for probably one from the conference call if there are any. Thank you. Our first question is from Ed Young with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

58:22 Thank you, and so two questions if I can. First of all, exceptionals were, I guess, nearly half of adjusted EBITDA on H1, but some of those related to I-Tech, which presumably won't last forever. I think you said there's something else in H1 next year, Chris, but can you give us some guidance about what we should expect in H2 and into next year for your Thank you very much. Unregulated markets like China that have no realistic prospects of liberalization, or do you think they might liberalize or do you just sort of expect to continue to essentially run those businesses with cash and you're comfortable having those sort of permanent unregulated bits within the business?

59:30 Thanks.

59:33 Yeah, I'll cover the first one on exceptionals and leave the second for more. On exceptionals, I mean, yes, you're absolutely right. There's a fairly high amount of exceptionals. In this period in particular, I think the majority of those relate to the legacy things, so to speak, from the SNIPAC sales. So I think it's the most reflective thing to do to give a performance. The indication of the underlying performance of the business is to remove those. Most of those specifically related to SNIPAC are gone, as I said, but there is a remaining amount that will be in the first half of 2027. I think more broadly... The exceptionals number will go down in H2 versus the first half, and it will go down in 2027 compared to 2026.

1:00:24 and just more broadly as a topic I mean I understand the question I would love there to not be any exceptional so it's a balance of reducing sort of the items you adjust for but also I think we have a duty to give the most accurate representation of the underlying performance of the business so it's trying to balance those things out but it's a good question and I'll leave it to Moran.

1:00:49 On regulated versus unregulated, I want to remind everyone, I think that this is a key and very, very important fact, which is the vast majority of platex regulated income is in regulated markets, and it's more than 85%. And we are on a journey, and the industry is on a journey. It started back in 2005, 2006, when the vast majority of businesses were operating in unregulated markets, simply because regulation did not exist. Since 2008, when Italy first introduced regulations for the first time, we have seen a domino effect that started across Europe, then obviously extended into the Americas, first in Latin America, then North America, and obviously in recent years also the U.S., The same goes with Southeast Asia, certain territories either considered or already regulated, like the Philippines. So obviously this is a natural development of our industry.

1:01:46 We are not against, as principle, against unregulated territories. Right? We are against people operating in illegal markets, people operating in sanctioned countries, people supporting unlicensed operations in regulated markets. This is not the model of PLATEC. PLATEC will not be involved. Our unregulated territories consist of countries some of which were mentioned by Ed, some of which are recent countries that went through regulations, like Brazil. People treated Brazil as tax store regulated and actually accounted for Brazil as regulated even before regulations came into effect. And we continued operating because we had clear guidance from the government. By the way, the same goes with the Netherlands before it was regulated.

1:02:31 I remember the regulator even publishing on the regulator's site guidelines to operate in the Netherlands before it's regulated without falling foul with the government, which meant basically not to have customer support in Dutch, not to have it on the ground, but there was clear guidance. So, obviously, unregulated is not illegal. Illegal is illegal. Sanction is sanction. Supporting unlicensed should not happen. but unregulated markets that are about to become regulated is something that Playtech will likely consider continue doing and as you would expect from a companies like Playtech. We continually assess the regulatory and legal environment across all markets and we'll continue to support those that we believe over time will become regulated or where we can operate and feel comfortable given the risk assessment by the board that we do on a continuous basis where we feel comfortable operating.

1:03:39 But you should expect from Playtech to grow its regulated income simply because more markets become regulated. Our investments go into regulated markets, so the growth in regulated markets for us will grow faster than unregulated markets. And yes, over time, we will likely consider pulling out of certain markets. So the trend is part of an overall industry trend. I think Playtech has done very, very well compared to other companies. If you look at other companies and their performance and the relative size of Playtech, and how it evolved over the years, I think Playtech has done a very good job. It's more than 85%, and we will continue to grow it in the coming future, and you should expect us to grow our, or to see a lot of growth in regulated markets that eventually will result in our regulated part of our business becoming bigger and bigger over time.

1:04:37 Thanks, Paul. I'll take that as a maybe. Thanks very much. Thanks, Ed. I think we're a few minutes over time. So thank you, everyone, for joining us for the interim results. With that, we'll close the call and we'll see you in the four years. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.