Motorsport Games Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 11, 2023

There are 5 speakers on the call.

Operator

You for standing by, and welcome to Motorsport Games Inc. 1st Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded.

Operator

I would like to turn the conference over to Ken Godskin from Motorsport Games. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, and welcome to Motorsport Games' 1st Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. On today's call is Motorsport Games' Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Hood and Chief Financial Officer, Jason Potter. By now, everyone should have access to the company's Q1 MotorSport Games website at www.motorsportgames.com. During the course of this call, management may make forward looking Statements within the meaning of the U. S.

Speaker 1

Federal securities laws. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward looking statements. Except as required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to update any forward looking statements made on this call or to update or alter It's forward looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Please refer to today's press release and the company's filings with the SEC, including its most recent quarterly report on Form 10Q For the quarter ended March 31, 2023, for a detailed discussion of certain of the risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward looking statements made today. In today's conference call, we will refer to certain non GAAP financial measures such as adjusted EBITDA as we discuss the Q1 2023 financial results.

Speaker 1

You will find a reconciliation of these non GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures as well as other related And now, I'd like to turn the call over to Stephen Hood, Chief Executive Officer of Motorsport Games. Steven?

Speaker 2

Thank you, everyone, for joining the call today. I'd first like to tackle head on A question some of you are like to have around my return to the business some 14 months after my departure. Having put a lot of energy into the formation of I've always believed in the opportunity. When I was approached about our potential return and my availability, I reviewed the opportunity and came to the realization that things could be improved and success attained. With a heavy focus on delivery of quality products, service and entertainment features, I believe we can point the company in the right direction.

Speaker 2

In only a few weeks since my return, it has been apparent the entire team across the Motorsport Games business are energized about what we can deliver if We are united and decisive. I am firmly my belief about what can be achieved and hope to be a catalyst for the change of fortunes for the Muscular Games business. My background is in game development. I understand the requirements, infrastructure and innovation necessary to compete in this space, But I also understand that we first need to deliver products to market. This opening period is one of rapid review, reorganization and tactical progress.

Speaker 2

My review of the business increased markedly on April 19, When I assume the role of Chief Executive Officer, this position provides me with the authority necessary To leave no stone unturned when refactoring the business short, medium and long term effectiveness. As a result And with full support of my leadership team, we have made the decision to close 2 micro studios in Orlando, Florida and Dimitry, Georgia. This results in a minor headcount reduction, but more importantly, it allows us to architect and manage our development resources in a more effective manner. Viewer physical studios, at least while we refactor in Zinnova initial releases, will cut out the distractions apparent during our rapid multi site growth period, which was somewhat forced upon our business during the COVID pandemic. Now that we're out of this period, we should double down on known talent locations, improved visibility of development and generate a great sense of team across the organization.

Speaker 2

Focus extends across all our activities, And as such, I am instilling a culture of togetherness and optimism from the top down. I've seen from afar how our team has been hurt by the inevitable Consumer reaction to products like mask our ignition, a title that does not reveal the capability of those who may lead us on this journey. Indeed, I believe we are going to turn a corner and with the right products, win over those who understandably questioned our delivery. We have been deploying resources towards well regarded legacy platforms such as the NASCAR Heat franchise, Progressively bringing it closer to season currency. In the coming days, we'll update the product for the 2022 season, We are also working on a review of plans to maintain further support for existing franchise titles, revolve around our plans of long tail franchise games like British Touring Car Championship, IndyCar, innovative opportunities with the Le Mans, which includes the World Endurance Championship and service amplifiers like our evolving competition system, which we intend to eventually become an important Our strategy in the future.

Speaker 2

Tunnels that are the furthest into development but have yet to be showcased by the company. Our planned IndyCar title allows us to move into single seater racing, an area I know very well and is in development by our Australia Development Studio. This team is together after the acquisition of Kartkraft in 2021. It is especially rewarding to see how this long term play is beginning to come to fruition Around the title, I have personally hoped to see the light of day since I got into playing video games way back in the day. With the right design, support and marketing, we believe Indicar could become the home of single seat gaming.

Speaker 2

I believe our partners at EV Car will come away impressed at our next progress review. Great games are not delivered overnight And there is still much to do on the road to our upcoming releases, but we are taking prior lessons into account for the good of our future product strategy. Of equal importance is the longer term opportunity around development of our game platform designed to improve upon the capability and stability of our current leasing focused efforts. We believe this will provide us with technology in which we can push on developing additional titles. We must move on from the technology and its delivery of entertainment.

Speaker 2

Our planned Le Mans title allows us to utilize the very best opponents of our top tier R Factor II simulation title and aligning to an opportunity we believe exists in the racing genre. Think of any popular game these days and you will invariably find the teams of friends are working together to achieve objectives. The racing genre has, for decades, promoted a sense of ultra competitiveness that I feel prevents rapid growth of the segment. Le Mans and indeed the World Endurance Championship revolves around teamwork. It is therefore fitting that our long planned move into team rating Begins with the release of our competition system into the rFactor II simulation style game, which is seeing a useful growth period, thanks to 3rd party community platform support

Speaker 3

as well

Speaker 2

as our formal quarterly content release strategy. From there, we will gather valuable consumer feedback ahead of a wider release Alongside the upcoming Lemong game, which in turn should provide us with valuable insight into the concept of team play within the recent genre. Beyond our projects with NASCAR, the development of Indicar, Le Mans and our aforementioned Tissue Systems will provide a valuable step forward for our company. We must think differently and consider how the racing game of tomorrow can expect to enjoy their hobby. Our customer is core audience and we intend to win them back and impress.

Speaker 2

We will do that by providing wonderful experiences that do not require us to follow any slipstream of our various competitors, but instead produce an overall entertainment ecosystem that will benefit their ability to access and enjoy more of what we know makes this genre so special. In some areas, I can say that we are further ahead than I might have imagined prior to my return. I am bringing about greater operational focus and decisiveness Ensure that these projects are given the oxygen they require to be successful. The next 12 to 18 months will be a defining period for the company In order to deliver on these opportunities tomorrow, we will need to make difficult decisions today. At this time, I'd like to hand it over to Jason Potter, Merciful Gaines' Chief Financial Officer, to go over our Q1 2023 financial results.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Stephen, and good evening, everyone. As in previous earnings calls, I won't be offering any forward looking guidance today. Instead, I will focus on providing an update on our financial results and highlights from the Q1 2023. Unless stated otherwise, All results discussed relate to Q1 'twenty three and the comparative period of Q1 'twenty two. Our Q1 'twenty three revenues were $1,700,000 A reduction of $1,600,000 or 48 percent when compared to the same period in the prior year.

Speaker 4

Our gaming segment accounted for $1,500,000 of the decrease, Primarily due to less favorable pricing and volume of digital sales in our existing product portfolio and only 1 major console release in 2022 compared to 2 in 2021, which has negatively impacted our ongoing physical retail sales. Our Esports segment revenues were consistent Year over year reporting $300,000 in Q1 'twenty three compared to $400,000 in Q1 'twenty two. Net loss for Q1 'twenty three was $5,300,000 compared to $16,000,000 in Q1 'twenty two, an improvement of $10,700,000 We We benefited from no impairment losses in the current quarter, whereas we recorded $9,300,000 in impairment losses in Q1 'twenty two. The remaining reduction in net loss of $1,400,000 was primarily driven by reduced external marketing spend and lower payroll costs as a result of the actions taken under our previously announced 2022 restructuring program. Under the 2022 restructuring program, We have lowered our overhead costs by approximately $3,900,000 on an annualized basis as of the end of Q1 2023.

Speaker 4

These savings were driven by changes in global headcount and reducing staff and overhead expenditures and are the result of a more discipline in our spending and efforts to improve our internal processes. Speaking of internal processes, we have previously disclosed material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and our SEC filings, including our most recently filed Form 10 ks for the year ended December 31, 2022. We have taken a number of actions to remediate these deficiencies, Now pleased to conclude, 2 of the 3 previously identified material weaknesses have been remediated as of March 31, 2023. We will continue to take the necessary steps to remediate the remaining material weakness, which we will consider remediated only when applicable controls are in place, Operate effectively for a sufficient period of time and we conclude through testing these controls operated as intended. Returning to our fiscal results for Q1 'twenty three, we are reporting an adjusted EBITDA loss of $4,300,000 compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of 5,600,000 for the same period in the prior year.

Speaker 4

The improvements in adjusted EBITDA loss are the same as those discussed in respect to the change in net loss for the period and comparative quarter. Consequently, EPS for Q1 'twenty three was negative $2.33 compared with a negative $12.97 for Q1 'twenty two. Liquidity continues to be a key focus. As of March 31, 2023, we had a cash and cash equivalents of 5,800,000 An increase of $4,800,000 when compared to December 31, 2022, which was primarily driven by 3 registered direct offerings completed in February 2023. Net cash used in operations during Q1 'twenty three was approximately $5,700,000 representing a net cash burn of $1,900,000 a month, An increase of $300,000 when compared to the average monthly cash burn of $1,600,000 for the year ended December 31, 2022.

Speaker 4

As of April 30, 2023, our cash and cash equipment position was reduced by $900,000 to 4,900,000 which we believe is insufficient to fund our operations for the remainder of 2023. We will need to supplement our available liquidity with additional debt Andor Equity Financing as well as ongoing cost control initiatives. Thank you all for your time. And now I will turn the call back to Stephen for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

In closing, I would like to thank our shareholders for their support and encouragement as I assume leadership of the company. There are challenges, but given time and resolution to our liquidity situation, I believe that we can address all of them. We can deliver on the promise I believe in Thank you for joining us today. And now let's go to questions. Operator?

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question comes from Jason Tilton at Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Great. Thanks for taking the question and congrats Steven on taking over as CEO. I think one thing I'm curious about, maybe you could just spend a minute talking about some of the ways that you have either already Or that you can improve monetization of the existing game portfolio while the new other new titles that you referenced in the prepared remarks

Speaker 2

So monetization for me is one of the key points of review of the business. So one of the things I'm very keen to do Please ensure that the component parts that we have across the organization, certainly the parts that touch the core audience, the player It is appropriately stitched together. And by that, I mean, we have properties like TractionGG, which is a great kind of media hub right now, which reports on Gaming news becomes the go to site for a lot of breaking news right now actually. We have this upcoming competition system That will be rebranded at some point when it goes through its formal release. We have the gaming license that we have with NASCAR, British Troy and Karl LeMond, which includes World Endurance Championship, IndiTAR.

Speaker 2

What I'm actually looking at is instead of just individually monetizing components of Those offerings, traditionally games would have DLC that you could purchase in order to add cars or tracks or other unique elements In terms of content offering, how do we actually stitch these things together so that together they are able to monetize the overall entertainment experience? And it's a particular area of focus for me. And it's a question that I've been injecting back into the company since returning. And I think As I've come back somewhat fresh and have a different perspective on how we move forward, I've been very encouraged by the reception of the teams Understand that we need to work together across the departments and offerings in order to monetize the overall effectiveness of that entertainment offering Instead of just the traditional game approach of pumping DLC into products, I think there's a better way of working on this. And I think over the next few weeks, I suspect we'll have some very interesting answers to that.

Speaker 2

The component pieces are there. And what I'm doing is energizing the team in order to make it a reality.

Speaker 3

Great. That's really helpful. In terms of the way the cash firm was described, the sort of run rate of maybe 1,900,000 per month in the Q1 and then sort of the implied cash burn in April was about half of that. I'm just curious, was there anything one time in terms of what happened in April? Or has the cash burn declined?

Speaker 3

And sort of Following up on that, is there anything you can share in terms of any updates on when you expect to raise additional capital? Thank you.

Speaker 4

Hey, Jason. It's Jason here. Thanks for the question. I think what we saw in Q1 is we did see a bit of catch up In terms of bringing down some of the AP position that we'd accumulated, some of the accrued positions that we'd accumulated as We kind of managed our working capital position very closely towards the back end of Q4 and following the RDOs in February. We were able to Kind of catch up on some of those payments that we've been managing.

Speaker 4

And so that's why we see a bit of a higher burn in the 1st 3 months the year and then we see that drop off in April where we've kind of caught up with that position and we start to see some of the benefits The 2022 restructuring program come into play where we produce some of our overhead at this point around $3,900,000 on an annualized basis I'm kind of kicking in. So I think we'll continue to see some of that benefit on a go forward. Obviously, we'll continue to see Some lumpiness when we have royalty commitments and those things kicking in, but we should hopefully start to see a little bit of a reduction in the overall cash burn in future periods. In terms of financing efforts, look, we continue to explore both equity and debt financing. Right now, we don't have anything kind of incremental to announce Beyond the ATM facility that we put in place at the end of Q1 and the existing FQ line of credit that we got in place at the end of Q4.

Speaker 4

But otherwise, we do continue to explore other options to try and solve that kind of longer term liquidity issue.

Speaker 3

Great. That's very helpful. And just one last one for me. Anything that you can share about any planned changes to sort of the timeline For game launches, that was sort of scheduled for mid next year in terms of IndyCar maybe being first. Any changes to that timeline and anything we can share on that front?

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Speaker 2

I'll take this one, Tristan. No plan changes at present. I think the important thing based on the Currently publicly stated release windows for the products is my task right now is to shore up those projects and ensure that they are given the opportunity to And there's probably a shift in focus with my arrival simply because of my background. I know Gates very well. It's what I've done for 25 years now.

Speaker 2

I'm very passionate about product development, but I also appreciate the challenges associated with that. And It's clear at Motorsport Games, we've never tried to go toe to toe with some of the giants in the space in terms of development headcount, But I think we are that much more nimble as a result. And as long as we are bold and decisive on our decision making, and I think we can become Far more efficient. I don't necessarily mean in terms of cash saving and operational efficiency. I mean the decision making And the progress that we can make in comparison to some of the giants out in the industry, I think it's about Utilizing the time that we have available to meet our deadlines and deliver the best possible product and That requires sometimes myself and others within the leadership team getting into the weeds of development in order to ensure that all of the component pieces of the Development project, the infrastructure around them are working in harmony, ensuring the testing department is working hand in hand with development, ensuring that The PR and the marketing machine is well versed in how to showcase to the best of their ability the upcoming products.

Speaker 2

I don't think that's always been in the ideal position and there are efficiencies that we can make there. This is where I'm spending a lot of my time. So in answer to your question, Not intending to change the release windows of the projects, but I am spending a lot of time ensuring that we use that available time wisely. The clock is always ticking in development and adds to the excitement, but we're going great guns to deliver these things.

Speaker 3

Great. That's very helpful. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Michael Kupinski at Noble Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Thank you and good evening. Most of my questions have been answered, but just a couple. With the drop off in the cash burn in the second quarter that you alluded to, Was that already reflective of the closing of some of those micro offices you mentioned? And how material were those savings from that? And then if you could just for me, you may have said this, but I was wondering if you could just clarify for me where have you consolidated The development of the games for the company, what can you just kind of go run through the offices for me and what they are responsible for?

Speaker 4

Yes. Thank you, Michael. This is Jason. I'll pick up the cash burn portion of it, and then I think I'll hand over to Steven in regards to So, in terms of the closing of the minecrafts, they really were very small operations for us. So it's not we're not expecting it to have a very significant impact on the cash burn and certainly in the near term where you have Kind of severance costs and things like that associated with closing those offices.

Speaker 4

There will be a slight pickup from that, but I wouldn't expect that they will have a material

Speaker 2

Hi, Michael. It's Steven here. Just quickly on the studios and the locations, I think they're trying to center them around, I call it, known talent locations. There's an incredibly strong talent pool in Europe that we're able to tap into, thanks to Our key office in the U. K.

Speaker 2

Being based in Silverstone by the racetrack, certainly a lot of talent in the U. K, a lot of experienced developers here. And with our acquisition of Studio 3,297 that we made some time ago, that hasn't given us a fantastic network to recruit across Europe. And those European time zones, at least they're conducive to working in harmony in a particular region, in a particular time, on a particular project. So running out of our U.

Speaker 2

K. Operation is a lot of European talent. And second to that, Centered around the IndyCar title in particular is our Australia operation, which is centered in Melbourne in Australia. That also has a lot of talent there, particularly because we acquired the remnants of the Black Delta The team, the operation that produced cart craft, and it's been wonderful to see that operation grow. And certainly, since my return, I've been impressed with the rate of growth in talent that's available there.

Speaker 2

And we have this concept of just trying to center Development operations, so that it's much easier to monitor progress of development, ensure that we get the right caliber of individuals attached to those known locations. That is perhaps a rather large departure from how we started at the beginning of the Muscular Games journey And one that I think will pay dividends in the long run. So really it's across Europe right now and Australia.

Speaker 3

Completely makes sense. Since there were a lot of moving parts in the quarter, I was wondering, does the company still have a line of credit with motor Networks that it could tap into are I know that there was a debt for equity swap there, but is that line still open?

Speaker 4

Hi, Michael. Yes, I mean, the line is still there, so it hasn't been terminated. But as we disclosed in the Form 10 Q, we We have substantial doubt about whether we'll actually receive funds under that facility. So we're not considering That in our kind of liquidity position. And that's why when I talk about cash and cash equivalents and liquidity, I'm focusing purely on the cash that we have on hand.

Speaker 3

Got you. Okay. That's all I have. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. That does conclude our question and answer session. I would like to turn the call back for closing remarks. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you. I would just like to thank everybody on the call today. I am particularly pleased and proud to be back at Motorsport Games. I feel incredibly energized. We're up to the challenge, and I think we're able to do great things together.

Speaker 2

And I look forward to more of these conversations and indeed, one to one conversations with you at various stages over the coming months and hopefully years. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our conference for today.

Speaker 2

Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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