Everi Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 8, 2024

There are 11 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Everi Holdings 20 24 First Quarter and Year End Earnings Conference Call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen only mode. Following the prepared remarks, the call will open for a question and answer session. As a reminder, this call is being recorded.

Operator

Now let me turn the call over to Jennifer Hiltz, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator. Let me begin with a reminder that our Safe Harbor disclaimer, which covers today's call and webcast, contains forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed on today's call. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those contained in our earnings release today and in our SEC filings, which are posted in the Investors section of our corporate website ategry.com. Because of the potential risks, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. We do not intend and assume no obligation to update any forward looking statements, which are made only as of today, May 8, 2024.

Speaker 1

We will refer to certain non GAAP financial measures such as adjusted EBITDA, free cash flow and net cash position. A description of each of these non GAAP measures and a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measure can be found in our earnings release and related 8 ks today, as well as in the Investors section of our website. This call is being webcast and recorded. A link to the webcast and a replay of today's call can be found in the Investors section of our website. On our call today are Randy Taylor, Chief Executive Officer Mark Labbei, Chief Financial Officer Kate Lowenhauer Fisher, General Counsel Dean Ehrlich, GAIN's Business Leader and Darren Simmons, FinTech's Business Leader.

Speaker 1

Now I will turn the call over to Randy.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Jennifer. Good morning and thank you all for joining us today. First, I would like to provide a few more details where possible regarding our plan to merge EVRI with IGT's Global Gaming and Play Digital businesses, which was announced on February 29 this year. While we continue to make progress on our proposed merger, we have no specific update regarding antitrust or regulatory matters at this time. As we have messaged in the past, we still anticipate closing the merger in late 2024 or early 2025.

Speaker 2

We are extremely excited about the opportunity to bring together the best of both of our businesses. While every has experienced tremendous success and growth over the past few years, we recognize the ability to accelerate our revenue growth by combining our complementary products and more rapidly enter new jurisdictions. Over the past several years, we significantly increased our investment in research and development and expanded the number of studios to diversify and increase game content. We have also been successful in expanding our product lines by leveraging our game content into new channels. Combining these businesses will provide greater resources and give us more opportunities for success over a product lifecycle.

Speaker 2

Additionally, we believe IDT's established global distribution network in both land based and digital will enable every content to enter new global jurisdictions more quickly with less risks. We believe this combination with our game segment will provide more stable long term growth opportunities for the combined business. On the Fintech side, we will be able to combine our Fintech with IGT's gaming systems business. Upon closing, we will be able to work more closely with IDT's system to provide products and services that reduce friction for casino operators and their customers. And as they do today, IDT's casino management systems will continue to interface with FinTech products from multiple providers.

Speaker 2

We will also continue to work with all gaming system providers to improve the expansion of cashless solutions to our casino customers by providing a positive seamless transaction for their patrons. Additionally, combined, we believe we will be able to offer a complete suite of products from games to systems, financial access, Red Tech and loyalty. The structure of the merger provides for shared equity ownership with modest pro form a net leverage at closing of between 3.2x to 3.4x and the ability to generate strong free cash flow. We believe this sets the combined company up well for the future. The estimated $75,000,000 in cash synergies an estimated $10,000,000 in capital savings are driven by leveraging efficiencies that can be gained primarily through procurement productivity, streamlining the assembly processes and real estate optimization.

Speaker 2

They are not based on rationalizing existing product lines in the games business, which is where we believe previous supplier mergers have failed to deliver planned synergies. Additionally, revenue growth opportunities will come from leveraging global networks and a combined product offering. As part of the merger agreement, there's also an opportunity for a special dividend to be paid to every shareholders as of a record date prior to the close of the transaction. This dividend is essentially the free cash flow generated from the signing of the transaction, less our merger related expenses and other adjustments for the agreement. The final amount of this dividend will be impacted by the time it takes to close and the transaction related expenses we incur.

Speaker 2

Therefore, it is difficult to determine the amount of the special dividend, if any, at this point in the process. Turning to the business performance in the Q1, while the transition to our new family cabinet and game content has been slower and more challenging than expected, we are starting to see the green shoots appear. In the last 4 months of 2023, we had 34 new games approved and an additional 18 have been approved year to date. We are in the early stages of installing this new content, but several of the new titles are starting to be recognized in industry surveys. In the April Eilers report, the for sale Dynasty Soul ranked number 3 in top indexing cabinets in the portrait slant category and the two versions of dynamite pop on this cabinet both reached the top 20 indexing games in the core low denomination video reel category.

Speaker 2

Our player classic signature cabinet that was introduced in 2022 has performed well and this performance is expected to continue with the recent introduction of several new game themes that have yet to be captured by Eiler's survey results. The launch of the lower profile Dynasty View cabinet last spring was initially hampered by limited content at launch. There are currently 15 titles that have been approved and we expect to have introduced all of these titles into our installed base by the end of Q2. We expect to see performance improvements on the views into these new titles, which should positively impact both for sale and lease units. The Premium Dynasty Soul Sync was launched late in the Q1 with the mask and our newest theme Smokin' Hot Stuff Link has just been approved.

Speaker 2

We expect installation of this new theme to begin this month. Additionally, 4 new families of titles are scheduled to be released for this cabinet by year end. The Dynasty Dynamic premium cabinet was launched at the end of the Q3 with Hot Stuff Spin Frenzy and our newest theme based on our proven proprietary brand, The Vault is being rolled out now. There are also 2 more families, Cash Machine Inferno and Zolpar Master of Mysteries planned for later this year. Finally, the Player Classic Reserve was launched at the end of last year's Q3 with great success.

Speaker 2

This premium cabinet launched with Jackpot Wheel Games, Casper and Hot Stuff in the Class 3 WAP category. This quarter, we plan to launch the first content fully developed by our Australian studio. The first two themes to be deployed are Thunder and Lightning and Mighty King. We believe these investments in new cabinets and new will drive improvements in the second half of the year. Although these improvements are taking longer than anticipated, we remain confident in our overall strategy.

Speaker 2

In terms of new product segments, we are in the final stages of the approval process necessary to enter Illinois with BLTs. This has been a multiyear investment that opens a 50,000 unit opportunity to us and we expect to have sold our first units in the second half of twenty twenty four. Meanwhile, our core FinTech cash access services business continues to be a steady grower as we again process more transactions and delivered more dollars to our customers' operations during the quarter than we have in any previous quarter. Consistent with many of the operators' reports, our financial access services were negatively impacted by some bad weather in January, but we saw improvement in February and as we exited the quarter, we have returned to lowtomidsingledigitsame store growth. April has been a little stronger and we expect this trend to continue over the remainder of the year.

Speaker 2

While we experienced some challenges in the Q1, I believe the building blocks for our return to growth are present. I remain excited about the opportunities ahead and expect our growth initiatives to show improvement primarily in the second half of 2024. I want to end my remarks by acknowledging the strong team we have built here at Ebury. It is based on a culture of innovation and focused on the needs of our customers and the experiences of their patrons. I want to thank all our employees for their dedication and for making Every a top workplace as once again recognized by the Top Workplaces USA for the 3rd year in a row.

Speaker 2

Now let me turn the call over to Mark. Thanks, Randy. Let me begin by adding a little more color on our Q1 and our outlook for the remainder of the year. During the Q1, as we expected, our games business continued to experience headwinds as we are transitioning to the new family of cabinets and introducing new content to support these cabinets. Revenue for both gaming operations and gaming equipment and systems declined year over year and was relatively flat with the Q4.

Speaker 2

We experienced declines in both our installed base and our quarterly unit sales. While our installed base declined by 5 95 units from year end, approximately half of this decline was a result of strategic decisions to not use capital to replace cabinets in lower performing locations where recovery of the capital would not have met our internal return hurdles. The remainder of the decline is attributable to the additional churn in our older cabinets. To address this, we now have 3 new cabinets with a deep pipeline of themes rolling out. The Player to Hunt's Secret and Dynasty Dynamic, which were rolled out late in Q3 are performing to our expectations.

Speaker 2

As of March 31, we have installed a combined total of 6 61 units in over 75 locations. The Dynasty SoulSync, our newest premium video cabinet was just launched in the Q1 and is in the early stages of being placed on casino floors. Near term, new cabinet installations will mostly replace existing cabinets, but as these cabinets and gains gain traction, we expect to add incremental placements. Daily win per unit of $34.51 was down slightly from the 4th quarter, but we expect daily win per unit to improve as we roll out new cabinets and new content. In the Q1, recurring revenues of $5,600,000 from Video King operations and increased revenue from our digital segment offset about half the decline in revenues from the installed base.

Speaker 2

1st quarter gaming equipment and system sales were essentially flat with the 4th quarter. Gaming unit sales were below our expectations for the quarter as we sold 10 21 units at an average selling price of 200,827. With limited initial content available, the early performance of the Dynasty View has not been as strong as we anticipated. However, with additional themes being rolled out, now we expect performance of the cabinet to improve. We introduced the Dynasty sold in the Q4 and are still in the early stages of the rollout.

Speaker 2

Its acceptance is building momentum with our customers and from launch through the end of Q1, we have sold 525 units. As Randy mentioned, Dynamite Pop! On the Dynasty Soul is off to a strong start and is recognized in the April Eilers Games Report as a top performing new game. Moving on to Fintech, revenue declined 1% year over year as revenue growth in Financial Access Services and Software and Other was offset by declines in hardware sales. Financial Access Services revenues grew 2.1% from the prior year Q1 as we processed a record $39,000,000 transactions and delivered a record $12,400,000,000 of funding to customers' operations.

Speaker 2

While we did see some weakness in Financial Access in January due to weather issues, which is consistent with what operators have been disclosing, The trends improved as we exited the quarter and has helped steady thus far into the Q2. Software and other revenues grew from increased kiosk maintenance revenue, compliance revenue and central credit and other revenue,

Speaker 3

but was partially offset by

Speaker 2

a decline in new software sales from loyalty. The decline in loyalty revenue was a timing issue related to our customers' readiness to accept inflation. We did experience some hardware sale declines in certain foreign jurisdictions related to our ticket redemption kiosks in the Q1 of 2024. Loyalty kiosk sales also declined, reflecting a decline in new installations of loyalty software. As we have discussed previously, loyalty sales can be lumpy.

Speaker 2

They typically tend to be larger initial unit sales and are generally tied to the timing of new financial access contracts or contract renewals. While the timing of revenue recognition be delayed due to the operator's readiness for acceptance of the loyalty software and equipment, they are generally not lost, just deferred to later quarters. For the quarter, consolidated gross margin expanded by approximately 80 basis points to 80.9%, primarily due to revenue mix shift to higher margin gaming operations and financial access services revenue from lower margin gaming equipment and hardware sales. Moving on to operating expenses. We incurred $15,700,000 in one time professional fees, employee retention awards and other costs related to the planned merger with IGT's Global Gaming and Play Digital businesses.

Speaker 2

These costs have been excluded from adjusted EBITDA, but skew our reported operating expense trends from a GAAP basis. The decline in adjusted EBITDA for the quarter to $80,300,000 from $92,500,000 in the prior year quarter is reflective of the lower revenues and higher operating and R and D expenses. The decline in adjusted EBITDA per games to $46,600,000 from $53,700,000 in the prior year Q1 was a result of both lower revenues and higher expenses, while the decline in adjusted EBITDA for FinTech to $33,700,000 from $38,800,000 was primarily due to higher expenses. Net interest expense in the 1st quarter was $18,800,000 an increase from $18,000,000 in the prior year. As a reminder, we have $400,000,000 of outstanding unsecured notes at a fixed rate of 5% and approximately $581,000,000 of term loan that has a variable rate of interest.

Speaker 2

At the end of the quarter, our weighted average borrowing rate was approximately 6.7%. Also included in interest expense is the cash usage fee on our ATM bulk cash arrangements. Our expense for the bulk cash was $4,800,000 compared to $4,300,000 in the prior year Q1. We ended the quarter with total net leverage at 2.6x trailing adjusted EBITDA, which remains at the low end of our 2.5x to 3x target range. Free cash flow generated in the quarter was $14,000,000 compared with $40,000,000 a year ago.

Speaker 2

The decline was primarily the result of an increase of $13,000,000 in cash paid for capital expenditures and the $12,000,000 decline in adjusted EBITDA. We believe the increased investment in capital expenditures is important to refresh our installed base and we expect this spending to return the installed base to growth and improve daily win per unit over time. Moving on to our outlook. Our current expectations are that we will return to revenue growth in the back half of the year, assuming that our new cabinets and content resonate as expected with casino patrons. Daily win per unit rebounds and unit sales improve.

Speaker 2

We expect FinTech revenues to return to growth over the remainder of the year, driven by increasing Financial Access volumes, improved software and other revenue and a return to growth in our hardware sales. Turning to expenses. We expect higher operating expenses due to our investment in people and products as well as the costs incurred related to the proposed merger. With $6,000,000 in term loan repaid in the Q1, we do not have any significant debt repayments due for the remainder of the year. With $400,000,000 of our debt fixed at 5%, our net interest expense will depend primarily on what happens to interest rates this year.

Speaker 2

We expect our effective tax rate to be in the 22% to 25% range for the year and our full year cash taxes to be between $15,000,000 $20,000,000 Adjusted EBITDA is expected to decline from the prior year, primarily reflecting the near term headwinds that are impacting the game segment, but we expect to see improvement in the second half of the year as new cabinets and content hit casino floors and gain traction with customers and we begin to provide product in new categories like BLT and international gaming. Capital expenditures are expected to be flat to up slightly from $145,100,000 in 2023 as we primarily invest in replacing older cabinets and building out our installed base. Free cash flow is expected to be down from the prior year, but will remain strong. And with that, I will now conclude our prepared remarks and turn the call over to the operator for questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Jeffrey Stanchoe with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 4

Hi, this is Aidan Youngs on for Jeff Stanchall. Thanks for taking our question. So starting off on the FinTech business, looks like operating expenses excluding adjusted EBITDA add backs were up fairly meaningfully quarter on quarter both nominally and as a percentage of revenues. Could you have some color on what's driving that? And how should we think about the right R and D and OpEx levels heading into the remainder of 2024?

Speaker 4

Thanks.

Speaker 2

Yes. Thanks, Hayden. Look, I think we're as we look at operating expenses and R and D, we've always kind of talked that labor and headcount is probably our largest expense category, but still very tight labor market in terms of how we're operating today. Typically, there's annual reviews, other impacts that impact our current payroll, where we are. We feel like we're at a pretty good level, Q1 levels for kind of what you're looking at from an R and D and OP expense from a headcount and investment level are at the right levels going forward.

Speaker 2

So in terms of modeling, I'd be thinking kind of consistent along those lines. I think in terms of percentage of revenues, obviously having a little bit of a decline in the revenues is impacting some of the percentage metrics. But again, we believe we're invested properly for the long term growth of the business right now where we are. And as revenue begins to rebound, particularly in the second half of the year, we think that will kind of close that gap and kind of get back to those normalized levels that we talk about.

Speaker 3

Yes. I would add, I think we're very comfortable on the FinTech side. Again, that's still a business that we believe you have to invest for improved products. It makes us it provides better products for our customers and continues to help us grow that business. And as Mark said, as the revenue comes back up, then I think we'll come back in line.

Speaker 4

Great. Thank you. And it looks like spot shipments were down 34% year on year. Recognizing there's a number of moving parts here, just curious to get your views on to what extent you think the announcement of the merger may be impacting sales? Are your sales reps seeing any confusion from customers on the deal and long term strategy?

Speaker 4

Any thoughts here would be great. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Yes. That's a difficult one, right? Hard to say. I would say, look, we think we're as we said in the remarks, we should we expect to grow again in next quarter sequentially. Whether or not there's a real impact right now because of the deal, it's just really hard for us to quantify that.

Speaker 3

But we just brought our new sole cabinet that came out late in the quarter. It's doing what we expect it to do. We think with some of the new themes on view that should hopefully help that. Our mechanical products are getting hitting very well on

Speaker 2

the EILERS report. So it's just hard to say. I can't tell you that there's not some thought process out

Speaker 4

there, but I'm not going

Speaker 3

to point right now at this early in the stage that it's being impacted just by the deal.

Speaker 4

Great. Thanks, Felipe. I'll pass it on.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

And our next question comes from the line of Barry Jonas with Truist Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 2

Hey, guys. Thanks for all the helpful remarks. Maybe I just wanted to dive more. Can you maybe give more color on what gives you the confidence that you think new cabinet momentum will show up in the financials in the second half of

Speaker 5

the year, which starts pretty soon? Thanks.

Speaker 3

Sure, Barry. It's hard to say specifically, but we're investing in the capital. So we're getting games out there. We know that we're getting lift off of new games in comparison to the games that are being replaced. So in the installed base, there is some churn and it's first going to be to replace the older units.

Speaker 3

So that's going to move in the right direction. We think that's pretty straightforward. The question is how long it hold and does it really go to a higher win per day than maybe what we're modeling. So I would say we're seeing interest in the soul with the new the two themes that have hit well in the EILERS reports, right? That's something new for us.

Speaker 3

So look, there's green shoots here, Barry, that would point to the fact that we should improve in the second half of the year. It's a difficult one to say how much, but so far the new themes are working well and we're seeing as we're replacing games, we're getting a lift. It's just that we have a big install base and so that takes a little time. It's a bigger shift to turn. But we're still very comfortable that

Speaker 6

we're going

Speaker 3

to improve in the back half of the year.

Speaker 2

Great, great. And then just as a follow-up, look, we know you need to run the businesses independently until the deal closes. But is there any early integration work or maybe ways for the 2 companies to work together between now and the deal close? Thanks.

Speaker 3

Yes, Barry, I would say, look, that's kind of a topic we're really not going to cover. You very are limited on what you can do. So I would say I'm going to stay away from that one because until we're as we said, we're not going to give an update there. So I would say I'll leave it at that, Barry. Unfortunately, not much I can give you.

Speaker 2

Understood. Thank you. You bet.

Operator

And our next question comes from the line of David Katz with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 6

Hi, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions for all the detail. I'm just curious as you sort of progress toward closing on the transaction, what kind of feedback are you getting sort of in the field in terms of opportunities that may be going slower or faster as a result of just the pending deal out there?

Speaker 3

Hey, David. How are you doing? I'm struggling a little bit with how to answer your question. I mean, I would say the feedback that we've got from customers is positive on the deal. So but whether or not I can say is there anything that we're doing in the interim again as I remarked to Barry, there's not a lot that you can really do at this stage in the game until you get through a couple of the processes that we've talked about between antitrust and regulatory.

Speaker 3

We have we did have a cab, our we bring our customers in, a customer evaluation of the products. And I think, again, they were favorable to the transaction, right? They still want to see how it goes. We've been very clear to our customers that both product lines will continue to be supported. And so I think that's really what they want to know.

Speaker 3

And I think they've been supportive of that. But there's not, I guess, anything else I can really point to, David, that says where we are in this process and until we are farther along and have other information, we're just as you said, we're kind of operating as independent units with understanding that down the road we expect to come together.

Speaker 6

Understood. And Randy, your prepared remarks you talked about some of the technology opportunities coming together, which is clearly an exciting part of all this. Notwithstanding the time to meld those 2 enterprises together, presume that there may also be some incremental R and D to that end. Have you started to look at what the cost of melding those together might be at this stage? Or is that just way too early to get on the inside of?

Speaker 3

It's again yes, David, it's just way too early. I think the good thing is, as we've talked on our remarks before is that we don't expect to change R and D, right. R and D is what's going to drive this company and the success of this company combined. So it's definitely not going to be in the neighborhood of pulling back in my estimation right now. But specifically where and in that area, David, again, it's just too early to talk about anything of that nature or how we're going to look at that going forward.

Speaker 6

Okay, fair enough. Thank you very much.

Speaker 3

Appreciate it, David. Thanks.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Chad Beynon with Macquarie. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 7

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Wanted to ask about the iGaming or digital side of things. The market here in the U. S.

Speaker 7

Continues to grow quite significantly and I know that's been an area of focus for your content here. And then you've also talked about expanding into the UK, Europe and Latin American markets. So can you just kind of give us an update in terms of how that business, that line item is progressing and then opportunities for 2024? Thanks.

Speaker 2

Yes, Ted, I'll take that one. Look, I think digital continues to be an important part of our business, the great avenue for growth. Again, what we really appreciate about the gaming business is the ability to take proven content that we've developed and taken it to new channels and really expand what we're doing there. And as you mentioned, the North America, U. S.

Speaker 2

Market growing has created opportunities in our ability to get into new markets like UK. It's also something we're really excited about. Still very early stages of that international piece, but we are live actually in the U. K. Now and looking to continue to expand what we do in U.

Speaker 2

K. And in Europe with some partners that we have here in the coming quarters. So great opportunity, I think, in terms of growth, we ended the quarter probably just a little over $7,300,000 of revenue. So nice year over year growth, probably about 12%, 13% growth on a year over year basis in terms of performance there. So it's again progressing nicely and continue to grow along the path of our expectations.

Speaker 7

Thanks, Mark. And then on the FinTech side, you mentioned hardware coming in a little bit light this quarter. That's always been lumpy and kind of harder to predict. Is there general seasonality in that business? And I know you have a few big improvements in kind of products that are out in the market.

Speaker 7

Can you just kind of help us with the outlook for that for the rest of the year on the hardware side?

Speaker 3

Yes, Chad, to your point, it is lumpy. I would say, we have signed contracts. We have product that we do believe will get placed this year. So we're very confident that that will ramp throughout the rest of the year. The only the unknown is customers when they're ready for it and are they going to take it at that point in time.

Speaker 3

So we had something got pushed this quarter and pushed out. But again, these are signed contracts, which are generally kind of tied to a cash access contract. And so it's just when they want to install them and when they're ready for it. So we're still very comfortable that hardware should ramp throughout the rest of the year. But in Q1, just a little bit lower than we had anticipated, obviously, compared to prior year.

Speaker 7

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Chad.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of John Davis with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 5

Hey, good morning guys. This is Madison on for JD. I just wanted to touch on the comments around the decision to not replace some cabinets in lower performing areas. Is this something that's just going to be isolated to 1Q? Or is this an ongoing process where you guys are looking at other areas where there could be some bleed over into 2Q or the second half?

Speaker 2

I'll take that one, Madison. Look, I think we're always in the gaming operations team is laser focused on making sure they make smart choices with respect to generating revenue, driving revenue. And if we have low volume locations that are looking either for increased placement fees or new placement fees, in addition to swapping out equipment. We want to make sure we get a reasonable rate of return and hit that hurdle for us internally to make sure it makes sense. And if it doesn't make sense, just to never get your money back or barely make any money over a 4 or 5 year period of time, we're not going to spend that money.

Speaker 2

So we're always evaluating that. I think there were some larger concentrations of units in the Q1. Again, we talked about of our declines. So over 300 of them are probably those kind of decisions to not replace capital where we had the opportunity to. And I expect over the coming quarters, you'll see a couple more little instances like that, maybe not the level that you saw here, but we are making those choices to maximize our yield at the installed base.

Speaker 3

Yes, Madison, I would point out that those were really kind of related to 2 customers. So I don't want you to look at it as this is somehow throughout the fire install base, but there were a couple of customers that just they have lower performing units and then there were some other issues tied to it and we decided that from a yield it made sense not to go after those. So don't want it to look like it's throughout our installed base, but it was just primarily 2 customers.

Speaker 5

Okay, got it. And then just a quick follow-up here on the FinTech side. I appreciate the color you gave on some of the hardware components. But as we think about kind of volumes progressing through the year or yields for that matter, How are you guys thinking about cash to the casino floor and whether it be 2Q or the second half? And just any color in terms of what you're expecting from a yield perspective?

Speaker 5

Thanks guys.

Speaker 3

Sure, Manus. Look, what I'd say is, I think Mark covered it a little bit in his remarks that January was softer April early May have been really pleasantly not surprising, but higher than we kind of expected. So it seems to be right now that we would expect the cash access volumes to kind of stay at that mid to low single digit growth and maybe even a little bit better, but we'll have to wait and see. But I would say, look, we're still expecting growth on cash access and I think we're kind of budgeting for that level. But right now, I'd say we're seeing probably a little bit stronger than that.

Speaker 3

Yes. And I would just

Speaker 2

add, look, even with the little bit of headwinds of weather in January that we saw, we still ended the quarter positive on a same store basis. So it seems like the patron, the consumer still very willing to spend in the gaming environment and we're seeing some as Randy mentioned some really good strength, probably above the kind of our expectation levels into April and into May, probably closer to just mid to high mid single digits in April and into May. So April last year, May wasn't that impacted or what the comp wasn't so horribly bad either. So it feels like it's still holding up very steady for us in this space.

Speaker 5

Got it. Yes, that's very helpful color. I appreciate it, guys.

Speaker 2

You bet.

Operator

And our next question comes from the line of David Bain with B. Riley. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 8

Great. Thank you. Hi, Randy. Hi, Mark. Quick question on the termination of the repurchase program.

Speaker 8

Does that signal like confidence of a deal close and you keep the money for dividend purposes?

Speaker 3

Or is that more

Speaker 2

like a long term outlook?

Speaker 3

Well, no, I think it doesn't signal the confidence of the deal close. Still think our confidence hasn't changed. We still believe that we'll close at the end of the year or early next year. But what we wanted to point out was that we're not going to be we have a special dividend if it's payable depending on our operations and merger related expenses and so forth. And so we just want to make sure that shareholders understand that we're not going to be out purchasing shares because we think that takes away from the dividend.

Speaker 3

And then we also wanted to note to sell to cover where we've changed our approach to not withholding shares for tax purposes, which would require us to pay the cash into the U. S. Government. So that will be a use of our cash during this time period versus just saying people should sell them on the open market and we'll still pay their taxes, but that would again help our overall potential for dividend. So we're trying to manage cash as well to make sure that if possible that there could be a dividend.

Speaker 3

So that was kind of both that kind of 2 aspects to it, David.

Speaker 8

Very good. That's perfect. And then, as a follow-up, I know you spoke about some customers and their reaction to the deal generally. Have you specifically spoken to any systems customers or operators, and maybe they've opined that with regard to the potential of the cashless friction removal from the combination. Is that something that like as David Katz is pointing out that could actually be more accelerated than you originally anticipated amongst the IGT base, system space?

Speaker 3

Yes. Look, I would expect, we haven't I would say we haven't really talked specifically to customers. I think there may be customers that are kind of thinking about what they're going to do. On the system side. The system side.

Speaker 3

In other words, if they're thinking about what they're going to use from a cashless and maybe they have the IGT system, I think they are probably thinking about does that change how they want to go forward. But and maybe that gives us more opportunity. You know what I'm saying, David. But I don't think I would say we've had any real discussions there because again we're in this period of they've got to operate, we have to operate.

Speaker 8

Awesome. Thanks, Randy.

Speaker 2

Okay.

Operator

And our next question comes from the line of George Sutton with Craig Hallum. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 9

Thank you. I have a mathematical question for Mark. You mentioned that daily win per unit numbers are expected to improve in the back half of the year as a result of new content. Help us understand the percentage of your units that would be impacted by the new content. That sounded to be sounded to me to be an unusually or an unusual way to grow quickly the daily win per unit.

Speaker 2

Well, remember, in the installed base, the entire base of units, we're continually making content for all of our cabinets in there. It's not just about brand new cabinets that are out there well. So we're always swapping out content and trying to move the needle in terms of performance and improvement and that's how you grow over time as well. But obviously, the new cabinets and the new content is something new to patrons and there that drives generally a little more increased level of lift on the devices as we make those swaps out on of cabinets as well as the content on them. So what we've been seeing in the installed base is generally anywhere from $10 to $15 $20 a day of daily wind improvement on the swap outs we've been doing.

Speaker 2

Clearly, we've been focused on the highest value units first in the installed base and we'll continue that over the course of time, swapping out lower yielding or older equipment legacy type cabinets that may be a little more tired with the new freshest content in there. So that's where we expect to see the biggest bang for the buck in terms of movement in the daily win.

Speaker 3

Thanks. It's a 2 pronged Yes.

Speaker 6

Sorry, Randy.

Speaker 3

Go ahead. Go ahead. I have much more to add. It's just a it's a 2 is it go ahead.

Speaker 9

Well, I need to know what the 2 pronged approach is.

Speaker 3

Now that I said, you have to, but I would say, look, you're focused on replacing themes where some of the themes have gotten older and that's a little bit easier lift, but then you have to start replacing the cabinets. So I think Mark's point is that the cabinets plus new themes are probably the biggest lift, but also just putting new themes on older cabinets is a lift. So it's a combo.

Speaker 9

Got you. Doctor. Ehrlich has been surprisingly quiet on this call and there was a reference to the early performance of the Dynasty View not meeting your expectations, but an expectation that that improves with new content. I just wondered if he could address sort of what might have been missing there, what may be coming that we should be enthusiastic about?

Speaker 2

I'll hit the latter part of it

Speaker 10

of the stuff that we should be enthusiastic about, because we have a huge lineup coming out of product that we feel hits the tried and true mechanics, the players are very familiar with. And just the pure bandwidth on our emphasis on developing on some of the new hardware that we've been talking about for a while. So what's happening here is that it's really starting to come to fruition as the products start getting deployed. It's just taken a little bit longer than obviously any of us would have liked. So, I am excited about a lot of different products that are coming out through the next up and coming few months.

Speaker 10

So hard to name if I had to give you one. We got smoking hot stuff length that Randy touched upon that hits our premium segment. Very excited to see how that's going to do. And just the continued success of Dynamite Pop! That we've all talked about.

Speaker 10

So obviously look forward to seeing a couple of more themes resonate at that same particular level and see where this goes.

Speaker 3

And, George, I'd add that on The View specific, right, we launched in throughout 'twenty three with about 6 titles. We now added 9 more titles. We have a total of 15 titles. So that's really what I'm focused on. With those additional 9 titles, where again, we placed Vue out in our installed base and we obviously have it for for sale.

Speaker 3

It's also our cabinet that we'll be using for the BLTs. So we're still excited about that, but I'm focused on, hey, well, those 9 new themes really provide a lift versus where we came out.

Speaker 9

Understood. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Taylor for his closing remarks.

Speaker 3

Sure. Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your continued interest in EVRI and we look forward to providing an update on our business outlook on our Q2 call in August. Again, thanks for joining us.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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Earnings Conference Call
Everi Q1 2024
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