Image source: The Motley Fool.
DATE
Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET
CALL PARTICIPANTS
- Executive Chairman — Lorne Weil
- President & Chief Executive Officer — Brooks Pierce
TAKEAWAYS
- Continued Revenue -- $57 million, reflecting 15% growth driven predominantly by a 38% increase in Interactive segment revenue.
- Reported EBITDA -- Increased by 29% with an EBITDA margin expansion of 1,100 basis points supported by a portfolio shift and operating leverage.
- Digital Contribution -- Digital operations accounted for approximately 60% of total EBITDA, emphasizing the contribution of higher-margin segments.
- Debt Repayment -- $13 million in debt paid down during the quarter, reducing leverage to 3x EBITDA.
- Share Repurchase -- Nearly 400,000 shares repurchased in the quarter, reflecting active capital allocation.
- Free Cash Flow -- Generated approximately $16 million, utilized toward both stock buybacks and debt reduction.
- Interactive Market Expansion -- North American Interactive comprised over 30% of global Interactive GGR and rose to fourth place in the Eilers U.S. online content ranking as of April.
- UK Interactive Tax -- U.K. Interactive tax rate increased from 21% to 40% as of April 1, yet April Interactive revenue in the U.K. still posted over 10% growth, with U.K. GGR up more than 40%.
- Retail Solutions Performance -- U.K. retail business delivered positive momentum, adding two customers and securing a multiyear contract extension; in Greece, win per unit per day improved 11% aided by the Valor Slant top machine rollout.
- Virtual Sports Segment -- Segment remained flat, with ongoing headwinds in Brazil offsetting regional gains, but product launches and large customer wins are expected to drive growth in the second half and 2027.
- Strategic Initiatives -- The company divested the holiday park business and restructured the pubs segment, reducing headcount by approximately one-third and lowering annualized capital spending from mid-$40 million to low $30 million.
- New Studio Launch -- An additional content development studio is set to come online in the second half of the year to further accelerate game releases.
- Hybrid Dealer Rollout -- The Wolf it Up game for DraftKings and Betfred is targeted for June launch, opening up a broader customer funnel in subsequent months.
Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected]
RISKS
- Brooks Pierce said, "growth we are seeing in other regions is currently being offset by performance in Brazil" in Virtual Sports, causing the segment to remain flat sequentially.
- Executive commentary acknowledged industry-wide monitoring of macro and geopolitical impacts, stating, We're not seeing the impact of it thus far, but we're obviously mindful of it.
- Revenue guidance implied a slight reduction; Brooks Pierce characterized the EBITDA margin target increase as just a slight tweak, with margin improvement outpacing top-line growth.
SUMMARY
Inspired Entertainment (INSE +12.36%) executed a substantial transformation by reallocating capital, divesting non-core assets, and prioritizing high-growth, high-margin digital segments, leading to double-digit growth in continuing revenue and EBITDA. Shareholder returns were emphasized through both significant debt repayment and notable buybacks, underpinned by robust free cash flow. Management provided strategic clarity on new market entries, technology investments, and product expansion, positioning the company for further geographic and segmental growth.
- "We expect to see steady sequential growth in EBITDA from Q1 onward now that most of the seasonality has been removed with the holiday park sale."
- Strong U.K. Interactive growth offset a major tax hike, with management reiterating resource commitment to capitalize on competitive retrenchment in the region.
- Management highlighted plans to launch new content via a proprietary AI-aided studio in the back half of the year, aiming to accelerate partner content delivery.
- North America is flagged as a principal growth engine, with the Interactive segment’s footprint expanding and distributed gaming opportunities under review across both U.S. and Canadian markets.
- The Playtech network Virtual Sports roll-out is expected to be a second-half 2026 and 2027 revenue opportunity.
INDUSTRY GLOSSARY
- GGR (Gross Gaming Revenue): The total revenue generated from gaming activities before deducting costs and expenses, commonly used to measure performance in the gambling industry.
- LBO (Licensed Betting Office): Retail outlets in the U.K. authorized to offer betting services on sports and other events.
- Distributed Gaming: A gaming model in which terminals are located across multiple venues rather than centralized in casinos, common in markets like Illinois.
Full Conference Call Transcript
A. Weil: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our first quarter conference call. Once again, we've prepared a slide deck to help focus the conversation, and Brooks and I will be using that for the balance of the program. So beginning with Slide 3. We continued in the first quarter to see the benefits of steps taken in 2025. As been reported previously, we took 2 important actions in 2025 to alter the balance of our portfolio. We sold the holiday park business, which we've discussed a number of times, and we restructured the pubs business to significantly reduce both capital and labor requirements.
Overall, we've reduced company headcount by about 1/3 from over 1,500 to around 950 and cut our annualized capital spending from the mid-$40 million to the low $30 million. Adjusting for the onetime impact of the holiday park and pub restructuring, which I'll discuss a little bit more in a moment, our continuing revenue grew by 15% year-to-year, driven in large part by 38% revenue growth in Interactive. Our Q1 reported EBITDA grew by 29%. Our EBITDA margin expanded by 1,100 basis points. We paid down $13 million in debt, and we bought back close to 400,000 shares. So it was a very busy quarter. Slide 4 illustrates a little more clearly what's going on with revenue.
The actions taken in holiday parks and pub together had the effect of reducing revenue in the first quarter of 2025 by about $10 million from $60 million to $50 million, as illustrated in the slide. And then driven importantly, but by no means exclusively by Interactive growth, discontinuing revenue of $50 million grew by 15% to a little more than $57 million in the first quarter of 2026. Interactive is certainly the primary growth driver, but as Brooks will discuss in more detail in a minute, our retail business has been performing very well in all its worldwide markets.
The sustained interactive growth illustrated in Slide 5 has in turn been driven importantly by superior content development as has the retail business, though obviously to a lesser extent. In the retail business, the markets themselves are growing less quickly and particularly in the U.K. and Greece, our market share is much higher. In just a moment, Brooks will elaborate on our content strategy, including the bringing on stream of the new studio. But along with the focus on content development, we've been entering new markets, winning new customers, strengthening our accounts management team in order to maximize the benefit of our content. And with that, I'll hand it over to Brooks.
Brooks Pierce: Okay. Great. Thanks, Lorne. And moving to Slide 6 and to build on the points you made. Our core strength and focus is on developing the best content and delivering it wherever it's consumed, including retail, online or in any number of geographies worldwide. One of our key markets is North America, which is now over 30% of our interactive GGR overall and continuing to grow. And as you can see on Slide 6, we continue to climb the ladder in the Eilers U.S. online report, moving up to fourth in the April report from #8 just a year ago. We're continuing to increase our share in both North America and the U.K.
This is not-- is driven not just by content alone, but by a consistent road map of high-performing new game releases -- we've also enhanced our account management teams to work more closely with our operator partners on securing prime placements and supporting promotional activity for exclusives as a key part of our offering. On Slide 7, you can clearly see that we've built a portfolio of high-performing content across the last few years with growth accelerating since January of 2025. We've seen these trends continue into April, where we ended the month on a high note with our highest ever single day total value played.
These continuing results validate our strategy, and we're excited to bring an additional studio online in the second half of the year to continue to feed our operator partners with more great content that they've come to count on. Turning to the U.K. As of April 1, the increased tax rate from 21% to 40% came into effect in our Interactive business. With just over a month of data, the impact we are seeing tracks exactly with what we had forecast. Importantly, despite the step-up, we saw our U.K. Interactive revenue grow in April, driven by our continuing share gains. Our U.K.
GGR in April was more than 40% higher than a year ago, offsetting the tax increase and net-net resulting in our revenue growing by more than 10%. Where we see others retrenching in the U.K. market, we see opportunity to continue to grow our share, and we're committed to the resources to leverage this opportunity. Even with the tax headwind, the U.K. continues to demonstrate strength and resilience of this segment. Moving to Slide 8. We're seeing the benefits of both strong content and the rollout of new machines across several key customers and geographies in our Retail Solutions business, proving that this phenomenon exists beyond Interactive. In the U.K., William Hill, in particular, but frankly, our entire U.K.
LBO business showed positive momentum in the first quarter, and we expect that to continue. We also added 2 new customers, Jenningsbet and Corbett's and signed a multiyear contract extension with Paddy Power early in the second quarter. In Greece, our win per unit per day increased 11%, led by our recently introduced Valor Slant top machine, and we will continue upgrading over the rest of 2026 and into 2027. We believe that this machine refresh will continue to drive growth in the Retail Solutions segment. In North America, we're cautiously optimistic about the expansion into Chicago and see the broader Illinois market as a good opportunity for us over the next 12 to 18 months.
And combined with our growing footprint across several Canadian provinces, we're starting to see the beginning to -- of the--providing the scale that we really need in North America. So moving to Slide 9. As we've talked about over the last year, we've seen stabilization in Virtual Sports despite the ongoing headwinds in Brazil, which remains a key market for us. Unfortunately, growth we are seeing in other regions is currently being offset by performance in Brazil. However, we see a clear path to growth supported by additional key customers and upcoming product releases as well as the tailwind from the World Cup.
Moving to Slide 10, which I think really validates what we've been talking about for some time, optimizing our portfolio is delivering the outcome we expected, divesting the lower margin, more capital-incentive -- Lorne keep your phone off -- Divesting the lower margin, more capital-intensive and less strategic holiday parts business, along with the restructuring of our pubs estate to be less capital and labor-intensive which had the exact impact we are expecting. As a result, the shift to higher-margin digital businesses, combined with improved retail performance is leading to overall growth in EBITDA, margin expansion and significant improvement in cash flow.
And all of this is underpinned by our continued focus on delivering the best content to support this strategy. So I'll turn it back over to Lorne.
A. Weil: Thanks, Brooks. Just to refocus a little on the numbers, Slide 11 is once again a snapshot of where we were at the end of the first quarter. Year-to-year growth in EBITDA was 29%. Digital accounted for about 60% of our EBITDA and our leverage had declined to 3x. More importantly, Slide 12 analyzes what happened with cash. We generated about $16 million in free cash flow, which we used to both repurchase stock and repay debt. Obviously, this won't occur every quarter because every other quarter, we have a semiannual cash interest payment to make.
But over the course of the year, with cash generation being fairly steady and annual cash interest in the mid-30s and declining as we deleverage, our leverage free cash flow conversion as a percent of EBITDA is comfortably in the 20s and hopefully growing. Cash flow conversion and other key metrics are summarized in the targets on Slide 13. As we move through this year, we're projecting the underlying trends we've been seeing will continue. We expect to see steady sequential growth in EBITDA from Q1 onward now that most of the seasonality has been removed with the holiday park sale.
And in parallel, we're targeting strong cash flow conversion and declining leverage driven by both the paydown of debt and growing EBITDA. In terms of asset allocation, we will look to continue to both debt repayment and share repurchase. And with that, we'll open the program up to questions.
Operator: Your first question is coming from the line of Barry Jonas of Truist Securities.
Barry Jonas: Thank you for all the helpful color so far. Just a couple for me. I think we've heard from some competitors about macro and geopolitical issues impacting the top line and perhaps the cost environment. But just -- I think I asked this last quarter, but I wanted to see if you had any updated thoughts there you could share.
Brooks Pierce: No. I think we're probably aligned with pretty much everyone else, and it's something that we're watching very closely. We're not seeing the impact of it thus far, but we're obviously mindful of it. And I think the first quarter is kind of positively reinforcing that. But as we all know, you kind of have to keep your head on a swivel about this stuff.
Barry Jonas: Got it. Okay. And then I think the ramp of Interactive has been fairly impressive over the past few years. But the Virtual business is one where I think years ago, we maybe had higher expectations. And maybe just wanted to kind of get your thoughts. I think before we saw some of the near-term challenges, we were thinking kind of like a mid-teens percentage of OSB handle was a decent long-term target for Virtuals. But curious if you have any updated thoughts about the longer-term opportunity here.
Brooks Pierce: Yes. I think it's an interesting question. I think I would say that we're probably a little frustrated in the growth that we would have expected from Virtual Sports. Just to put it in a little bit of context, at least as it relates to North America, obviously, online sports betting is in 39 states. And right now, we're technically only allowed to go in a couple of states. So obviously, one of the things that we would hope is to add both additional states, but also additional operators. I think we have some product initiatives that are coming out that will help. We obviously expect to get some tailwind from the World Cup.
That might have been aggressive to think that it was going to be a mid-teens percentage as a part of online sports betting. It's probably more like maybe mid- to high single digits is probably the right number to think about.
A. Weil: I think there's another issue that I think is very important, Barry, too, which is that the opportunity for virtual sports is certainly in North America is not limited to basically a companionship with online sports betting. And that is in the lottery space. Without going into a lot of detail right now, I can tell you that we're seeing some very interesting developments with some of the most important lotteries in North America regarding the opportunity for virtual sports there. And I think definitely, as we move through this year, we'll see a couple of very meaningful developments that I think will be a tipping point for the virtual sports.
Operator: Your next question is coming from the line of Ryan Sigdahl from Craig-Hallum Capital.
Will Yager: This is Will on for Ryan. First wanted to ask on the guide. You reiterated adjusted EBITDA but increased the margin. So it implies that revenue a little bit lower than you expected. Curious what's the main factor going into that? Is it mostly U.K. iGaming taxes, Virtuals? Or is it something else entirely?
Brooks Pierce: I think it's -- I guess, how I would characterize it is just a slight tweak. We're seeing the margins continue to increase. And obviously, you've done the math on the revenue, but I think that's it's just a guide. But we certainly feel very confident, and that's why we've upped the EBITDA margin targets. But I don't see this as a big fundamental shift of it by any stretch of the imagination.
Will Yager: That's fair. And then just a quick follow-up. I wanted to ask sort of on the Interactive expansion you ended up launching in South Africa, Fanatics and West Virginia. Curious what the future expansion opportunities look like and how much more you think you have to run?
Brooks Pierce: Yes. Sure. I think we've talked about this a number of times, and Lorne may want to add to my commentary because I know he talks about it a lot is look, we're going into the regulated markets where we think it makes sense, expanding in markets like West Virginia and South Africa. But I think what we feel over the longer term is there's going to be a large opportunity for expansion of iGaming in North America. Particularly with everything that's happening in terms of the states not getting the kind of support from the federal government that they've gotten in the past, and we think that there's going to be an opportunity for more and more states.
Obviously, there was a whole big thing about this in D.C. recently. Virginia has talked about it. So I think it's an underappreciated -- no one knows what the timing of that is going to be, but we feel like there's going to be more states that will come on board. And frankly, if that were the case, that really takes no more for us from an infrastructure or cost standpoint to deliver these additional states other than a little bit of bandwidth cost. So we see that -- we don't know when, but we see that as a huge opportunity to be transformative for us.
Operator: Your next question is coming from the line of Chad Beynon of Macquarie.
Chad Beynon: Brooks and Lorne, I wanted to stick on Interactive, just given the -- how important this is and the growth that you highlighted here in the first quarter. Just thinking about the new studio, new game launches and how AI can build upon that. Could you help us think about maybe some of the tried and true games that have done well? And then with this new studio, will that all be incremental and how we use AI to just get games quicker to market for your partners?
Brooks Pierce: Yes. No, thanks, Chad. That's a great question. And I think the reality is, yes, I think the single biggest thing from the Interactive side that we've been talking about for a while, and I think we've talked about this. We've looked long and hard for potential acquisitions in the space as a tuck-in to add more capacity and didn't find anything that made sense for us and finally decided that we were going to build the studio ourselves, and that's well down the path, and we'll start producing games in the second half of the year.
And on your comment on AI, yes, I mean, for sure, the utilization of AI across the business, but certainly in the game development side of things accelerates the ability for us to deliver games faster, which is something that I think is going to be important for us as we go forward. So adding capacity, adding kind of different types and styles of games to broaden our portfolio and getting more games out faster through utilizing AI is clearly a big strategy of ours.
Chad Beynon: Okay. Great. And then on the Retail business, focusing on units in North America. I know there were a few bills to grow the distributed gaming markets in a few states that didn't get across the end line, but you mentioned Chicago, which I think is coming in the fourth quarter. Where else can you go in the U.S.? Are you looking to get licensed in other markets? I know Louisiana, Georgia, Nebraska, et cetera, have similar types of markets that are growing on a same-store basis. But just wanted to know if you could help us on the TAM in that market.
Brooks Pierce: Yes. I think what we've consciously tried to do here is to build at the right pace for us. We obviously mentioned in the release, we've got multiple Canadian provinces that are now kind of ordering machines on a yearly basis, and that's very important for us. Illinois and in particular, Chicago, assuming everything goes as expected, we will start in the fourth quarter and then will be a bigger part of next year. And I think we mentioned on a prior call that we had done or at least in a press release that we've developed in concert with Gaming Arts, a game that will go on their Class III cabinet.
So we think that should be a proof point for us that our content will work in Class III. And then obviously, that opens up a number of opportunities across Class III and Class II. And then specifically, on the distributed question that you had, we kind of have to take it on a market-by-market basis. So each one has its own nuances. Montana, Nevada, Louisiana, each have their own kind of unique attributes. So we went with what we thought was the best and most likely place for success first, but we certainly are looking at not only the North American market for distributed gaming, but frankly, distributed gaming on a worldwide basis.
At this time, there are no further questions. Operator?
Operator: Your next question is coming from -- it's coming from the line of B. Riley Securities.
Matthew Maus: This is Matthew on for Josh Nichols from B. Riley. I guess just on the Virtual Sports side, I was wondering, how should we think about the Playtech deal alongside the World Cup? Is the timing going to allow you guys to have content live on Playtech's network ahead of the tournament or maybe during it? Or is that more of like a second half and 2027 revenue driver?
Brooks Pierce: Yes. I'd say it's more of a second half. We look -- we think this is a great opportunity for us to get our product into the Playtech network. I think our first customer should go live here shortly. But I would say it's much more of a second half and going into 2027 opportunity for us.
Matthew Maus: Got it. And then also, I guess, in terms of like BetMGM Sportsbook tab integration in New Jersey, I mean pretty sure it's been live for a couple of months now. I'm wondering like is there any early reads that you see there on player engagement and how that can possibly lead to future operator signing with you guys?
Brooks Pierce: Yes. I mean I think it's probably a mixed bag. I think the results from BetMGM in Ontario have been very good, probably not quite as good as we had hoped so far in New Jersey, but we're working with BetMGM in particular, about where we're positioned on the site and some promotional stuff. So I think it's a little early. I think maybe it's 4 to 6 weeks that we've been out with them. So it doesn't happen overnight, but we certainly feel very bullish, and we're having some conversations some of the other big sports betting operators, I think, that are looking to broaden their portfolio.
And to just add on to Lorne's comment, we do think both on an online basis and importantly, in a retail basis that virtual sports or monitor gaming, as they call it, in the lottery industry is a very big opportunity for us that's underappreciated. So we would expect over the next kind of 6 to 12 to 18 months, having some pretty meaningful contribution coming from that as well. So even though the Virtual Sports business is relatively flat, there's a number of opportunities that we see that we think can get that business back to growing.
Matthew Maus: Last question for me, just on the Interactive side. Maybe on the hybrid dealer pipeline, -- if I remember correctly, I think DraftKings and Betfred were expected soon to be signed. I'm wondering like where that stands and how the rest of the funnel is shaping up.
Brooks Pierce: Yes, you're right about both of those. I would have expected that we would have them live at this point, but it's probably going to be June for that. So we'll start. And as we talked about before, this is the games that have the combination with our slot content that has done very well. The Wolf it Up game is the first one that will go out. And we'll be rolling it out to a number of customers starting in June. So when we have our next call in August, I guess, we'll be able to talk about that in a little bit more detail.
Operator: There's no other questions in queue at this time, and that concludes our Q&A session. I will now turn the conference back over to Lorne Weil for closing remarks. Please go ahead.
A. Weil: Thank you very much, operator. And again, thanks, everyone, for joining the call this morning. I think you can tell we're feeling very positive about where the business is. The one issue that had been a concern had been this issue of the U.K. tax, but at least so far in the second quarter, we've been able to more than offset the impact of the tax by our growth in gaming revenue in the U.K. So the business is really in very good shape. We're buying back stock. The leverage is coming down. The margins are going up, all the things that have been our objectives for a while. So hopefully, this will continue through the second quarter.
And we'll look forward to reporting in 3 months. Thank you.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.
