PlayAGS - Q3 2023

Executive Summary

• Record quarter: Revenue rose 14% year over year to $89.4M, Adjusted EBITDA hit a new high at $40.1M (44.9% margin), and free cash flow reached a record $12.7M; modest net loss ($0.2M) reflected ~$4M higher interest costs year over year amid rate moves.
• Segments: EGM led with 14% revenue growth (1,345 units sold, +33% YoY), Table Products +9%, and Interactive +20% to a record $3.1M; recurring revenue reached a record $61.0M and ~70% of mix.
• Balance sheet: Net leverage improved to 3.4x vs 3.8x at year-end 2022; company reiterated 2023 year-end leverage target of 3.25x–3.50x and capex plan of $65–$70M.
• Outlook catalysts: Management expects Q4 global EGM unit sales to exceed Q3, ASP to ~return to ~$20K, Q4 Adjusted EBITDA margin to stay >44%, and domestic RPD to match/slightly exceed Q4’22 ($31.46); Spectra UR49 commercial launch and premium mix expansion are near-term growth drivers.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Record profitability/FCF despite rates: Adjusted EBITDA reached $40.1M (up 16% YoY) and free cash flow a record $12.7M, with margin expansion to 44.9% driven by outsized EGM growth, higher-margin Spectra sales mix, and Interactive ROI.
• Broad-based segment strength: EGM revenue +14% YoY with 1,345 unit sales (+33% YoY), Table Products revenue +9% with PAX S/BSX momentum, and Interactive revenue +20% to a record $3.1M (RMG +26% sequentially).
• Strategic product pipeline: “Best G2E to date” with Spectra UR49 following Spectra UR43 success; premium mix up to 17% of domestic installed base; management confident in “relative outperformance” continuing (“our booth truly had it all… puts us in the desirable position to continue our theme of relative outperformance”).

What Went Wrong

• Bottom-line pressure from higher interest: Q3 swung to a small net loss of $0.2M vs $0.5M profit in Q3’22, largely from ~$4M higher debt service amid rate increases (partly offset by stronger operating income).
• Table Products margin compression: Table Adjusted EBITDA fell 5% YoY and margin dropped to 55.5% (from 63.5%) due to higher field service allocation and greater equipment sales mix.
• Domestic EGM RPD seasonality: Domestic RPD ticked down sequentially from $33.48 in Q2 to $32.57 in Q3 due to normal seasonal GGR trends; CFO flagged potential inventory build for Q1 demand that could modestly impact Q4 FCF.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's call, titled: PlayAGS Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Ellen, and I'll be the call operator for today. All participant lines will be muted throughout the presentation. At the end of today's presentation, there'll be an opportunity to ask a question. If you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If at any point your question has been answered or you change your mind and would like to revoke your question, you can do this by pressing star followed by two. I would now like to turn the call over to Brad Boyer, SVP of Investor Relations, to begin. Brad, please go ahead whenever you're ready.

Brad Boyer (SVP of Investor Relations)

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the PlayAGS Incorporated Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. With me today are David Lopez, CEO, and Kimo Akiona, CFO. A slide presentation reviewing our key operational and financial highlights for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023, can be found on our investor relations website, investors.playags.com. On today's call, we will provide an overview of our Q3 2023 financial performance and offer perspective on our current financial outlook for the business. This conference call will include the use of forward-looking statements. Any statement that refers to expectations, projections, or other characterizations of future events, including financial projections or future market conditions, is a forward-looking statement based on assumptions today. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, and we make no obligation to update our disclosures.

For more information about factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements, please refer to the earnings press release we issued today, as well as risks described in our annual report on Form 10-K, particularly in the section of these documents titled Risk Factors. Our commentary today will also include non-GAAP financial measures. We believe the use of these non-GAAP financial measures provides an additional tool for investors to use in evaluating ongoing operating results and trends in our business. These measures should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP metrics for our reported results can be found in our earnings release issued today. Please refer to our filings with the SEC for more information.

With that, I would like to turn the call over to our CEO, David Lopez.

David Lopez (CEO)

Thanks, Brad, and good afternoon, everyone. We delivered another solid quarter of execution in Q3, with our product momentum and focused team producing performance that far exceeded the trends observed across the broader domestic gaming landscape and contributed to several new financial records along the way. That said, I would like to highlight a few of the notable accomplishments from the quarter. First, domestic EGM gaming operations revenue increased 6% year-over-year, once again outpacing the revenue trends observed across the broader domestic gaming landscape. Second, global EGM unit sales increased by over 30% versus the prior year, far surpassing the 2% market level increase forecasted by Eilers. I would note our replacement unit sales and the number of customers sold to both reached new records in the quarter.

Third, we estimate Mexico RPD increased 9% year-over-year on a constant currency basis as our ongoing optimization efforts and a stable macroeconomic backdrop continue to support our performance in the region. Fourth, interactive revenues increased more than 20% year-over-year to a record $3.1 million, driven by returns on strategic investments initiated in the back half of 2022. And finally, table products revenue surpassed $4 million for the third consecutive quarter, with the continued strong rollout of PAX shuffler, pushing table sales revenue above the $500,000 level for the second quarter in a row. Ultimately, the noteworthy top-line trends I just described allowed us to deliver on three financial metrics that I believe matter most to those of you on the call.

Adjusted EBITDA surpassed the $40 million level for the first time, establishing a new record for the third time in the past 4 quarters. Next is free cash flow, which increased to a record of approximately $13 million, reflecting strong operating performance and a continued focus on working capital efficiency and CapEx discipline. Last, net leverage fell to 3.4 times, which is inside of our targeted year-end range, a quarter ahead of schedule. With another record quarter behind us, our focus now turns to Q4 in 2024, which leads me to G2E, where I can confidently say this was our company's best show to date. Continuing a theme that began our pre-G2E customer meetings, the show itself served as a coming-out party for our collective R&D team, showcasing the dramatic pro-product transformation spurred by their commitment and focus over the past several years.

This transformation did not go unnoticed by our customers. From new cutting-edge cabinets to a thoughtfully curated portfolio of diverse slot content, new table game concepts, and a turbocharged interactive offering, our booth truly had it all. Taking everything into account, I believe our current pipeline of new products puts us in a desirable position to continue our theme of relative outperformance for the foreseeable future. Within slots, our product momentum is very real, with Spectra 43 continuing to deliver exceptional performance, while Spectra 49, the second cabinet in our Spectra family, has jumped out to a strong start across all initial test sites. In addition to this success, I'm also excited about our entrance into the mechanical reel and jumbo market segments, with initial deployment scheduled for the back half of 2024....

With a complete portfolio of slot products capable of addressing the most in-demand segments on operators' floors and a well-diversified portfolio of game content, I'm confident we have the tools at our disposal to consistently grow our ship share in the quarters ahead. Momentum is equally evident in our premium game segment, where we just completed our fifteenth consecutive quarter of unit growth. Similar to slot sales, I believe we have the right hardware and game content momentum necessary to level up in this growing market segment, building on our current premium unit mix of 17%. Turning to tables, our position as partner and innovator of choice continues to propel the business forward.

On the topic of innovation, we recently introduced several new features and functionality for our Bonus Spin Xtreme Progressive, which have the potential to broaden the product's appeal and allow us to build upon our existing BSX installation base of over 500 units. Additionally, our PAX S shuffler continues to prove efficient and effective, with our footprint quickly approaching 300 units. Looking ahead, the continued momentum behind BSX and PAX, along with the new jurisdictional and product approvals, is allowing us to accelerate our sell-in to under-penetrated markets. Additionally, we have kicked off early-stage development for a new multi-deck shuffler, which will allow us to attack the largest segment of the global shuffler market. Combined, we believe these opportunities put our table business on a compelling multi-year growth trajectory. Finally, our interactive segment has entered launch mode, as evidenced by our record Q3 performance.

During the quarter, we launched our first game in the popular three-reel category. Mega Diamond, our most successful new game release to date, has outperformed our previous best release by nearly 40%. The strong performance propelled the title to the top of the charts in the October Eilers report, with another AGS game theme, Capital Gains, taking second place. As I look to 2024 and beyond, I'm confident the strategic conditions to our interactive team should allow for more consistent delivery of AGS content into the online channel, further diversification of our online content offerings into additional genres, and more strategic and impactful interactions with our B2C partners, all of which will position us to deliver outsized growth.

While I am encouraged by the recent success and consistent momentum building across all three of our operating segments, I'm even more enthused with how our improved operating performance has allowed us to deliver on two key strategic objectives: consistent free cash flow generation and deleveraging. As I previously mentioned, free cash flow in the quarter set a new company record, surpassing $10 million for the second consecutive quarter. Looking ahead, we remain focused on leveraging our organizational commitment to CapEx discipline and working capital efficiency to consistently generate quarterly free cash flow, with a target of steadily improving our annual free cash flow conversion over time. Additionally, we intend to pair our improved free cash flow with continued adjusted EBITDA growth to further reduce our net leverage.

While we continue to target year-end Net Leverage in the range of 3.25-3.5 times, we have our sights set on driving leverage into the mid-2s, at which point we believe we will be presented with opportunities to further unlock shareholder value. In closing, I would like to thank our team members across the globe for their commitment, focus, and dedication. Your efforts have not only produced a run of record-setting financial performance, but also contributed to the development of the most diverse and compelling product lineup in our company's history. That said, I remain extremely excited about what lies ahead for the company, and I look forward to sharing our progress with you on future calls. With that, I will turn the call over to Kimo.

Kimo Akiona (CFO)

Thank you, David, and good afternoon to all of you on the call. As in prior quarters, I will review a couple of highlights from our reported results and provide a perspective on how we see each of our business segments trending as we look ahead to the current quarter. I will also share some thoughts on our free cash flow outlook for the remainder of the year, and close by addressing a few items related to our balance sheet. Turning first to our domestic EGM gaming operations business, third quarter revenue increased 6% year-over-year to approximately $49 million, far outpacing the modest decline in market-wide domestic gross gaming revenues or GGR.

Domestic EGM RPD improved 5% year-over-year to $32.57, topping the $30 level for the 10th consecutive quarter, while our domestic EGM installed base grew by over 160 units versus the prior year and increased sequentially for the 6th quarter in a row. The strategic initiatives driving the continued relative outperformance in our Q3 domestic EGM recurring revenue were consistent with the past several quarters. First, we identified additional opportunities to thoughtfully expand our footprint of higher-earning premium recurring revenue units, achieving growth in our premium installed base for the 15th consecutive quarter. Second, we leveraged the expanded scale and scope of our EGM product portfolio, including our high-performing Spectra cabinet and increasingly diverse game content library, to further optimize our core EGM footprint.... Finally, overall market level GGR trends remained relatively stable and consistent throughout the quarter.

Looking ahead to Q4, at a high level, we believe our domestic EGM gaming operations business is once again positioned to outperform relative to broader domestic GGR trends. From a KPI perspective, we expect our year-end domestic EGM installed base to be up slightly versus Q3, as continued modest growth in our premium unit footprint is partially offset by an anticipated seasonal increase in fourth quarter convert to sale activity, as operators deploy use it or lose it capital prior to year-end. As it relates to RPD, quarter to date GGR trends across our served markets continue to prove relatively consistent with those witnessed over the past several quarters.

That said, provided the domestic GGR environment maintains its resiliency throughout the duration of the quarter, we believe our unique set of company-specific yield optimization catalysts, including our growing premium unit footprint, high-performing Spectra cabinet, and diversified core content offering, should allow us to deliver Q4 domestic RPD that is in line with to slightly ahead of the 31.46 achieved in Q4 2022. Shifting to EGM sales, we sold 1,345 units globally in the third quarter, up by over 30% versus the prior year.

Sustained Spectra momentum, supported by the continued strong performance of the cabinet's launch titles, a more than 60% increase in the number of customers sold to, further penetration of the growing historical horse racing machine market, and the ability to leverage a deeper and more diverse product portfolio and stable market level demand trends once again contributed to our outsized unit sales growth in the quarter. As we look ahead to Q4, continued sell-through of Spectra 43, the scheduled commercial launch of Spectra 49, further targeted broadening of our customer account penetration, and a consistent market-wide purchasing demand climate should allow us to deliver global EGM unit sales that exceed Q3 levels. Moving on to EGM pricing, third quarter global ASP was approximately $19,400, up slightly versus the prior year.

A greater mix of premium priced Spectra cabinet sales and continued implementation of our price integrity initiatives paced our improved ASP performance versus the prior year. ASP declined modestly relative to the $20,700 achieved in Q2 2023, consistent with the expectations laid out on our second quarter call. The quarterly sequential ASP cadence reflects a slight increase in international unit sales and the mix of domestic Orion family cabinet sales in the quarter. It is important to note that pricing on Spectra, which accounted for approximately 60% of our total third quarter unit sales mix, remained comfortably above the $20,000 level.

Looking to Q4, supported by the strong pricing we continue to command for Spectra 43, the anticipated sale of initial Spectra 49 units, which are priced at a premium to 43, and the mix of non-Spectra family units within our sales pipeline, we believe ASP should return to around the $20,000 level. Turning to our international EGM business, recurring revenue increased 25% year-over-year and improved sequentially for the 13th consecutive quarter. The continued strong performance of several established AGS franchise games throughout Mexico, further installed base optimization, stable macroeconomic trends, and favorable FX movements contributed to our improved recurring revenue performance in the quarter. International RPD increased by nearly 30% versus the prior year, or approximately 9% on a constant currency basis, surpassing $9 for the first time.

As we look ahead to Q4, we believe the compounding effect or benefit of installed base optimization, coupled with the resilient market level revenue trends observed quarter to date, should allow us to deliver another quarter of outsized international game ops revenue growth. Looking beyond EGM, revenues within our table product segment topped $4 million for the third consecutive quarter, with equipment sales revenues surpassing $500,000 for the second quarter in a row. Our PAX S shuffler footprint increased approximately 8% sequentially to over 290 units, while our Bonus Spin Xtreme Progressive installed base surpassed 500 units at quarter end. We also expanded the market penetration of our AGS Arsenal site license program in the quarter by executing our first site license with a casino operator in the Oregon market.

Supported by continued strong demand for PAX, a favorable customer response to the enhanced features and functionality recently added to our Bonus Spin Xtreme Progressive, targeted jurisdictional expansion opportunities, and an accommodative new casino opening calendar, we believe we should be able to modestly improve upon our Q3 table revenue performance in the fourth quarter. Shifting to interactive, segment-level revenues increased 20% year-over-year to a record of just over $3 million. Returns on the strategic investment into our real money gaming, or RMG, business, initiated in the back half of 2022, continued to accelerate during the third quarter, with RMG revenue advancing more than 20% on a quarterly sequential basis to a record of $2.8 million....

The strong revenue growth also flowed through to segment-level Adjusted EBITDA, which increased nearly 60% year-over-year to a little over $900,000, representing our 15th consecutive quarter of positive Adjusted EBITDA performance within the segment. Looking ahead to Q4, although we expect interactive revenues to be nicely higher versus the prior year, we believe the combination of a challenging Q3 comparison with the quarter benefiting from our most successful RMG launch, game launch to date, and the anticipated timing of new content introduction, could temporarily moderate the level of sequential revenue growth we're able to achieve. That said, as David indicated, we are increasingly confident the added depth and diversity of our under development online content offerings, along with our execution of more targeted and tactical business development initiatives, put our interactive business on a multi-year path to consistent and sustainable outsized growth in 2024 and beyond.

Turning to margins, third quarter adjusted EBITDA margin was approximately 45%, nicely ahead of the expectations articulated on our Q2 call, and up 90 basis points versus the prior year. Operating leverage, resulting from outside the EGM segment revenue growth, a greater mix of higher margin Spectra family EGM unit sales, and accelerating returns on our tactical interactive investments, all contributed to our improved margin performance in the quarter. Although seasonal G2E-related expenses are likely to contribute to modest sequential compression in our Q4 adjusted EBITDA margin, we expect to remain above the 44% level in the quarter as we continue to target full year adjusted EBITDA margin in the range of 44%-45%. Third quarter capital expenditures totaled approximately $17 million, bringing our year-to-date capital spend to just under $47 million.

We continue to expect full-year capital expenditures, inclusive of anticipated capitalized R&D, to land in the range of $65 million-$70 million. Cash interest in the quarter was $13.5 million, increasing our year-to-date cash interest expense to approximately $39 million. We believe the $13.5 million level serves as a good proxy for the fourth quarter. Third quarter free cash flow, defined as net operating cash flow, plus proceeds from payments on customer notes receivable less CapEx, increased on both a year-over-year and quarterly sequential basis to just under $13 million, supported by our record operating performance, heightened focus on efficient and effective working capital management, and continued CapEx deployment discipline.

Looking ahead to Q4, we believe the strong demand we are currently seeing for our growing suite of EGM products could require us to source additional component inventory prior to year-end to ensure we are in a good position to fulfill Q1 demand in a timely fashion. While this has the potential to modestly impact our Q4 free cash flow performance, our continued operating momentum and further execution of our CapEx efficiency initiatives will allow us to generate positive free cash flow for the third consecutive quarter. Finally, net leverage at quarter end fell to 3.4 times, compared to 3.8 times at the start of the year, supported by the operating trends observed across the business through October.

Combined with our expectation to once again generate positive free cash flow in Q4, we remain confident in our ability to exit 2023 with net leverage in the range of 3.25x-3.5x. I would note, the assumptions underpinning the midpoint of our targeted year-end net leverage range continue to contemplate a modest pullback in prevailing market level conditions that we have not yet observed to Q4 to date. That said, should broader GDR trends remain relatively consistent with the levels we are currently experiencing for the duration of the quarter, we would expect to exit 2023 with net leverage in the bottom half of the range. Finally, I would like to reiterate our approach to deleveraging remains unchanged as we continue to target a combination of Adjusted EBITDA growth and consistent free cash flow generation.

Operator, this concludes our prepared remarks. We would now like to open the line up for questions.

David Lopez (CEO)

Ultimately, the noteworthy top-line trends I just described allowed us to deliver on-

Operator (participant)

Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure that your device is unmuted locally. Our first question today comes from Jordan Bender from JP Morgan. Jordan, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Jordan Bender (Senior Equity Research Analyst of Gaming and Leisure)

Hey, thanks for taking my question, Jordan from JP. Kimo, on the last point there, you're talking about leverage, and you kind of made a reference to leverage falling to the mid-twos over time. You know, as you look into next year, leverage falling, free cash flow continuing to build, is there kind of an updated view here on, you know, how the company views its strategic opportunities, you know, with a better balance sheet, and maybe a little bit more of a certain environment? Thank you.

Kimo Akiona (CFO)

Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, I think the strategic view is the same, and I think the point of us emphasizing and putting that number out there as a North Star is really just to keep emphasizing how focused we are on deleveraging the business, right? And you look at, I think, the strides that we've made in the operating performance of the company. You know, we have a bunch of initiatives around working capital management in different areas, and I think you're starting to see the early days of us being able to, you know, consistently produce quarterly free cash flow. So I think we put that number out there more, you know, not again, to change any kind of strategy or-

David Lopez (CEO)

...strategic view on the company, but more just to emphasize how focused we are on deleveraging the business.

Jordan Bender (Senior Equity Research Analyst of Gaming and Leisure)

Great. You talked about mechanical reel. Can you just maybe talk about the rollout for that, and then maybe what that means for the overall mix of the company?

David Lopez (CEO)

As far as rollout goes, like we said, sort of back half of the year, we'll probably be trying, trialing some of this in some test banks, perhaps a little bit before that. You know, as far as what it looks like for the company, I, I think it's really just maybe focused back on G2E a little bit and, and pre-G2Es actually, where we weren't actually, demonstrating the product, but they-- we gave them a sneak peek into that and our jumbo cabinet. We look at the lineup that we have right now with Spectra and really coming off Orion, and, and not really just hardware, but their belief in our content.

I think they're looking at the greater AGS portfolio and really saying: "Hey, this is a, a big step up, big step function up for this company moving forward." And it just allows us to use all these tools in the toolbox for our guys to sell in a, in a, you know, more comprehensive fashion. So having, you know, in the past only been in, as we use the term, one swim lane, now we're in multiple. We're in, you know, we're in four or five swim lanes, and this just gives our team a, a really a fantastic opportunity to go out there and, and compete with the best of the best. So we feel great about the mechanical reel. We feel, you know, fantastic about jumbo and, of course, our entire lineup at G2E that was shown, that was on the floor.

But it does come down to content, and that's where we have our most... You know, that's where we're absolutely most confident, the content, the game, the math itself.

Jordan Bender (Senior Equity Research Analyst of Gaming and Leisure)

Thank you very much.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question today comes from David Katz from Jefferies. David, your line is open. Please go ahead.

David Katz (Managing Director)

Good afternoon. This is a general question, but, you know, we're finding a lot of debate around whether your customers as operators, how they behave in circumstances where revenue may slow down a little bit, or profits may get compressed a little bit on top comps. You know, what is your experience, Dave, and Kimo, with respect to that? And, you know, how do they behave, broadly speaking?

David Lopez (CEO)

Yeah. Yeah. I think that, you know, this is a nice, like a bit of a debate that we all have sort of examined, perhaps since, you know, I don't want to say the end of COVID, because I just had COVID last week. But it, it's something that we all sort of been talking about for a couple of years now, and I think it's just as... It depends on the regions. You know, regionals might do one thing, Vegas Strip, you know, type destination will be another thing, and then there's always tribal and Canada. And, you know, I think for us, we know that we can put them in the segments. Some of those will be much more conservative, David, and then I think that there's others that sort of are in the middle.

And then I'll just be specific. Tribal and Canada tend to, you know, carry the day. They continue. They usually tend to be very consistent and at times even aggressive, because their businesses, they seem to really hum almost under, I don't want to say any circumstances, but in a mild pullback, they tend to do very well, and they continue to be aggressive through those times. I don't know if that's, you know, helpful, but I think, that's how we break it down into three areas there, which all told probably amounts to a fair bit of stability, David.

David Katz (Managing Director)

Right. So just to make sure I'm not paraphrasing incorrectly, you know, when operators are making decisions about whether to renovate this or that, or extend this or that, those should be treated, in most cases, as a discrete decision set versus, you know, how many slots they're going to buy and why. Is that fair?

David Lopez (CEO)

Yeah. I mean, if you're talking about... You know, it's interesting, if you're talking about CapEx on spend on property specifically, well, across the entire property and not specifically slots, I'd say that if you put us up against those, a lot of operators post-COVID, during COVID, may have just looked at things a little differently and said: "Hey, if we're going to spend money, let's invest on the casino floor, where we want to be competitive against, you know, our operational competitors in the region or on the strip or any, you know, of the like." And I think that, I think that manufacturers, you know, slot machines, table equipment, et cetera, have gotten a bit of a nod over maybe some new carpet or some other...

I'll call it, not as an operator and not as an expert there, non-revenue generating CapEx investments. So I do think, like, specific to this question and this comment you just made about, you know, paraphrasing it, I think that we get the nod on a bunch of that stuff as CapEx can tighten.

David Katz (Managing Director)

Thank you. That's perfect. Appreciate it.

David Lopez (CEO)

Thanks, David.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question this evening comes from Jeff Stantial from Stifel. Jeff, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Jeff Stantial (Managing Director and Equity Research of Gaming and Leisure)

... Hey, good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking our questions. Maybe starting out here on the EGM business, looks like domestic game ops installs about flat quarter-over-quarter. If I'm hearing you right, I think the narrative is, it sounds like, you know, some of your optimization efforts, you know, used to be called pruning, kind of offset the gross adds for Curve Premium and for Spectra 43. Is that a fair way to kind of characterize Q3 trends? And then, if so, as we look to 2024, should we expect overall similar, albeit lumpy, levels of kind of optimization? Is this more of a tapering trend? Just any thoughts there would help as we think about the outlook for net growth in the domestic install base. Thanks.

David Lopez (CEO)

Hey, thanks. So Q3 is probably a little bit different than what you mentioned there. Maybe not so much on the optimization front. In the second half of the year here, and in Q3, we saw it, you know, right towards the end of the quarter. I'd call some opportunistic converting to sales by customers that, you know, their budgets reset at the end of Q3 for us, our Q3. The end of their fiscal year is the end of the Q3 calendar year. So some of them, let's say, had some extra CapEx that may fall under the term use it or lose it.

And I would say, although I don't, you know, love convert to sales, you know, we're honored that they're selecting our product, because that means our product presents value, you know, and buying at that point in time. So I think what you're seeing there is a bit of outside of the normal cadence of convert to sales, mostly opportunistically by that use or lose it type capital, that's available. And you did ask, like, "Hey, you know," I'd say rather we'll be consistent in the way that we approach. I don't like to use the term pruning, but optimization. We'll continue to optimize. We have, you know, we have an install base, you know, that rivals many operators.

Many regional operators don't even have as many slots as we have out there in game ops. So it, you know, obviously, it's our responsibility to keep that up, and I think that we'll be rather consistent. And bearing in mind, when we say being good custodians of CapEx, we have a little bit more latitude when we have games like we've had on Spectra 43, and now what we're seeing on Spectra 49, and even some new games that I mentioned, you know, on Orion Curve, which is, you know, a little bit of an older cabinet. We have a little bit more latitude because with the game performance being higher, it's, I'd say, easier to be good custodians of the CapEx or the cash of our investors.

So, I think overall, relatively consistent, but some, I'll call it, better opportunities.

Jeff Stantial (Managing Director and Equity Research of Gaming and Leisure)

Okay, great. That's, that's helpful. Thank you, David. And then turning to, to capital allocation, looks like you ended the quarter with about $44 million cash on hand. Kimo, do you have a number in mind for minimum cash, given your R&D initiatives and some of the macro uncertainty that we continue to deal with? Or, or I guess approached differently, should we have a, kind of a rough timeframe in mind for when to expect free cash flow to start to be allocated to, to pay down on, on your term loan? Thanks.

Kimo Akiona (CFO)

I think as far as, like, a minimum cash level, we're, you know, we're pretty comfortable where we are now. You know, we've never, never given you, like, an exact number, right? But I think we're pretty comfortable where we are now. I think, again, like, just being focused on, on building the cash position as we move forward, which gives us, like, more flexibility, right? So I think... You know, is there an exact number where we'll make that decision? I think I wouldn't give you that number now. And, you know, we'll see where- as we put the decision-making in the sausage maker, right? We'll, we'll figure out when the, when is the right time to start paying down debt. I think what's more exciting, right, is as we build the cash position, we continue to execute and head on, head down this path of where we're going.

You know, what's more exciting, I think, is when we get to an event where we can perhaps reprice or refinance our debt structure, right? And maybe obviously target lowering our cash interest expense. So that's something that, you know, we're pretty focused on executing on something like that at this point.

Jeff Stantial (Managing Director and Equity Research of Gaming and Leisure)

Okay, great. Thanks very much, and nice quarter.

David Lopez (CEO)

Thanks.

Kimo Akiona (CFO)

Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question comes from Barry Jonas from Truist. Barry, your line is open. Please proceed with your question.

Ramin Sobhany (Equity Research Associate)

Hey, guys, this is Ramin Sobhani on for Barry. Thanks for taking our questions. There's been some regulatory noise in Mexico around a potential ban of slot machines. Can you talk about what you've heard on this and what you see as the likelihood of this happening?

David Lopez (CEO)

Yeah, we hear about stuff like this. We see this periodically in Mexico, and I think I'm coming up on 26 years in gaming and, you know, this is not the first time it's come around as something that has been talked about. I think sometimes it's used as a little bit of political saber-rattling, you know, prior to elections. Nothing that we consider to be a serious conversation. We're pretty dialed into it, needless to say, and there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of interested operating parties down there that are very big companies that have not indicated that anything like this would be serious.

Ramin Sobhany (Equity Research Associate)

Got it. Thanks for that.

... and then just taking a step back.

David Lopez (CEO)

Yeah.

Ramin Sobhany (Equity Research Associate)

In the past, you've guided to an adjusted EBITDA margin range of around 45%-47%. Do you see a path to returning to margins at that level at some point? And if so, what would that path look like?

Kimo Akiona (CFO)

I mean, you know, again, not ready to throw out a target in the future for you, but, you know, I'll say that we are, you know, as a leadership team, right, and across the company, we are focused on incrementally improving, you know, EBITDA margin consolidated. So I think, you know, you're starting to see that now. Obviously, there's a lot of puts and takes, right? And there's a lot of different variables that go into that. But again, not ready to put out a target, but, you know, we're intent on improving the margin as we move forward. And I think, you know, we have the different tools in the toolbox to do that. You know, like some of the premium initiatives that David talked about, I think some of the new products that we're rolling out.

I think you can see, you know, some of the initiatives we've already been working on. We're already gaining some, call it SG&A leverage, you know, as we move through this year. We expect to continue next year. R&D is really the one that we're intent on, you know, continuing to call it spend at the similar rate that we do today. That's the one that will be, will be ongoing. But, you know, again, intent on improving margin as we go forward, but not ready to quite give you a target just yet.

Ramin Sobhany (Equity Research Associate)

Got it. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Kimo Akiona (CFO)

Yeah, thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, Barry. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Chad Beynon from Macquarie. Chad, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Chad Beynon (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst of Gaming, Lodging, and Theatre)

Thank you. Evening. Thanks for taking my question. Wanted to ask about interactive, 20% year-over-year growth, which was the strongest growth within the segments. Kimo, you talked about Q4, maybe slightly lower growth than that, but really just wanted to have you guys expand a little bit in terms of what's working. Is it more titles, new markets? I know Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Jersey are the big markets, but at what point, you know, would you consider kind of moving into some of the bigger non-North American markets, given your pipeline? Thanks.

David Lopez (CEO)

I mean, I'm just going to be a little more specific. When you speak of non-North American markets, what do you, like, what would you refer to that as? Before I go answering a question that I don't 100% understand. Sorry for asking the question.

Chad Beynon (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst of Gaming, Lodging, and Theatre)

Sure. Other big iGaming markets like the United Kingdom.

David Lopez (CEO)

Okay. United Kingdom. I mean, you know, we do business, we do business in Europe, at this time. I think that most of our opportunity still lies within North America, and I think, you know, if you look at Eilers and you look at our success with game titles, and you look at sort of what we've done maybe over the last year or two, and how we're just posting up on Eilers right now in, in the top five for some of our game content. I think, Chad, for us, it's making sure that we're in every jurisdiction with every customer that we can be in, in North America, continue to do what we're doing in Europe, because we are still doing it there, right? But, cadence of rollout of new titles. And that's where we've made some of our investment.

You know, there's a little bit of a nugget that we had in the prepared remarks there, about, you know, we're gonna offer new content through those investments that we've made. So, A, we can put more content out with a better cadence, and then, B, you know, we'll be in a situation where we can offer new game types. We'll get into those game types maybe on another call, but they're some of the most popular ones, even as simple as we released our first three-reel games, Mega Diamond. So three-reel games are very popular, as you know. We released our very first one, and it's the best game that we've ever released by a huge margin. So, that's what we're excited about. It's all about content for us.

We think that content, content cadence, and really just taking a team that we have a lot of confidence in, from our R&D team to our commercialization team and our leadership there, we're just very comfortable and very confident in what they're capable of doing.

Chad Beynon (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst of Gaming, Lodging, and Theatre)

Okay, thanks. And then secondly, I wanted to ask-

David Lopez (CEO)

Thank you

Chad Beynon (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst of Gaming, Lodging, and Theatre)

... about just EGM sales within your guide. On the fourth quarter, you talked about Q4 sales higher than Q3, so that would effectively put you over the 5,000 ship share number for 2023, which is up over 25% year-over-year, and it's, I believe, the highest in your history. Is this kind of a new baseline foundation in terms of sales, given your market share gaining story? And how should we think about the seasonality, if what we're seeing in 2023 should be kind of how we should think about seasonality going forward? Thanks.

David Lopez (CEO)

Yeah, I mean, I'd have to dive in specifically on the seasonality that we're seeing. I think it always can move a little bit there, Chad. But you know, I think that we've got... I'll sort of lean a little bit back on the prepared remarks, that with what we showed at G2E, you know, with the things that we didn't show physically, but we gave previews of at pre-G2E, and the content that we've been rolling out, that we have the kind of momentum that we know we can look forward to sort of continued better days as far as not just our install base, game ops, RPD, et cetera, but you know, as far as game sales goes and our ability to sell into, let's say, those additional swim lanes. So we're feeling good about you know, where we're at.

Yeah, some of your calculations are right there. As we move into 2024, again, we're very confident with the, with the lineup that we, we showed at G2E and the stuff that we're going to roll out in the back half of the year. Do you have anything to add to that?

Kimo Akiona (CFO)

Yeah, Chad, the only thing I would say to add is that, you know, from a seasonality perspective, we've grown our EGM unit sales sequentially for 10 of the last 11 quarters. I think it really speaks to the momentum that we see behind the product. It's truly resonating with the customers. I think a telltale sign of that is if you look at G2E, you know, each week since G2E, the amount of inbound interest and our demand for our product has picked up each successive week. I think it's important to remember that we're, you know, we're in the market today with the first of our Spectra family of cabinets, which implies there's more to come.

49 is launching here in Q4, and we'll gain momentum in Q1, where we'll have two distinct products in the market at the same time, which really is a first for our company. And so I think we feel really good about the momentum that we have there, with some of the additional new products and swim lane entrances to come, in the back half of 2024.

Chad Beynon (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst of Gaming, Lodging, and Theatre)

Thank you both. We're getting a little greedy here, looking for 2024 commentary. Appreciate it.

David Lopez (CEO)

We appreciate it too. Thanks, Chad.

Operator (participant)

There are no further questions on today's call, so I'd like to close the call here, and thank you all very much for your participation. You may now disconnect your line.