High Roller Technologies - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Executive Summary

• Q2 2025 delivered a return to positive adjusted profitability: revenue rose 20% YoY to $6.94M and Adjusted EBITDA turned positive to $0.36M, driven by optimized marketing and opex reductions; GAAP net loss narrowed to $0.59M from $1.50M YoY.
• ARPU increased approximately 80% QoQ; opex was significantly reduced, slowing cash burn, while the games portfolio expanded to 5,600+ titles and key leadership hires strengthened execution, notably in Finland and Canada.
• Ontario launch remains the near-term catalyst; ROLR signed a strategic technology partnership with Playtech to enter the market with launch anticipated in H2 2025, complemented by geolocation, KYC/ID, content, and AML partnerships to accelerate readiness.
• Street consensus for Q2 2025 revenue/EPS was unavailable via S&P Global; therefore, beat/miss vs estimates cannot be determined at this time (values checked on S&P Global).

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Positive adjusted EBITDA achieved: “High Roller was able to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA in Q2, underpinned by increased revenue, optimized marketing spend, and significant cost efficiencies” ($0.36M, 5.22% margin).
• ARPU strength and Finland performance: ARPU rose ~80% QoQ; re-optimized marketing drove a 65% YoY increase in Finland Net Gaming Revenue over the prior 6-month period, supporting regulated market readiness.
• Strategic execution and market entry readiness: Signed Playtech partnership and announced providers for geolocation (XPoint), ID verification (Checkin.com), content (Gaming Realms), and AML (Kinectify), positioning for H2 2025 Ontario launch.

What Went Wrong

• GAAP profitability remains negative: despite improvements, Q2 GAAP net loss was $0.59M, with loss from operations at $0.50M; net loss per share was $(0.07).
• Cash position declined sequentially: cash fell to $2.68M (restricted $0.93M) from $3.54M (restricted $0.99M) in Q1 2025, reflecting prior overspend and transition costs.
• Marketing overspend in Q1 weighed on H1 results: management acknowledged ~$4.1M of Q1 marketing overspend in non-growth territories, widening the Q1 operating loss and pressuring H1 profitability before Q2 optimization gains.

Transcript

Speaker 5

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to High Roller Technologies, Inc.'s second quarter 2025 earnings call. Before I turn the call over to High Roller Technologies, Inc.'s CEO, Ben Clemes, I'd like to remind you that this conference call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws with respect to future operations, financial results, events, trends, and performance, which are based on management's beliefs and assumptions as of today's call or other specified date. Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. See High Roller Technologies, Inc.'s financial results press release and SEC filings for information regarding specific risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ. Except as required by law, High Roller Technologies, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements.

I will now pass it over to Ben Clemes.

Speaker 3

Thank you. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. I would like to begin today's call by acknowledging the hard work of the entire High Roller Technologies, Inc. team to deliver a positive second quarter result, which represents a significant improvement from our first quarter this year. For those of you who have been following our journey, you'll recall that we underwent a significant strategic realignment, reconstituting our executive leadership team and refocusing our brand operations to high upside, high potential markets like Finland and Canada. I am pleased to say that this strategic shift has taken hold, and we are pleased with the track the business is on. From my vantage point, High Roller Technologies, Inc. has turned an important corner.

There's a lot of hard work ahead of us, to be sure, and we believe we are well positioned to continue to execute at a high level. Before we dive in, you would likely notice that within this period of transformation for High Roller Technologies, Inc., we received the notice of non-compliance with the NYSE listing standards. We did anticipate this, and we promptly addressed it by making all the relevant filings and notifications consistent with the requirements of the NYSE. We also submitted our compliance plans we exchanged on July 7, and we're confident that this will be resolved promptly. It is fair to say that we've been really busy. We have a lot to report, and we feel that there's a lot to be excited about leading into Q3, Q4, and beyond. We're shortly launching the third market-specific brand as part of our strategic focus.

In addition, our brand launch in Ontario is progressing well, and we anticipate being live there in Q4, pending the approval from the relevant regulatory authorities. Insiders have continued to buy High Roller Technologies, Inc. stock throughout Q2, demonstrating continued confidence in the business. Joining me on the call today are Adam Felman, Chief Financial Officer, and Seth Young, Chief Strategy Officer. Adam will go into more detail on the numbers, and Seth will provide a bit of commentary. I am going to steal some of your thunder and try to get them joining. Starting with this, I am thrilled to report that High Roller Technologies, Inc.'s targeted adjusted EBITDA result of $352,000 and adjusted earnings for this year are 4% in Q2. This is basically a complete turnaround from Q1, where we had adjusted EBITDA loss of $2.5 million. The new additions to our team have been immediately impactful.

We've staffed two roles at all levels of the business with incredibly strong talent, and the results are beginning to show the fruits of their labor. In this vein, we have reorganized our team to represent a more efficient, scalable structure, with clear reporting lines and strong localization, better preparing us for our future growth. We anticipate achieving operational economies of scale as we continue to expand our operating profile over time, based on this corporate reconfiguration. We've streamlined our marketing spend towards growth markets while winding down operations and revenue in non-core markets. Our revenue has managed to hold strong, while costs have been brought to optimized levels.

To this end, while our unique depositing customers were down for another quarter, which was expected and anticipated given our planned market closures, our net gaming revenue, unique depositing customers, is up nearly 80% to $340 over the same period, leading to modest quarter-over-quarter revenue growth. Revenue in our core market of Finland was up nearly 65% year-over-year from the previous six months' corresponding period ending June 30, 2024. This demonstrates strong year-over-year growth. Metrics across key performance indicators are healthy, giving us strong momentum as we progress towards securing our license and launching our brand in Ontario. With that, I'm pleased to introduce our Chief Financial Officer, Adam Felman, who will go into further details on our financial performance.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Ben. Good afternoon. Starting with our financial overview, as Ben mentioned, we have feasible thought that High Roller Technologies, Inc. delivered quarter-on-quarter revenue growth, while simultaneously cutting costs across the board. This led to a positive adjusted EBITDA of $362,000 as compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of approximately $2.5 million in the first quarter. As such, our adjusted earnings per share this quarter were 4% as compared to the adjusted loss per share of 30% for the first quarter of 2025. Our total revenue for the quarter was up 3% from the first quarter to $6.9 million, with net gaming revenue increasing 12%. Our strategic focus on regulated and deregulated markets continues, with Finland representing 57% of net gaming revenue for the first six months of 2025. This compares to 39% for the first six months of 2024.

Our net cash position for the period ended June 30, 2025, stands at approximately $3.6 million, of which $934,000 is restricted. This compares to $4.5 million for the first quarter of this year, of which approximately $1 million was restricted. Leading our restricted cash, quarter-on-quarter, our cash flow dropped significantly by 75%. We have made significant improvements to our balance sheet, underpinned by substantial reductions in nearly all expense lines as a percentage of total revenue. Further, accounts payable have been reduced by approximately 44% when compared to December 2024, while advertising and promotional costs have been reduced from 61% of total revenue in the first quarter to just 26% in Q2. While the total number of unique depositing customers in Q2 was down from Q1, as Ben highlighted, wagering activity in Q2 of approximately $153 million was nearly identical to that of Q1.

This represents an increase in average revenue per user of nearly 80%, with each customer wagering an average of nearly $8,000 in Q2. This results in a checkpoint both for our refocused efforts on targeted high-value user acquisition and to optimize our retention strategies. In just one quarter, we have managed to significantly extend cash flow, optimize operations, and deliver a positive adjusted EBITDA result. Our Q2 results are past our expectations detailed in our HQ business update, which we released in June. A truly remarkable improvement that is particularly salient as we prepare to enter new markets in the second half of this year. On a personal note, I'm so thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to such an exciting growth company. As we work through the transition between Q1 and Q2, we have hit the ground running, implementing operational and strategic change from day one.

I've been incredibly impressed with the work ethic and acumen of the entire High Roller Technologies, Inc. team, and I'm really, really confident about our future. With that, I will hand it over to Seth Young for some closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Ben, and thank you, Adam. Good afternoon, everybody. As a young, high-potential growth company in the public markets, we recognize that, among other things, it's of tantamount importance for us to be consistent, transparent, and credible with our existing and prospective shareholders. As both Adam and I mentioned, our second quarter was underpinned by tight operations and stronger execution against a strategic roadmap built to deliver long-term shareholder value. It is in this spirit that I think it's important for us to say a few things out loud since where we've been prior to Q2 is not necessarily the best indicator of where this business is heading. When High Roller Technologies, Inc. underwent its IPO in late 2024, that story was a bit different than the one you're hearing today.

Following the IPO, the first real quarter of the company's public bearing in Q1 of this year was, by anybody's account, less than stellar, not up to the standard that we expected of ourselves. We recognize that those results probably didn't do much to earn the confidence of our existing and prospective investors. We put a plan in place. There's no silver bullet for instant success, but we're really, really pleased with the direction that our future results are signaling, and our intent is to continue to do exactly what we say we're going to do in an effort to continue building your trust and confidence in High Roller Technologies, Inc. Our plan represented executing against a few key pillars, and the intent of this plan was not just to improve short-term results, but to lay the groundwork for a sustainable future. So far, we're tracking very well against it.

The first pillar was reconstituting the leadership team. Leading into the second quarter, High Roller Technologies, Inc. parted ways with its incumbent Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Product Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Financial Officer. Those key roles were replaced by myself, the Chief Strategy Officer, Adam Felman, the Chief Financial Officer, Emily Metalis, our Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal & Compliance Officer, Charlotte Cappuccicci as Managing Director for Canada, and Sarah Nunez as Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer of Finland. Additionally, the Marketing and Retention Department was fully reconstituted with senior localized talent focused on the execution of our multi-brand profile and our strategic marketing focus. So far, so good. The second pillar was housekeeping and executing the cleanup. Broadly speaking, we identified key opportunities for performance increases across multiple departments.

Our CFO transition to Adam Felman was an important step in solidifying our leadership team moving forward, and Adam has more than repeated the occasion, both as a team leader and an executor, with the ability to think critically and strategically. As Chief Legal & Compliance Officer, Emily Metalis also rose to the occasion, leading the reorganization of our team, instituting clear reporting lines, instituting clear business processes meant to help us achieve those operational economies of scale as we continue to invest and expand. We also recognize that a hard left turn from a global operating profile to one with more of a laser focus towards these large, high-potential regulated markets would require exceptional local talent and strong corporate governance. To this end, Charlotte Cappuccicci and Sarah Nunez have all risen to the occasion as well, with Charlotte and Sarah leading strong localized teams.

All of the new additions to the High Roller Technologies, Inc. team have been immediately impactful in their areas, as evidenced by our Q2 results. The team is highly focused, growing in the same direction, it's going really well. The third pillar of our plan was raising awareness of our business within the investment community. Following Q1, High Roller Technologies, Inc. has been actively taking steps to raise its profile in the global investment community through participation in non-deal roadshows in various global cities, executive conferences, many one-on-one meetings with analysts, and so on, to build familiarity with the business and its high-growth intent. Our positioning as the only real-money online casino platform of our size in the public market is really compelling, and the High Roller Technologies, Inc. story has generally been very well received. Our High Roller brand resonates with anyone that encounters it, really.

It's one of those brands where you don't need to tell anybody what it is. It's casino. It's intuitive, and this, coupled with our thoughtful multi-brand approach to key markets, is really powerful. We also have growing recognition of the depth of experience of our founding and executive team, which gained a tremendous amount of strength throughout Q2, as we've highlighted. There is growing recognition around the value of our strategic alliance with Spike Up Media, arguably the world's best online gambling customer acquisition firm, and the positive impact that this partnership is expected to have on our unique economics. Our marketing capabilities through Spike Up Media is a major differentiating factor in our business relative to our peers. It really cannot be understated.

Today, we're here with a motivated, highly experienced team, solid go-to-market plan and operational strategy, important lessons learned, and a quarterly result representing an incredibly strong proof point in our journey. We're really appreciative for your support during this transformative time. For those of you that might be invigorated by these developments over the last few months, we're even more excited to hear that we've barely scratched the surface. Hopefully, this helps you understand why we're so excited about what we believe the future holds for High Roller Technologies, Inc. At this stage, we're happy to open the floor to Q&A. If we do not get to everybody, we're more than happy to follow up directly with those that have attended. Thank you so much.

Speaker 5

Thank you. With that, we will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star two to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. One moment while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from the line of Ashi Shka with Sidothi & Company. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 4

Thank you, and congratulations on the quarter. I have a couple of questions. First one, starting with the average revenue per user that increased 18% quarter over quarter. Can you help us understand what drove this improvement? Going forward, what should we expect the level of ARPU to be? Will it normalize or continue at this level that we saw this quarter?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Ashi. I appreciate the question. My understanding of the question is, what drove the improvements in the ARPU quarter over quarter? Your second part of the question, Shiro teaser? I'm so sorry.

Speaker 4

Yeah, it's just that what should we expect the ARPU to be going forward? Like, will it normalize, or is it going to continue at this level that you reported this quarter?

Speaker 2

Got it. Thank you. Generally speaking, the quarter over quarter improvement of ARPU was a refocus of our marketing spend in key markets, a focus on acquiring more high-value users, really just a general refocus on the CRM. I believe we sort of reconstituted the management team both at the true level and at the middle levels, with really good local talent. I want to chalk it up to a stronger focus with strong talent, really across the board for our operation, from acquisition all the way down to retention. As far as the second question goes, in terms of what expectations may be, we're not providing guidance per se, but we really are focused on growth and the core markets that we continue to work in. We're pretty pleased with the performance delivering a positive EBITDA direction.

We feel that this quarter better represents our capabilities as a company than Q1. Hopefully, that's what I'll be able to help answer for you.

Speaker 4

Sure. Thank you. You have about $3.6 million in cash right now. How comfortable are you with current liquidity given your expansion plans? Do you expect to raise any capital in the near term?

Speaker 2

Yes, I'll take that. As far as cash flow in the near term, we're pretty comfortable with where we are right now. Our efforts throughout Q2 to reduce costs and stabilize and increase global new acceptable success in the market expansion were all through the lens of ensuring the company has sufficient cash flow ongoing. As far as your question about a raise, right now, we're not looking at raising capital from Wall Street hedge funds or institutions, but we are talking to some strategics in our space. We've all been in the industry quite a long time. We know a lot of companies, a lot of individuals in the gaming business. We have some very well-tailed founders in the company. I doubt they'd want to raise capital from the market at these levels that we're at today. Right now, we're just considering raising money like that as an option.

Speaker 4

The launch in Ontario is something that's really that people are looking forward to. Can you just provide a little detail on the second half Ontario launch timeline and the marketing strategy for entering the Canada market?

Speaker 2

Yeah, absolutely. We're really excited about launching in Ontario, and our expectation is that the High Roller Technologies, Inc. launch in that market will be a big plus for the company. I've already mentioned our marketing relationship with Spike Up Media, and I can't stress this enough, they're really, really strong in Ontario. We'd expect to do well there. Outside of Ontario being the sixth largest regulated online gambling market in the world, it has the total addressable revenue opportunity of roughly $2.5 billion and counting. Almost 75% of that is casino revenue as opposed to sports betting revenue. It's also growing every day. Spike Up Media's strengths here and their partnership with us was definitely part of the calculus as we considered where we'd focus our efforts. We're a casino-led brand. We have one of the best brand names I've ever seen. Our product is super strong.

The Canadian player is educated, and typically, casino-led brands backed by strong operators have shown a proclivity to overinvest their fair market share, a bit more portion of the total addressable revenue opportunity in these markets. We definitely believe we're going to be successful in Ontario and then eventually in Alberta, following that. We're by all accounts on track for the launch in the back half of the year. We don't have a hard date to give you, but nothing is free from a free discount period on this market.

Speaker 4

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Speaker 5

Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one. Our next question comes from the line of Steve Sniper with StoreBridge Investments. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 0

Following up on one of the answers to the last question and the way you guys answered that to Q1. On the Q1 call, when we discussed capital needs, you had anticipated a turnaround, which did happen in Q2, and you didn't think there was going to be any need to raise capital. You thought you'd make it through. Based on your answer to the prior question, where you said management probably doesn't have much interest in raising capital down here, unless it's strategics or whatnot, is that we don't want to raise capital or the answer is still we don't need to raise capital. We might do it opportunistically, but we still have enough cash flow that we think we can get where we need to go without raising capital.

Speaker 2

It's the latter. I think it would be foolish of us not to be opportunistic and looking at everything. We are considering any number of interesting strategic opportunities. In the normal course of the business, we pursue looking at all kinds of interesting opportunities to power our expansion for the growth. We haven't provided any other information other than what I just said previously. We have been talking to some strategics. It doesn't change the fact that we are comfortable where we are. We do have pretty well-heeled founders, a strong backing, and we're really comfortable with how we're moving. Q2 is good, right? Q2 is effectively a complete turnaround from Q1. We do think this is a better way for those that are on this call to look at our business and our capabilities moving forward.

We're not providing any guidance yet about what revenue could look like for Ontario, for Alberta. Hopefully, sometime next year after we get our feet under us in those markets, we'll consider doing so. For the moment, we're head down, focused on executing against the roadmap. Machine is doing great. We're just in a great place, and we're really excited about our results in Q2.

Speaker 0

Great, thank you.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Steve.

Speaker 5

Thank you. With that, this does conclude the question and answer session, as well as concluding the conference. We thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.