Inspired Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:INSE) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 10, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Lorne Weil - Executive Chairman

Brooks Pierce - President and Chief Executive Officer

Stewart Baker - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Eric Carrera - Vice President, Corporate Development

Conference Call Participants

Barry Jonas - Truist Securities

David Bain - B. Riley

Chad Beynon - Macquarie

Jordan Bender - JMP

Edward Engel - ROTH

Ryan Sigdahl - Craig-Hallum

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Inspired Entertainment First Quarter 2023 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that today’s event is being recorded. Please refer to the company’s safe harbor statement that appears in the first quarter 2023 earnings press release, which is also available in the Investors section of the company’s website at www.inseinc.com. This safe harbor statement also applies to today’s conference call as the company’s management will be making certain statements that will be considered forward-looking under securities laws and rules of the SEC. These statements are based on management’s current expectations or beliefs and are subject to risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances. In addition, please note that the company will discuss both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation is included in the earnings press release.

With that completed, I would now like to turn the conference call over to Lorne Weil, the company’s Executive Chairman. Mr. Weil, please go ahead.

Lorne Weil

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our first quarter earnings call. Here with me today are Brooks Pierce and Stewart Baker, who will be presenting prepared remarks and also Eric Carrera, who is available to answer questions as appropriate.

I’ll keep my remarks this morning, fairly brief, focusing on important overarching financial comparisons, and a few particularly noteworthy specific business points. Brooks and Stuart will then go more deeply into operating in financial matters. As mentioned in the press release, there were a couple of important items that significantly impacted year-to-year financial comparisons. And because the first quarter is seasonally our lowest in terms of EBITDA, the impact of these is consequently magnified. In normal first quarters, we would have had a very significant marketing and exhibition expense, typically approaching about $1 million for the annual ICE event in the UK. While we did have the usualized in Q1 of ‘23 with associated expense, I think it was mentioned in the press release of $800,000. So there was no comparable event in the first quarter of 2022.