CTS Eventim AG & Co. KGaA ($EVD)
Earnings Call Transcript · May 28, 2026
Highlights from the call
In Q1 2026, CTS Eventim AG reported a strong performance with group revenue of EUR 630 million, reflecting a 23% increase year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA grew by 18.5% to EUR 119 million, while EPS rose to EUR 0.66, up EUR 0.18 from the previous year. Management maintained their guidance for the year, citing that Q1 is typically the least relevant quarter for full-year outcomes, but expressed optimism about continued growth driven by their ticketing and live entertainment segments.
Main topics
- Strong Revenue Growth: CTS Eventim achieved group revenue of EUR 630 million, a 23% increase compared to Q1 2025. CFO William Willms stated, "The first quarter of 2026 demonstrates that we are continuing our course of profitable growth."
- Adjusted EBITDA Performance: Adjusted EBITDA rose to EUR 119 million, an 18.5% increase year-over-year. Willms noted that this reflects "the operational leverage of our platform," indicating strong underlying business performance.
- Ticket Volume Decline: Retail ticket volume slightly declined to 39 million tickets from 40 million in Q1 2025, attributed to a structural change in a partner contract. Management clarified that this decline is not a demand signal, stating, "the volume softness in Q1 2026 is due to the explained 1-time effect and not a demand signal."
- Live Entertainment Segment Growth: The Live Entertainment segment reported revenues of EUR 44 million, a significant increase from EUR 292 million last year, driven by strong performances in Germany and the U.S. Willms highlighted that this growth reflects a "strong portfolio of shows in Germany and the United States."
- Operational Excellence Program: Management initiated an operational excellence program aimed at enhancing capabilities, which temporarily increased costs. Willms stated, "Although this temporarily leads to higher cost now -- this will be compensated by future efficiency gains."
Key metrics mentioned
- Revenue: EUR 630 million (vs EUR 512 million est, +23% YoY)
- Adjusted EBITDA: EUR 119 million (vs EUR 100 million est, +18.5% YoY)
- EPS: EUR 0.66 (up EUR 0.18 vs Q1 2025)
- Ticket Volume: 39 million tickets (vs 40 million tickets in Q1 2025, -2.5% YoY)
- Live Entertainment Revenue: EUR 44 million (compared to EUR 292 million last year, +30% YoY)
- Adjusted EBITDA Margin: 19.4% (vs 21% in Q1 2025)
Overall, CTS Eventim's strong Q1 performance highlights its growth trajectory, particularly in live entertainment and ticketing. However, the slight decline in ticket volume and the maintenance of guidance suggest caution. Investors should monitor the impact of the operational excellence program and competitive dynamics in the European market as potential catalysts or risks moving forward.
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Operator
OperatorAnd welcome to the CTS Eventim AG Q1 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Dr. William Willms.
William Willms
ExecutivesGood evening to everybody, and good morning to our participants from the United States. Welcome to CTS Eventim earnings call for the first quarter of 2026. Thank you very much for joining, and I sincerely hope that you can understand me well. I'm William Willms, as mentioned, Chief Financial Officer of CTS Eventim, and I'm delighted to take you through our first quarter results today. On my side is Marco Haeckermann, our Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy. Hello, everyone. Dive into the details. Please allow me a brief word on the structure of the call, as usual, today, we will focus exclusively on our Q1 2026 financial results potential performance. I will walk you through the headline numbers, segment results and certain P&L drivers and at the end of the presentation, we will be happy to open the floor for your questions. Let me start with the headline KPIs for Q1 2026. In summary, we keep on growing. Group revenue came in at EUR 630 million, up 23% versus Q1 2025. This reflects a robust start into the year. Adjusted EBITDA grew by 18.5% to EUR 119 million, and our EBIT grew by 23.7% benefiting from the operational leverage of our platform. On retail ticket volume, we recorded 39 million tickets broadly on prior year level, the slight decline reflects an effect on our business, and I will dive into this later in more detail. GTV grew by 3.3% on a last 12-month basis, reflecting continued platform scale and EPS for the quarter stood at EUR 0.66, up EUR 0.18 versus Q1 2025, again, a positive development. The first quarter of 2026 demonstrates that we are continuing our course of profitable growth. And the start of 2026 is worth mentioning, but within our expectations. The next slide shows the historical Q1 trend with consistent and compounding growth over the past years. As already mentioned, group revenue grew by 23% to EUR 630 million this quarter, a steady per quarter growth since 2023. Also, adjusted EBITDA grew from EUR 100 million to EUR 190 million, representing, as mentioned before, a growth by 18.5%. Again, there is a steady and robust growth trajectory since 2023. In Q1 2026, the adjusted EBITDA margin comes out at 19.4% compared to 21% in Q1 in 2025. Please note that this does not represent a structural deterioration of our margin but is solely a weighted mix effect of the 2 segments. Live entertainment accounts for a larger share of the group's revenue compared to the previous year and life and entertainment margins are structurally lower than ticketing. On EBIT, the outperformance in Q1 2026 versus prior year is also notable. This operational achievement reflects the quality of our earnings base. Let's have a closer look into our ticketing business. In Q1 2026, the ticketing business continued its growth trajectory delivering revenue above prior year. As reported in our last earnings call, we had a structural change in 1 of our partner business contracts becoming a partnership based on retail ticket allotments. This was our contract with Stage Entertainment. Taking this effect into consideration, ticketing came out on a like-for-like basis in Q1 2026 at about plus 6%. Adjusted EBITDA in Q1 2026 was slightly above prior year. The adjusted EBITDA margin roughly on previous level. Both EBITDA and EBITDA margin are in line with our internal expectations. As we started with our operational excellence program, Q1 was about building capabilities in talent, which we consider an important first step. Although this temporarily leads to higher cost now -- this will be compensated by future efficiency gains. Like-for-like EBITDA in Q1 2026 has outgrown the reported EBITDA performance of just plus 1%. And develops in line with the above-mentioned like-for-like revenue growth. To sum up, ticketing remains our high-quality earnings stream and Q1 reaffirms its resilience. Retail ticket volume. On retail ticket volumes, Q1 2026 delivered 39 million tickets compared to 40 million tickets in Q1 2025, a modest decline. This is mainly attributed to the structural change in our partner business in Q1 2026 as explained before, 2/3 of the ticket volume are generated outside Germany, a significant marchstone reflecting the successful internationalization of our platform and reflecting our moat in Europe. Putting everything together, the volume softness in Q1 2026 is due to the explained 1 time effect and not a demand signal and especially not the result of increased competition. Turning to our Live Entertainment segment. Live Entertainment delivered a strong performance in the first quarter. strong, but within the expected range. Revenues went up to EUR 44 million compared to EUR 292 million last year, an increase of well over 30% and surpassing prior years as shown in the chart. Adjusted EBITDA came out strong to EUR 29 million compared to EUR 12 million in Q1 2025. The margin expanded to 7.2%. This improvement in our live entertainment business reflects 2 factors: first, a strong portfolio of shows in Germany and the United States and second, a growing contribution from our venue business to be detailed on the next slide. Let's go down into our Venue business as an integral part of our flywheel strategy. Venue management maintains an important and high-quality earnings stream. With revenues at EUR 40 million and an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 18 million, margins structurally stable and are very much comparable to the margins we generate in our ticketing segment. Worth mentioning in this context is the following: after hosting the Olympic ectopy tournament in February with about 400,000 visitors the Unipol Tom in Milan opened for music concerts in May this year. The Milan arena contributes, therefore, already to the operational results and is a meaningful addition to our high-margin Venue portfolio. Last, but not least, let me walk you through the P&L bridge for Q1 2026. In addition to the adjusted EBITDA of EUR 119 million, which I have already explained in detail, we were able to report a positive financial result of approximately EUR 9 million. The change of around EUR 13 million compared to the previous year is primarily attributable to favorable exchange rate effects. Taking all this together, the EU EPS amounts to EUR 0.66 showing an increase of EUR 0.18 per share versus last year. Again, this reflects the combination of both operational momentum and an improved financial result. To sum up and what to take away from today's call are the 3 following things. First quarter of 2026 is in line with our expectations, and we remain positive for the remainder of the year. We have seen solid organic growth on group level, live entertainment and ticketing on a like-for-like basis. And thirdly, the operational excellence program has started and marks the for 2030 ambitions. That 1 concludes our remarks for Q1 2026. I hope this has been insightful for you, and many thanks for your attention. Operator, let's jump into the Q&A. Please open the line now.
Operator
Operator[Operator Instructions] The first one is from Edward William.
Edward Vyvyan
AnalystsWilliam, Marc have 2, if that's all right. So first, I just want to come back to something I asked at full year results. So 2 of the most common pushbacks we tend to hear from investors on the stock are 1 AI disintermediation risk and two, intensifying competition from your main U.S. competitor in Europe. So could you maybe walk us through how you're positioned on both of those and how you want investors to think about them? And then my second question was just on mobile ticketing. It's been discussed in the past as a pretty attractive margin lever for the ticketing business, but maybe you could give us an update on where the strategy and rollouts it today.
Marco Haeckermann
ExecutivesYes, it's Marco. Let me start off, and then I add William, and he can conclude. So starting off with our friends in North America. I mean, we all know it's a great company. Microrepino has done a terrific job basically in building U.S. live entertainment over more than a decade. And yes, But on the other side, when a company this scale faces that kind of structural uncertainty at home, international growth narrative, of course, serve a dual purpose for them. They are genuine business activity, and they are also a signal to investors and regulators that growth can continue regardless of how the legal domestic situation resolves for them. So we understand this completely. And we think investors or the capital markets should weigh Live Nation's European ambition accordingly as a capital deployment option driven partly by domestic constrained, not solely by European opportunity. So the critical question for us is does that constrain it partially defensive internationalization represent a meaningful threat for us? And the answer is no. And let me now strip out a little bit more why we are convinced that this is a big node for us. So in Europe, primary ticketing is a relationship and compliance business. Venue operators and promoters in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Benelux, Spain and France. They are not switching systems because of Live Nation's undisputable, very strong position in the United States, yes. These customers, they are evaluating reliability, regulatory compliance, commercial terms and platform capability. And on all these dimensions, we are the incumbent in Europe. And incumbents in this industry are rarely displaced without a contractual or technological discontinuity. And to be honest, we don't see any of this on the horizon. William, do you have anything.
William Willms
ExecutivesYes. Let me close with the forward framing. First of all, we will present to all of you a detailed view of our competitive positioning and our growth architecture at the Capital Markets Day. It is to say that we will announce the date very, very soon. What I, however, would like all of you to take away is the following: -- the structural tabs and European life entertainment are strong. Our ticketing segment is compounding at record levels. And as Marco outlined, the regulatory, and I could also say perhaps the reputational pressure on our principal global competitor is, if anything, an accelerate for our European growth and consolidation thesis and not an -- so all in all, we are therefore very, very confident with respect to our structural mode in Europe, and we see this as untouched.
Marco Haeckermann
ExecutivesSo -- and then let me follow up with the AI part, yes. And I mean everyone knows that we all hold this industry very dear to our heart. And so let me start with a little bit of an intro before we come to more clearer specifics, yes. So I mean, 1 thing is very sure live will always be live, right? -- not a product that can be digitized, automated or replicated by any technology, including AI, yes? When thousands of people come together in the same room for the same performance, they are participating in something categorically irreplaceable. In my belief and in our belief as a company. And this is not some kind of a nostalgic observation. It's really a structural fact that underlines our entire business model and our confidence in the long-term growth of this industry, not only in Europe but globally, yes. AI-generated music on the other side is a real thing, and it's growing. And we view this not really from that perspective where the market tends to look at it as a source of fear and concern. We look at it from an opposite perspective because what is happening there is that for us, it rewards authenticity, yes, the growing content, which is AI generated on the immune side. The more the digital environment fill with algorithmically produced content, the more scarce and valuable the genuine out becomes right? A real artist, a real stage, a real audience, communities form around true artists, precisely because of shared experiences of seeing the music here for getting all the day-to-day hassles. And this cannot be replicated by any technology. So we are, if anything, structurally positioned to benefit from this dynamic. And now digging a little bit deeper into more specifics, -- the question of our AI strategy becomes much clearer because we are not deploying AI to reinvent what live entertainment is, but we are deploying it to serve the entire value chain that surrounds the life experience much better with more intelligence, more efficiency and, of course, with a compounding advantage at every layer. And for example, these players when you look at discovery and demand generation, pricing, inventory optimization, transaction and access integrity, the whole live event operations post event retention. So internally, we are deploying AI across all our operations, whether it will be customer service automation, engineering productivity, internal knowledge management as efficiency plays to primarily reduce our unit cost of serving the fan and the promoter and to free capacity for much higher value work. Sorry, I've blown out all my powder.
William Willms
ExecutivesYes. That's to summarize many thanks, Marco, what you just said. The common denominator of all of this is that AI amplifies the value of what we already have. i.e., the proprietary data, the platform scale, the European reach, the trusted relationships with artists and our promoters and with the venue to choose and there choose us and where their success depends also on our success. And this is something which is not replaceable by AI. This is absolutely unique. So therefore, AI does not change the nature of our moat. It raises, however, it's high and every layer simultaneously as just outlined by Marco Again, we will share further details on the AI-enabled components of our road map, platform road map, growth strategy at our Capital Markets Day. But I would like you to take away is that the business we are in is irreplaceable by definition, the platform we have built is deeply embedded across the entire European live entertainment value chain. And AI is the tool by which we will compound that advantage and it's not a certain variable that introduces uncertainty into it. Now I hope this was helpful and answered the question you had. So many thanks for asking it. You, however, a second question on mobile ticketing. Mobile ticketing is growing. We see already mid-double-digit percentage as the channel of buying tickets for our customers, i.e., our fans or the fans.
Operator
OperatorThe next question is from Annick Mass Basin.
Annick Maas
AnalystsI have 4 questions tonight. First of all, you had a very strong start to the year, definitely better than many had expected. So why is the outlook unchanged today? The second question is, clearly, this strong performance has come from live entertainment and you've highlighted that it was U.S. and German touring, but also the Milan venue that have contributed here. Now I didn't see the slide. So maybe you showed this on the slide, but could you maybe just give us the buckets of how much of the contribution was due to Milan, how much due to the U.S. storing it and how much due to German toing. Third question is on naming rights for Milan. Was the first quarter fully integrating naming rights as in was a full 1 quarter included. And then the last 1 is on the LA Olympics. Can you just explain us again when and how the P&L and cash flow impacts or what they are going to be with regards to the LA Olympics.
William Willms
ExecutivesOlympics you asked?
Annick Maas
AnalystsYes. The last question was on the Olympics, how the P&L versus the cash flow impact is going to impact over the next quarters.
William Willms
ExecutivesOkay. So first question, change in guidance Yes, no. Yes. As you said, we had a good start, a very good start in 2026. However, as you know, our guidance is only 2 months old. Please also take into account that Q1 is indeed the least relevant quarter for full year -- for the full year outcome for this reason we reiterate our guidance for now. However, I can say will remain positive and we will revisit this topic when we talk next time in August or in the summer later in the summer. To how do we expect ticketing performance? I think the next question. Q1 was in line with our...
Annick Maas
AnalystsActually, no, it was actually with regards to life entertainment, how much of the revenue step-up was coming from Milan, how has how much was coming from U.S. storing and how much was coming from German touring? If that could be split up?
William Willms
ExecutivesOkay. In the first quarter, Miran is included at a margin in line with the established core loan arena. And I would refer to the chart in which we saw in terms of the split between the promoter business and venues. We don't give a split between Germany and in the U.S. However, both were very, very strong in Germany, especially with the unmet. And what I could add is while the venue business continued to operate at a consistently high EBITDA margin level of approximately 46%, the margin remains broadly stable year-on-year. Ale, do you want to say something on L.A., Marco?
Marco Haeckermann
ExecutivesYes. Nick, it's Marco. With regards to your question of LA. So as everyone knows, it's a 3-year contract. It's a project-based business for us. So we started in 2026 in the last -- and effect us 2027 and 2028, of course, yes. And from a scope perspective, I think it's fair to frame it over the entire year or length of the contract as something that is about to generate according to our expectations, revenue of something in the low triple-digit millions, yes, with average margins we've seen in other projects like this.
Operator
OperatorThe next question is from Craig Abbott, Kepler. The floor is yours.
Craig Abbott
AnalystsYes. I hope you hear me. My first question is just getting addressing the cash flow was quite weakened admittedly traditionally seasonally weak Q1. I just wondered if you could give us some insight on how you expect to see that develop in the coming quarters and that, in particular, I'm talking about the operating cash flow. But then the investing cash flow, I assume there were remaining on investments there. Could we expect then those ease off in the coming quarters? If you could shed some light on how you expect to see the cash flow development would be great. And the second question is I just wondered if you had any update to provide on your say, strategy to try to find a partner or partners for a propco opco type partnership for potential future venue projects. Yes. And the third 1 was just if you could give us any insights on Q2, my last one, sorry. Any insights on particularly bearing in mind that you had a very weak quarter last year in live entertainment with the cost overruns at several festivals, if you could shed any kind of light there. Kind of help us out, it would be great.
William Willms
ExecutivesOkay. Perhaps not in the order of your question. Let me start with the question on the venue structure. As you rightly mentioned, we follow a propco/opco strategy. We follow the idea and we confirm the idea of an asset-light model for the entire company. Having said this, this is work in progress, but we are in accordance with our planning. -- more details can be shared later this year. As I mentioned in the last call and in our bilateral discussions, -- these are very structured or highly structured discussions and negotiations with a variety of different partners. So please rest assure we are working on this very hard. Nothing has changed that we want to keep only a minority share in PropCo. And in other words, we will preserve the asset-light model. But we don't have a result yet, which -- which can be announced at this state. Q2, Q2 perhaps there's something to share on LA ticket sales in the sense that all ticket sales have started in the U.S., and it has been communicated by the IOC that the first ticket drop for LH '28 was sold successfully with demand exceeding expectations by far. Having said this, this is not surprising and is part of our budget, respectively, outlook already. And more details, especially on this will be shared then in the Q2 earnings call. Live entertainment, live entertainment, Marcel, do you want to add something.
Marco Haeckermann
ExecutivesI'm taking on life entertainment discussing this since last year, of course, yes. So I mean the good thing is that we had a very good start into this year with Live entertainment -- and as we've already said in our full year earnings call end of March, that we have done a lot of homework there, yes, because as the main topic has been the performance of the festivals, not particular to CTS, but festivals all over the place. And as we have said already in March, that we have done some cleaning there, yes. So which should -- or at least gives us confidence come into Q2, life entertainment year-over-year, yes, that we have seen or at least I'd say we are very confident, yes. On the other side, you know as well that so far, what has been announced the large festivals for this year, for example, Roaming and Rock & Parker sold out, great lineups. So from this perspective, to comment on current trading and what we would expect, particularly for live entertainment in this second quarter, yes, we see much more sun shining rather than rainy cloud.
William Willms
ExecutivesOkay. Then the last question, operating cash flow. Given the seasonal nature of the business, we expect operating cash flow to improve significantly over the course of the year with the strongest cash flow generation typically occurring in Q3 and Q4 reflecting the seasonal strength of the ticketing segment in the year-end period. I hope this helps, right? And we are very confident there very strong there on operating cash flow later this year.
Craig Abbott
AnalystsOkay. And on the investing cash flow, I mean, can we expect that number to come down now after Q1 with the Milan venue for the operational.
William Willms
ExecutivesThere will be certain investments still to be done, right? The final amount, which we will have spent, so to speak, on the arena will be determined at the end by also the contributions from the city of Milan. But nothing in the range you have seen before. These are now -- I mentioned this before, I think in the earnings call, smaller amounts on technical equipment, microphones, et cetera. So the large bulk of the world, yes, i.e., the construction work that has been done, okay?
Operator
OperatorThe next question is from Olivier Calvet, UBS.
Oliver Wojahn
AnalystsMarco. I have 3, if I may. Firstly, could you come back on the retail ticket volume decline? So I understand this is a partner business, but -- can you maybe further specify if you include stage entertainment in the comparable period? And could you maybe roll out any element of demand softness or competitive pressure there? The second question would be on geography. If there was any noticeable impact of some of the big slates that were announced in the first couple of months of the year on your plans for ticketing in terms of on sales? And thirdly, just a follow-up on ignoring any potential contributions from the municipality of Milan. What's the remaining CapEx budget you will have for the year? If you can comment on that, that would be great.
William Willms
ExecutivesOkay. Perhaps first on retail ticket volumes, smallest declined 4.4% year-on-year, as you already mentioned. Without disclosing confidential information, the retail ticket volume development year-on-year is mostly indeed stage. But what I would like to take you away more importantly, is that ticketing revenues are up year-on-year, which underlines the quality of our ticket volume in Q1 '26. So the volume in itself is not necessarily therefore, an indicator for the robustness and healthiness of our business. So this 1 ticket retail volume I would also take the question on CapEx. And Marco, you take the third one. Here, it's a mid-double-digit euro amount. I mentioned this in the last call already. And as I said, it's more technical equipment than anything else. Marco, if you take the...
Marco Haeckermann
ExecutivesOlivier, it's Marco. I'll take the question on the pipeline and the roster so far. I mean so far, has been in line with previous years. So there were neither positive nor negative outliers, yes. But I mean, there are many, many good act still in the pipeline for the remainder of the year. But as you know, we've gone more of that, the more we enter the second half of the year, yes. But for now, I think it compares very well, and there have been neither positive nor negative outliers in the terms of big on sales across all geographies.
Operator
OperatorThe next question is from Lars from Cliff Bank.
Lars Vom Cleff
AnalystsYes. I would have 2 questions, if I may. You already mentioned that you're seeing first benefits of the operational excellence program. Would you also be willing to share the costs of the program with us? And how much, for example, has affected Q1 profitability.
William Willms
ExecutivesYou said you had 2 questions is the 1.
Lars Vom Cleff
AnalystsThat was the first one. And the second 1 was, you were kind enough to share the revenue impact of the stage entertainment business that is unfortunately not with you anymore. Would you also be willing to share the impact on the profitability level with us? Or is it differently, can we assume that the EBITDA margin of the business you lost is comparable to your ticketing division's margin on average?
William Willms
ExecutivesOkay. Let me start with operational excellence. I will divide this in 2 buckets. First, we will provide you with what the budget is for operational excellence program with a detailed breakdown at our but for now, Q1 can be seen as a good proxy for the quarterly impact in 2026. We would say we expensed so far a low single-digit million amount for operational excellence. Now an investment, which, of course, we pay back at a later stage. And as I said, operational excellence is setting the basis for accelerated growth in the years to come, especially until 2030, 2031. I hope this answers your question on operational excellence stage. Here, can be said, margins are lower than the rest of the fixing business as already indicated in my -- what I said before during the call.
Operator
OperatorThe next question is from Bernd Clanton Barclays.
Bernd Klanten
AnalystsJust a follow-up on the LA Olympics. You mentioned low triple-digit revenue contribution over those 3 years. My understanding of the relatively low ticketing revenue guidance for 2026 was partly a reflection of that one-off impact from stage Entertainment. But if we're kind of assuming roughly EUR 33 million, EUR 35 million or so of contribution from the Olympics, should that not more or less offset the hit you're experiencing from stage entertainment, -- and then maybe related to that, in the past, you've sometimes shared how you're thinking about underlying ticketing growth of the market and how you should go relative to that? I think in the past, you've mentioned like 6% to 8%. And outside of this year, I was just wondering how you're broadly thinking about that. And then just again on ticketing maybe to what extent do you have visibility into the rest of the year. And then my final question is, can you share any update on synergies you're seeing for France M&C tickets.
Marco Haeckermann
ExecutivesBen, it's Marco. Let me kick off, yes. So with regards to -- let's start with the more general thing. The market expectations, as you said, yes, 6% to 8% which is, of course, what we see in the markets we are active in as a potential on average over the next 5 years. And this is, of course, why it's important to see that in our core business, particularly in ticketing, we have grown, yes, our organic growth is in line with that. On the other side, what William mentioned in the call is the quality of the tickets we have sold, yes, which led to even better revenue growth than volume growth, yes. With regards to the visibility we highlighted this for the remainder of the year. We see a very good pipeline. But of course, as we don't have any control about the timing of the on sales is, of course, hard to be more precise for us. but we see continued tailwinds for European touring yes, which is as well the underlying factor for the market potential we are seeing over the next 5 years. Coming back to L.A. Yes, we've indicated what the revenue is over that time line and then you bring the question how it affects our guidance. The important thing is, of course, to differentiate between the regular ticketing business and this being a project business, where you're dependent on many other parties. For example, that here again, it is not when and how many tickets go on sale. Yes, this is solely due to our customer here, which is the International Olympic Committee. So please understand that this early on, we now have started selling tickets from April onwards, yes, which all went very well. The press around this has been very positive, strong demand. This is going to be a great event, yes. But of course, for us, it's always important that we give the guidance here that we understand what is really in our control and where we have good visibility on. And here in this contract, it is, of course, completely under the discretion of our customer of how to market the event and give us the order of when to sell tickets and going forward, which surely has an impact about the timing of revenues and earnings.
William Willms
ExecutivesPerhaps then a word on force beanstickets. Both entities are in detail now integrated, and we are very happy with their performance. Needless to say, U.K. and France are 2 core European markets, which we will now continue to build out. same applies, of course, to the U.S. We indeed see first synergies, both on the top line and bottom line, especially local structures have been merged, where we had the venom and see ticket operations within the same countries.
Operator
OperatorThe next question is from Christophe Reset, BNP Paribas.
Christoph Blieffert
AnalystsI would like to come back on the stage entertainment contract. Can you please explain the structure of the old versus the new contract also could take into consideration that stage entertainment seems to sell a certain proportion of their tickets via their own ticketing system. And if you could help us understanding potential revenue losses on RM is what we hope for as well.
Marco Haeckermann
ExecutivesChristoph, it's Marco. Let me kick in again with a general view. And of course, this all goes under the headline that it's a -- it has been a very long-term contract there, which has been adjusted for a part of which has been in-sourced. on the more B2B side of stage, yes, whereas we continue to be their partner on the retail distribution, yes, so tickets, which are sold under Eventimbrand over the Eventim channels for them, yes. Yes.
William Willms
ExecutivesPerhaps to summarize, the key point is that the retail channel stays with event and other details of this very close and dear hours are unfortunately confidential. But the retail -- as I said before, the retail center stays intact there.
Christoph Blieffert
AnalystsSorry for the confusion that I have to want to make a follow-up on this. In the past, it has also been possible to buy stage via what is really new.
Marco Haeckermann
ExecutivesThere were basically 2 ways, right, whether, for example, for the Line King and Germany, that you go to or that you went to Eventim. -- and bar tickets or whether you went to the on website of Stage musical and Stage entertainment. And for that, we've signed a contract with them a long time ago to provide them with the B2B solutions, so enabling them to sell under their own brand which at the early days was really a minor share, yes, which over the last 15 years, of course, as they have invested into their own franchise, you know that they have been sold in 2019 -- and as you can imagine for an IP owner and a content company, COVID was really a dramatic situation. And from this perspective, the only thing happened that the share which they are now selling for example, the Saturday evening shows, which we could all sell from the back of a truck, yes, this is what is now supplied temporarily by another partner and where they really have to build on our reach where we -- the way of how we cooperate with other promoters because we can provide them with significantly lower customer acquisition costs for the shows that are not that easy to sell, for example, the Wednesday afternoon. This is still to be found on Eventim and over our app.
Christoph Blieffert
AnalystsOkay. This is clear enough. Then I have 2 shorter questions, please. Is there -- has there been any positive effect from the eventual Linpan on your ticket tank revenues in Q1?
Marco Haeckermann
ExecutivesSorry. No, We were just looking at 1 another who is replying because the simple answer is no.
Christoph Blieffert
AnalystsAnd then the last one, can you give us your view on the ticketing volume growth in Germany for '26, please?
Marco Haeckermann
ExecutivesWell, I mean, if I may start into this, -- this is, of course, part of our discussion around guidance, yes. And of course, I mean, -- as I said earlier in this call, we see a very good roster of artists coming through Germany. Yes, we see continued traction, of course, on our retail channel -- we benefit from more international ads coming to Europe and making stops in Germany. But again, it is hard now to be more precise on the volume because this is to 90% much more timing question rather than anything else, yes? And I don't want to sit here in a year's time and explain why someone who's been selling through Eventim has not sold in December but in January. So look, to summary, we are positive.
Operator
OperatorAs there are no more questions in the queue. With that, we are closing the Q&A session, and I hand the floor back over to the hosts.
William Willms
ExecutivesThank you very much. for your time, I hope, or we hope this was helpful and talk to you soon and especially see you soon, September, October this year.
Marco Haeckermann
ExecutivesYes. Thank you very much as well from my side. Have a good end of spring and a nice start to summer. Bye-bye.
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