Gentoo Media Inc. ($G2M)
Earnings Call Transcript · May 21, 2026
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsHi, and welcome to today's presentation of Gentoo Media's Q1 results. We are joined by Jonas Warrer, who will present the quarterly results, and then, we will have a Q&A session afterwards moderated by me. And if you have any questions for the Q&A, please send them through. But with that, I will leave over the word to Jonas. Please go ahead with the presentation.
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesHi. Welcome to Gentoo Media's Q1 2026 presentation. My name is Jonas Warrer. I'm the CEO of Gentoo Media and I will take you through the presentation today. Following the presentation, there will be a Q&A session, where you, the audience, can ask questions to the presentation and to our numbers. Let's get started with the presentation. Before we start going into numbers, I would like to just spend a bit of time on talking about the business and what it is we do in Gentoo Media, for those of you that are new to the company. Essentially, Gentoo Media is about connecting and players. We're leading iGaming operators worldwide. We are leading a fill-in marketing company in the online casino and sportsbook industry with a diverse portfolio of websites, products and campaigns. We help online sportsbooks and casinos acquire high-value players at scale through premium lead generation and compliance solutions. This also means that another way to describe it is that essentially, we are the digital store front for the iGaming industry. We have these online stores where people they come in and browse around before they choose to make a purchase. This is then how we connect high-intent players with leading operators. We are multichannel affiliate using a mix of owned websites and paid campaigns. We have performance-based recurring revenue share earnings supported by listing fees and CPA agreements. Also, I would like to briefly talk about our strategy, our strategic ambition, what we want to achieve and our strategic pillars, how we will achieve it. So in ambition, we want to build a leaner, more scalable and cash-generative affiliate business. We want to focus capital and resources and the highest performing brands, markets and channels. We want to increase revenue quality and player value to improve monetization, partner optimization and disciplined execution. We want to strengthen our flagship range, and we also want to strengthen our local chairmen sites across key markets. We want to expand our monitor channel acquisition model across own websites, paid media and also emerging AI-driven discovery channels. We want to transition fully into an AI-enabled operating model across technology, product, content, automation and commercial decision-making. And I would say the overall team here, of course, to improve scalability and operational efficiency. Going into the Q1 2026 executive summary, Q1 was a stable start to 2026, where Gentoo Media demonstrated a more efficient operating model, smarter resource allocation and also demonstrated being a more profitable business. Profitability was supported by cost reductions with quarterly costs down approximately EUR 3 million year-on-year, equivalent to around EUR 12 million in annualized run rate savings. This is ahead of the targets that we communicated when we announced our strategic realignment in Q1 2025. EBITDA before special items increased 19% year-on-year to EUR 10.5 million. Revenue was relatively stable, but impacted by weaker February sports margins. However, underlying commercial momentum remained positive with value of deposits, traffic and player sign-ups developing well in higher-value segments during the quarter. Strategic investments continued across sports, products, technology, automation and monitor channel acquisition capabilities. And I think you can say here that the overall theme is transitioning towards being more and more AI-driven and AI-supported business. Financial flexibility improved to the new shareholder-backed loan facility and repayment of the revolving credit facility. Net interest bearing debt and deferred consideration liabilities decreased by EUR 3.6 million during the quarter. Going into Q1 quarterly highlights. Revenue ended at EUR 24.7 million, 5% below Q1 last year. However, EBITDA grew 19% year-on-year, ending at EUR 10.5 million with margin expansion to 44% versus 35% in Q1 2025. Operating cash flow improved 61% year-on-year, supported by stronger profitability and improved cash conversion, but also being negatively impacted from working capital adjustments. FCDs impacted by disciplined paid media spend, portfolio realignment and focus on higher-value players. Underlying commercial momentum remained positive with value of deposits remaining strong above EUR 200 million throughout the quarter, while traffic and player sign-ups for Creswell in higher-value segments during the quarter. I think if I can just tune in here on the value of deposits, very positive to see that in Q1, we are basically on level with last quarter, which is traditionally the strongest quarter in the year in terms of seasonality. Going into the financial highlights. Revenue at EUR 24 million, down 5% year-on-year, impacted by softer sports margins in February. Marketing spend at EUR 5.5 million, down 20% year-on-year, reflecting the 2025 strategic realignment with fewer higher-performing campaigns, websites and markets. Personnel and other operating expenses were EUR 8.1 million, down 17% year-on-year, with head count reduced from 404 to 292. Combined, these costs were reduced by approximately EUR 3 million year-on-year with further operational cost reductions expected to support additional annualized savings going forward. EBITDA before special items increased 19% year-on-year to EUR 10.5 million with margin expansion to 44% versus 35% in Q1 last year. Special items totaled EUR 1.6 million, primarily related to the closure of our U.K. office, operational simplification initiatives, fewer members in management and refinancing-related activity. Operating cash flow improved 61% year-on-year to EUR 7.4 million supported by stronger profitability and improved cash conversion. Going into revenue, 60% of revenue came from recurring revenue share agreements, 26% from listing fees and 14% from CPA arrangements. This is very much in line with the previous quarters and also how we expect things to progress going forward. Europe, the Americas and Rest of World contributed respectively, 59% of revenue, 18% of revenue and 23% of revenue in the quarter. Nordic revenue increased year-on-year, while revenue from the Rest of Europe declined. Revenue from the Americas remained stable year-on-year with slight growth in North America and revenue from Rest of the World increased year-on-year. Revenue for the quarter was impacted by softer sports margins in February and, of course, normal seasonality, notably when we compare to Q4 the previous quarter. Despite this, revenue development continued to improve compared to the low point reached in Q3 2025. And this is something I would say myself and management are very positive to see that we have changed the trend and the trajectory that we were on in '25 and can now see that we are moving, going back towards growth. Going into player intake and value of the posts, player intake reached 81,400 FTDs in the quarter, decreasing 14% compared to Q1 last year, driven by lower investments in Brazil and, of course, the strategic realignment. Player intake in the Americans remained stable end-year with North America growing 150%. Player intake in Europe declined with Gentoo Media executing a more narrow website portfolio. This strategic focus here continues to shift from value-driven growth towards higher quality players and higher quality revenue. This is, of course, very much in line with the strategic realignment, where we will be fewer people working on fewer websites and fewer products, but with a much stronger focus, hence expected to benefit long-term revenue growth and, of course, profitability. I think we can see here that despite a decrease in clearance, we can see that our value of deposits are progressing very positive, meaning that we are generating more and more players that have a higher value. That being said, of course, we would like now to see also that we start improving player intake going forward and are optimistic for the period ahead of us, of course, with the World Cup and also looking into the second half that is traditionally more positive than the first half of the year. In the player intake part, I would also like to mention here debt during the quarter, I said we have seen improvements, notably in higher value segments. And the quarter also ended with Google Corpdate that was positive for us. Looking into what I would call being a leaner and more scalable operating model, total expenses, OpEx and marketing reduced by approximately EUR 3 million, equal to around EUR 12 million in annualized run rate savings. People costs declined 16% year-on-year with headcount reduced from 404 to 292. Other operating expenses declined 19%. The Marketing spend reduced 20% year-on-year, reflecting a more focused website portfolio. As planned and in line with our strategy, further operational simplification initiatives were executed during the quarter, including closure of the U.K. office, reduction of support functions and management layers, which is expected to reduce quarterly cost by approximately EUR 0.9 million going forward. Besides this, looking even a little bit further ahead, we also expect to see that increased AI adoption will support further execution quality and efficiencies in the second half of 2026. Since start of 2025, interest-bearing debt, including deferred payments has been reduced by EUR 18.1 million. Cash has been used to deliver the business, hence, net interest bank debt, including deferred payments has been reduced by EUR 9.3 million. If we look at Q1 2026 specifically, this has further improved the company's financial position. We have done repayment of deferred payments of EUR 1.6 million. We have repaid EUR 2 million under the revolving credit facility in January and February. And we have done full repayment after EUR 18 million revolving credit facility to a shareholder loan in March. Deferred payments continue to decline are expected to be eliminated with last payment during August 2026. Shareholder backed financing improves financial flexibility, while management continues to evaluate refinancing alternatives for the outstanding bond maturing in late 2026. And I think if you look at our leverage ratio here and look ahead, we will, of course, for instance, next quarter, expect to see that decline further which, of course, as management, we are very positive about that we continue now to show that we can derisk the company. Operational highlights starting with Publishing. Publishing revenue remains relatively stable despite a more focused website portfolio following the strategic realignment. Revenue was largely on par with the previous quarter, which is quarter that traditionally benefits from strong seasonality. During the quarter, traffic and player sign-ups improved across several high-value markets and flagship frames. We worked a lot on conversion rate optimization and AB testing initiatives, which actually delivered promising results, which supports improved monetization going forward. Essentially, in layman's terms, if we can improve the conversion rate and cutter of our website, we will make more players with the same traffic that we have. Hence, we will make more revenue going forward. We have seen positive results here although we have to say that rollout to the wider portfolio has progressed more slowly than anticipated. So I think you can say here that we are not there yet where all the good things has come, the best is yet to come. Product investments continue across as gamers, sports and UX and platform improvements. I want here especially to highlight sports, we're now think we have established a very strong and experienced sports team that will help us and drive the growth forward in this attractive vertical in the industry. We also saw a continued rollout of Gentoo Media's next-generation work platform across the portfolio, which is contributing to more efficient AI assistant content delivery, improved site performance and faster CEO execution. Our next-generation workplace platform we have worked on for quite a few years now, actually. It's going really strong. And now, when we are integrating it with AI and AI enabling, it's looking even stronger. There are still only a few handfuls on our side that are on that platform. So of course, to the degree that we can onboard more and more sites to the platform, it will have a positive benefit going forward. We are working now to migrate one of our flagship brands, Casino Mister, and I'm very excited to see what that can bring. And then also in the realization that the migrations have taken longer than anticipated, I think also the team has changed the approach a bit for some of the wider portfolio of websites that we have, where some of them are smaller. I think migration will be more focused and more of a one size fits all versus making all sites unique. So what I'm trying to say here is that I hope to see an acceleration in our migration efforts here. So our work next-generation work platform can benefit publishing business sooner than later. AI adoption accelerated across publishing, improving workflows and efficiency. Work also progressed to secure visibility across emerging AI discovery channels. In terms of traffic from AI discovery channels such as ChatGPT, we don't still see any notable traffic. However, we believe that this is a strategic important area for us to excel in. And we believe, of course, that we want to be there at the moment that we start to see a change in user behavior. The way we work with it in publishing is that we are, of course, doing traditional search engine optimization. And now we are also doing optimization towards LLL driven modules or AI-driven discovery channels. There's a big overlap between the 2 activities, and then, there are some things that are specific in terms of working towards optimizing for AI discovery channels. We are working there now, and we want to ensure that Gentoo Media is not caught in a Kodak moment, where the industry change if there is a change, we want to be at the forefront of it, and we want to lead it. Going into Paid, paid ended Q1 with positive momentum supported by, you can say, a seasonality strong U.S. market during January. Revenue share performance was, however, impacted in February by player for sports outcomes. Revenue for the quarter ended at pathway to previous year with value of deposits also stable. Improving channel economics remained a key priority during the quarter, particularly across PBC and social media activities that have not yet fulfilled expectations. We are addressing this 2 new AI-driven tools launched during the quarter, enabling real-time landing page optimization and faster campaign deployment expected to improve conversion performance, click to rate, and you can say just overall operational efficiency throughout 2026. It is very important for us to improve the channel dynamics here because that will allow us to invest more in marketing to drive more revenue growth going forward. If we don't fix these channel dynamics or economics, you can say we will still hold back on marketing spend because essentially, we are here to generate profit, necessarily not revenue. Going into summary and outlook. Over the past year, Gentoo Media has transformed into a leaner and a more focused organization with a lower cost base, strong operational processes and being a more profitable business. The company continues to strengthen flagship and local chairmen sites while investing in sports and sports-related acquisition capabilities to strengthen its position within one of the industry's largest and most attractive verticals. The company has made material progress in AI adoption and automation, expected to further improve operational efficiency and execution quality going forward. I would say this is the first quarter where I see and feel that we are starting to see a wider effect from AI, using AI internally, working smarter with AI, just working faster with AI. In terms of internally seeing a change in search behavior from AI, we have yet to see that. But as I said earlier, we are working hard, of course, to be at the forefront of this. And already now, I think we have a strong position, and it's an area we will also focus on going forward. In short, I think we have moved far on AI adoption in Q1, and I'm very happy to see that. Q1 revenue reflects seasonality, making it encouraging to see the positive trend reversals since Q3 2025. If we look at 2025, there has been a trajectory here with decline in revenue and very happy to see now in Q1 that we have demonstrated that we have changed that trajectory and also that we have demonstrated that we have restored profitability and margins back to the levels that we are used to. Revenue in publishing was in par with Q4 2025 while Paid has established a scalable acquisition model to support continued growth. Overall, we are entering the rest of the year with strong momentum across the business. Management, myself are proud to see that we have successfully delivered on the strategic realignment that we communicated during Q1 2025. Our organization is well positioned to support our strategic ambitions, and we are heading into summer with the World Cup and traditionally a stronger second half of the year compared to the first half. Thank you for tuning into this presentation, and let's go to Q&A.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
Analysts[Operator Instructions] I mean, I think you mentioned that you saw that the Q1 trend indicate that you're trending towards your guidance for 2026. Do you see that in all the metrics mentioned in Q4 top line EBITDA and cash flow?
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesCan you just say that again, sorry?
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsTalking about the guidance for 2026, you mentioned that you were on track for that. Just if you could comment anything in terms of the 3 metrics, top line, EBITDA and cash flow.
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesNo changes to guidance at this point. We have a summer now where we are very excited to see what will come up. We have delivered according to plan when it comes to costs and cost savings. And then, of course, from there, you can have expectations now to revenue going forward. And notably, of course, for the World Cup and also for the second half of 2026.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsAll right. And I mean, can you say anything about the kind of trend in Q1? I know you mentioned sports win was negative in February. But otherwise, do you see kind of positive momentum month-over-month? Anything you can say on that?
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesYes, we saw -- during the quarter, we saw good developments in traffic and in player sign-ups, notably for higher-value markets. Also, as games, we saw improvements on. And I think if we look at past the quarter into Q2, we see the same trend there. It may be actually a little bit stronger. The Google core update in -- that ended in March was positive for us. And I think -- there's also been further additional positive developments in May for us when it comes to, if you call it, visibility in Google.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsSounds good. And mentioning the FIFA World Cup coming, starting in late Q2, what is the interest from the operators? Are you seeing a lot of campaign discussions? Or how do you think we should look at the upside potential from the World Cup?
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesThere's, of course, a lot of interest from operators in some markets, of course, far more than others, depending on whether the country has qualified, right? But in all the big markets, there is tremendous interest in it. It's an area of sports that we have worked on for quite some time now. And I would say, even though we have gone through, you can say, a strategic realignment in '25, where I reduced the cost base, we have actually, at the same time, invested more and more in sports and have formed, I would call it, a very strong sports team now, have worked very hard on improving our capabilities and you can take the acquisition model in sports. So looking very much forward to seeing what we can get out of the World Cup and, of course, also the period after in Q3 and Q4.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsAll right. And in terms of your 2 segments, paid media versus publishing, do you think it will be more paid media that benefits from the World Cup? Or is it the publishing business spending between that?
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesI would say we have invested a lot in publishing and sports. A strong team has been established, worked a lot on sites and features and products. And that's a more of a long-term sustained investment. In paid, we are ready now with campaigns and everything. And in paid, it's more about executing up to the World Cup and during the World Cup. And of course, there, we will be very opportunistic. So if we see opportunities where we can see that what we paid to customer is attractive, we will, of course, try to exploit that to the fullest. So you can say a lot of decisions for the World Cup has already been made in publishing. In paid, there's been a lot of preparation, and then, the show is about to start very soon.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsAll right. And I mean, from what you've seen in Q1 this far stable profitability and FIFA World Cup in Q2, can you elaborate a bit more? I think you said that, of course, H2 is typically a stronger part of the year. Is that the same this year? Or do you think that you will see already in Q2 that you're seeing kind of sequential growth? Or is it more like Q4, you will see more top line growth?
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesI think in data, we will see at least based on previous experience, that bigger than like the World Cup, which then also will probably be the biggest World Cup every. It's an excellent change to acquire a lot of players. So I think this is a change for us to start up in player intake. We also have a lot of activity for obvious reasons from players. And this also means that when you go into the period after the World Cup, there's a lot of active players that will keep being active. So I think we -- I think -- we see the World Cup as sort of a change to do a Sprint stock-up players and also have a lot of active players, and we expect that, of course, to benefit the period after.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsAnd also a question around the cash flow here in Q1. A little bit lower than EBITDA. You mentioned that you had some working capital -- negative movement of working capital. Was that something that was specific for Q1, is it reversing in Q2? Or how do you think we should view operating cash flow compared to EBITDA in the coming quarters?
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesYou can see there's 2 elements there. There is, of course, the elements of extraordinary costs related to refinancing processes. And the close of the U.K. office, as also mentioned, that impacting our cash flow negatively as a special item in this quarter. There is always the balance around having the right level of working capital and profitability. And right now, with all the kind of opportunities we are seeing, then sometimes we can accept a little bit pure kind of a working capital performance for the benefit of a higher profitability in some areas. So I would say, in Q1, we had negative adjustments that were predominantly related to Q1. But, of course, going into Q2, we will expect in the range of the same cash conversion level if we take the ratio from EBITDA performance to operating cash flow.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsGood. I see. And then, I mean, you mentioned that the cost savings or development even better than planned. Do you see you can do more? I mean, I think you mentioned AI, and can you use that internally? Do you think more efficiencies can come in the coming quarters?
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesYes, of course. As I said, we have moved quite far on you'd say, AI usage in Q1. I'm very excited to see how much we actually can get out of that. So, of course, there is a chance to reduce cost, and it's something, of course, we are very much looking into. But at the same time, I would say that if I can choose between reducing costs in Q4, for instance, or have the same cost and make more revenue, we would probably choose to make more revenue. So I think we have demonstrated this quarter that we have a very profitable business. There is an opportunity to reduce cost even further what has been communicated, but we also want to go back to revenue growth and to grow the business forward, increasing the top line. So I think there is an element here, are we looking into efficiency, are we looking into increasing execution quality, and it would be very nice to see also that AI have this benefit from us that we improve the execution quality, we improve go-to-market, and then, we improve the top line.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsGot it. And in terms of market development per region, you talked a bit about that and also your questions here in general about Brazil and maybe Latin America in general. I mean, is Brazil still kind of challenging? Do you see any upside there? Or do you see maybe more on the downside? And if you could comment on that would be interesting.
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesI think what I focused the most on right now is that we expect to have a very interesting summer in Latin America and in Brazil with the World Cup. And we are ready for that. I don't think there's been any sort of notable things to notice from that region during Q1. But, of course, now with the summer and the World Cup coming up, we hope that, that will be a very attractive place for us to be.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsAnd in terms of markets, Alberta is launching online gambling in Q3 in July. Is that a market where you expect to be active in term -- in connection with the launch?
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesYes, we, of course, also always trying to do our best to sort of you can say there are opportunities that are out in the market. So yes, I would assume so.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsOkay. And also in terms of maybe not markets, but the prediction market is something that is being kind of more 1 highlighted by affiliates in general. Is that something that you are looking more into? And do you think that it will be something that is seeing increased mix in terms of your revenue generation?
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesYes, it's actually an area we have worked on also in Q1. I would still very much call it early days, very low numbers. But it is an area we have invested in, also across our website portfolio. Still very much we haven't seen noticeable results yet, even though I would say, for some things, we have seen positive momentum on Google, for instance. But it's an area we're investing in. I would expect -- I wouldn't expect it to be something that kicks off tomorrow, but, of course, a future area that we also want to be in. So again, in a publishing business doing a sustained investment here and a long and steady push to grow that vertical. That's, of course, something we are working on.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsAnd you have talked a bit about the Google updates and some of your sites benefiting. And from what I can say external, it looks like as gamblers then time to play looks pretty strong. Is that something you can confirm? And do you think it's kind of a sustainable trend? Or is it the usual uncertainty with Google?
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesNo. I think if we talk specifically about scans it, if we look right now where we are standing right now, I think it is the fifth month in a row where we have grown player in sake there and so a good momentum. We hope also then to see now that we grow revenue even further with that gamers now building on that momentum. Then, of course, there's been time to play, but I also actually want to highlight another asset here in our portfolio, Casino miser. We are working on completing the migration of casino miser to our new workforce platform. At the moment, that is done, that will allow us to work much more actively we decide and much better. And myself and the team are very excited to see also what we can get out of that one.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsAnd talking about the work price migration. I mean what's the biggest benefit of that? Is it kind of that you get lower cost? Or is it more traffic, more revenue, more conversion? If you could talk a bit about that.
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesI would call it a mix, of course, there's a cost element here. The way we have done it now, we have also integrated AI into it, both in terms of content and also in terms of, if you can call it, so activities. It will also be faster sites and more optimized sites toward Google. In terms of the activities, that will also lead hopefully to better rankings. So there is a cost element here, but there's definitely also a go-to-market element, where we can act faster, and we also can act stronger. So we actually hope that there will be a double benefit here, some cost savings, but of course, also the top line revenue growth.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsAnd you also talked about AI search. I mean, you're saying that you're not seeing any big change in terms of player behavior yet, but you are investing to, I mean, stay ahead of that. Do you see other affiliates doing the same? And also, do you see any kind of new entrants in that segment?
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesNothing to note, I would say, from competitors. It's still an area where we look into, let's say, for instance, Google Analytics or warehouse traffic comes from. It's still very, very marginal. And also, we are, of course, bigger in traditional and casino, where we also think and have not yet seen any real effect, so -- but as I said in the presentation, it's an area we are investing in. And if there is a change in user behavior, we, of course, want to be there and be at the forefront of that. If I go to, for instance, to that BT and I ask about casino, we are in the situation that we can see that some of our big brands are being mentioned there [indiscernible]. So that's very positive. We should send just build on that. And then the good part for us is also, as said, that optimizing for, if you call it, AI-driven discovery platforms, there's a lot of overlap and synergies with just doing traditional sale optimization. So there is a lot of things that we're already doing. And then, there are some specific things that we are doing more and more now to cater for that you can say, channel if and when we start to see a change in user behavior.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsGot it. And maybe a question more for ads, also from the audience. Looking at the balance sheet. I mean, you see the a positive trend in terms of the net debt coming down here each quarter over the last 4 quarters, I think, bond refinancing, you did not do it in Q1. What is -- what's your expectation for the rest of the year? Do you think that you will look at it again? And you also talked a bit about alternatives, what kind of alternatives are you looking at instead of the bond?
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesYes. So if we start out with the kind of a refinancing process, I think we went through within the Q4 presentation as well and the choice of stepping away from that process. We feel very confident that this quarter, we have also shown that we have turned the business around and our ability to deliver on what we promised is just showcasing here. That creates more confidence in a potential refinancing process. So we are actually pleased with the results we see now, and we think that, that will benefit a potential refinancing process. There is, of course, different opportunities. As we have said in the past, we have been in the bond market for several years, and we have always feel very supported by our bond investors. And, of course, that's a market we are well known in. And, of course, we are looking into that market as well. There is definitely also private alternatives, financing alternatives. And, of course, as we are deleveraging the business, building up more cash, of course, we can also talk about maybe different volumes than we expected in the launch in Q1. So we are looking at these different alternatives, but of course, we are planning this very thoroughly with the respect of maturing in the end of the year, and we will definitely seek for the best possible solution for the company to support the strategic ambition we have, but also at the lowest possible cost in the aspect of value to our shareholders.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsAll right. Also here a few more questions from the audience here. Maybe starting with FTDS, PaidMedia has kind of trended down a bit. I think you touched a bit on it, but do you think that will be stable, I think it up from, I guess, World Cup would be positive, but the general trend from here?
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesYes, there has been, I would call it, Q1 has been a little bit more defensive in paid media to protect margins also, for instance, lower investments in Brazil. Then, there has been some challenges in our PBC and some channels where we needed to improve, I call it, general economics. Essentially, we just need to improve our ability to convert players from the traffic that we pay for, right? We have launched a new AI-driven solutions to deal with that and that hopefully will improve our conversion rates and our click-to-rates. And then, hence, those 2 channels will be more attractive to invest in. So -- and then, of course, as you said, you also have the World Cup coming up. At the end of the day, as I said, we, of course, would like to see also now that we just make more and more players being more and more high-value, but in the strategic alignment and to where we have been now, there has been a focus on, you can say, more value than volume. That will also, of course, continue going forward. But, of course, we want to add more volume to the value players that we are making, if that makes sense.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsThat makes sense. Okay. And also, there was a question about the kind of long-term growth outlook. What do you think about long-term growth outlook for your business? And also, do you feel that you are investing enough to kind of capture the full growth potential in your markets?
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesYes, of course, we have, I would say, positive EBITDA margin, if I look at the company. And, of course, there, you could ask the question, are we investing enough? I would like here to reassure investors that we are investing in a lot of things. And even though we have gone through a strategic realignment where we have reduced the cost base, at the same time, we have actually increased investments in various areas. Sports is one example. We have invested a lot in our -- in platform and SEC, and we have invested in AI. And we, of course, continue to invest in some of our flagship reins. We have a big team alone working on games, launching a lot of new features and also a lot of upcoming things. So at the end of the day, there is a balance here between EBITDA margin cash conversion, profitability, and then, of course, top line growth. And this is what we are trying to balance out. Is there an opportunity to invest even more in the market? Yes, probably. But we also want to take it in the steps where we know that it's in control and that we have stable and cash generative business.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsAll right. Sounds good. Okay. That was all questions here. So thank you very much, and see you next quarter.
Jonas Warrer
ExecutivesThank you very much.
Hjalmar Ahlberg
AnalystsThank you very much.
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