Super Group Stock

Hello, and welcome to Super Group Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Webcast and Conference Call. Please note that this call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

I'd now like to hand the call over to Nkem Ojougboh, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Super Group's results for the third quarter 2026. During this call, Super Group may make comments of a forward-looking nature that is subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed further in its SEC filings, which could cause the actual results to differ materially from historical results or from our forecast. We assume no responsibility to update forward-looking statements other than as required by law.

On today's call, we may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures are in addition to, and not a substitute for, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures are included in the press release issued yesterday and available on the Investor Relations page of our website. We recommend that investors refer to the supplementary presentation posted to our website. Today, I'm joined by Neal Menashe, Chief Executive Officer; and Alinda Van Wyk, Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared remarks, we'll open the call up for questions.

And now I'd like to turn the call over to Neal.

Thank you, Ink, and good morning, everyone. Super Group continues to deliver. After a record second quarter, Q3 was a softer sports quarter with favorable outcomes for our sports customers. But casino once again offset that volatility. Record casino wagers increased 11% year-over-year and 14% ex the U.S., providing predictable revenue that absorbs a softer sports quarter and supports ongoing growth.

Customer activity reflected its typical summer seasonality across European football. As the major leagues returned, engagement rebounded quickly, reaching 6.2 million active customers in the month of September. The start of the new football season also marked the launch of our Manchester United partnership. This agreement supplements Betway's exclusive partnership portfolio with the world's top football clubs and Man U strongly resonates with our African customers.

In Africa, revenue grew 17% year-over-year to $262 million and adjusted EBITDA was up 23% to $88 million with a robust EBITDA margin of 34%. Sports wages grew 6% year-over-year, while casino wagers were up 21% over the same period. Sports results were uneven during the quarter. A customer-friendly outcomes in August and September outweighed solid margins in July. Despite this volatility, year-to-date sports margin remains within our expected range.

Importantly, we believe that volatility is transient, but structural improvement driven by improved pricing and trading and a resilient parlay mix endure. Our Africa growth pipeline continues to develop. In Mozambique, we expect recent changes in online casino regulation to materially improve the commercial attractiveness of this market for us, which will further support our future growth prospects. We have successfully secured new casino licenses in Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia and both sports betting and casino licenses in Rwanda. We continue to actively pursue further opportunities.

In Namibia, delayed upcoming changes to the local regulatory regime mean we now expect to launch there in 2027, contingent on local policy adoption. Supercoin's establishment continues as we build a digital payment platform with utility extending beyond gaming. Foundations are in place. Customers have access to our wallet and the coin is now live on South Africa's 3 largest exchanges. The next phase is focused on payments and expanded utility, with additional wallet functionality expected to roll out this quarter and a full public launch planned for early 2027. We are also excited for the expansion of Supercoin beyond South Africa's borders.

International revenue grew 5% year-over-year; ex the U.S., it grew 9% to $344 million, while adjusted EBITDA grew 24% to $93 million. Margin expanded more than 400 basis points despite higher taxes in the U.K. We believe this performance highlights our disciplined marketing and leaner cost base at work. In Europe, revenue grew 6%, led by the U.K., up 13%. In North America, revenue grew 10%, excluding the U.S., while Canada, ex-Ontario and Alberta delivered 15% revenue growth, supported by strong casino performance.

In Alberta, customers are adjusting to the newly regulated market. Our migration successfully completed in early October, and we remain confident in the long-term opportunity in Alberta. Rest of World revenue increased 5% with New Zealand resilient at 3% during a mandatory marketing hiatus ahead of next year's regulation.

During the recent casino license auction, we secured 3 of the 15 available licenses. This positions us favorably in advance of expected regulated market launch in 2027 when marketing efforts can resume. Super Group's commitment to product advancements continues to set us apart. The advantages of owning or controlling our tech stack facilitate faster innovation and greater control over our road map. We continue to enhance our sportsbooks and casino offerings, adding new features and improvements that we believe raise the standards across our product suite.

With that, I'll turn it over to Alinda.

Thank you, Neal. Total revenue for the third quarter was up 10% year-over-year, reaching $611 million. Adjusted EBITDA grew 8% to $165 million, ending the quarter with a margin of 27%. We grew average monthly active customers by 9% year-over-year, reaching 6 million this quarter. Wagering momentum remained strong with total wagering up 11% for casino and 4% for sports. Customer-friendly sports results brought our sports margin down to 12.1% this quarter, well below our trailing 24-month average of 13.7%. This impacted revenue by approximately $40 million and adjusted EBITDA by around $25 million. Importantly, our year-to-date sports margin stands at 13.8%, keeping us comfortably within our target structural range.

Our financial performance is built on a disciplined approach. We concentrate marketing spend in our highest return markets while continuously refining our trading, payments and technology operations. At the same time, we keep a firm grip on costs, navigating higher gaming taxes without losing sight of our strategic investment priorities.

Turning to guidance. We need to account for the impact of quarter 3 sports results. With that in mind, we are revising our full year 2026 guidance with total revenue between $2.525 billion and $2.575 billion. Adjusted EBITDA is revised to be between $700 million and $720 million, assuming fourth quarter sports margin remains within our normal range. Sports results are outside of our control, but sports wagering remains robust and our business remains strong.

Quarter 4 is off to a great start. Casino continues to grow, and our sports margin for October was the highest it's been all year. Our balance sheet remains strong. We ended this quarter with $602 million in cash, up 30% year-over-year with the year-to-date free cash flow conversion of 70%. Over the last 12 months, we have returned approximately $223 million to our shareholders, including around $25 million in dividends this quarter. Neal will further address our capital allocation priorities.

With that, I will now hand back to Neal.

Thank you, Alinda. Just 9 months into the year, our EBITDA has already almost surpassed full year 2025, which itself was a record year for Super Group. We entered the fourth quarter with strong momentum. The football season is in full swing. Casino is performing. We maintain a robust product pipeline and our operating model is increasingly efficient. Our earnings convert to cash at a high rate, and we have a strong balance sheet, a combination that gives us real flexibility.

Our framework is really straightforward. First, we invest in the business and in organic growth, including new markets because that is where we see the best returns. Second, we pursue external growth selectively and only where returns clear a high hurdle. Third, we return excess cash to shareholders. Our regular dividend remains the foundation of that, and we intend to grow it over time. Today, we are taking the next step under this framework. Our Board has authorized a $150 million share repurchase program. We will execute it with discipline. And while we are not committing to a pace or a price, we will keep a strong balance sheet throughout, so we can move quickly when the right opportunity arises. We are really well positioned and confident in the direction of the business and expect to finish 2026 strongly, carrying momentum into 2027.

Operator, please can you open the call up for questions.

[Operator Instructions]

Your first question comes from the line of Jordan Bender of Citizens.

To start on guidance. If I adjust for the sport outcomes in the quarter and I see where the midpoint went to, it still implies that there might be maybe a delta between that number and the midpoint of guidance. So can you maybe just talk about how you're getting to the revenue number that you guys laid out? And as I look to iCasino growth, it did decelerate 11% in the third quarter from 15% in the second and 20% in the first. So are you seeing any softening around kind of that iGaming customer?

So firstly, obviously, our new guide reflects the impact from the customer-friendly sports outcomes in Q3 and obviously, preserves the EBITDA upside from the original guide, right? What is key is our underlying business remains strong, casino customer engagement, year-to-date sports margin remains within our structural range. And one thing from my side, and to add on that, if you recall from our September 2025 Investor Day, we are way ahead of our targets.

Yes. And just to conclude that, we're definitely not seeing a slowdown in the iGaming business at all. It's just to allow for the Q3 sports margin that had an impact. And we're still within the guide -- midway through the guide that we've previously communicated.

Perfect. And then to follow up, Neal, you touched on the share repurchase program there for a minute, and you kind of made comments around you'll be more opportunistic around using that. But as you kind of think about excess capital and returning capital to shareholders, can you just kind of talk through your rankings around utilizing cash through dividends, through buybacks, investing in the business, kind of what's your new priority list with the repurchase program now out there?

Yes. Our priorities are unchanged as previously also communicated. Discipline first, but we remain flexible and with that amount of cash gives us that flexibility. First, we always invest in the business for organic growth with a clear path to return. Second, we consider external growth opportunities, but really always at the right price, and that will really supplement our business. And thirdly, if we then have excess cash, we are really focused on giving back to our shareholders in the form of special dividends, quarterly dividends or buybacks. So it would be in that priority.

Your next question comes from the line of Clark Lampen of BTIG.

I have 2, if I may. The first is sort of a minor clarification, I guess, on Jordan's question around guidance. Neal and Alinda, I didn't hear you guys call this out, but a few of your peers have mentioned unfavorable October sports results as part of their Q3 and sort of Q4 framework. Is there anything notable that you guys have seen thus far in the quarter that's sort of worth calling out?

And then the second question that I have is related to 2027. Neal, in your prepared remarks, I think I counted at least 5 market launches where the operating backdrop and I guess, the sort of regulatory regime has been favorable and sort of opens the door to entry. Could you give us -- I think we have a decent handle on the organic growth trajectory. Could you give us a feel for the markets that are in focus near term for a 2027 launch that could be contributors?

Okay. All right. So first of all, let's start with October. October was a great month for sports. So overall, the month saw, as Alinda mentioned, our highest margins this year. I think it's important to even understand we've got a large African parlay business, right? Obviously, together with our more traditional international book makes us quite unique when you compare us to our listed operators. In practice, that means we can see days when a loss in Africa is offset by a profit for international or vice versa, right? So you can't always extrapolate other operators' results on us. That's the first thing, right?

And when it, then, comes to market launches, obviously, I mentioned Namibia that we were hoping to do Q4, but obviously, their regime is changing a bit. So we are all at the point where we are ready to go operationally. And now it's just about waiting for them to issue the new license. So as soon as we get the new license, we can go. So we're hoping in 2027. We mentioned other ones like Rwanda, where we've managed to get casino and sports licenses. There, we have to work on the tax framework to see what's happening. There are all other markets, if you go from the bottom of Africa up, Zimbabwe, et cetera, are all starting to come. And also importantly, we've also got Mozambique, which I did mention, they've changed, finally changed the casino tax regime there, which means that we can actually no longer have to withhold tax on casino winnings, which means we can now compare favorably with the other operators.

And then finally, just on the international side, you notice it has finally taken years and years for New Zealand. We finally have secured 3 out of the 15 licenses there. So we're really excited about that, and that should be coming in probably mid-2027. And lastly, just one more point -- sorry, one more point I'd add. Germany, we finally have got these online slots. So hopefully, let's see, we should be going live there soon. That has been working itself, and let's see how that market then performs.

Is Nigeria still part of your road map for 2027? Or has there been anything that sort of changed that maybe has delayed that as a priority or opportunity?

Yes. No, that is an existing market where we're still in the early innings, but obviously, we're happy with our progress. The team on the ground is doing well, and we're just really happy where we are. Remember, we're online first in that market. So we have some more local products and payments to put in there. But improved technology product team and bench strength, we are geared up really well for that market.

Your next question comes from the line of Mike Hickey of Benchmark.

Just on '27, obviously, you have a lot of momentum here in your business. I'm just curious if you could kind of rank maybe in terms of growth where you're most confident, Neal or Alinda? And then also curious how you think about the World Cup as a growth comparable next year? I think most of the upside was on adding new players, but sort of how you think about that? And then some of the events, Neal, I am less familiar with, the Men's Cricket, and I think Rugby World Cups are next year. You've got the Africa Cup again and then Women's soccer World Cup. Just curious if those will be big catalysts for you or not.

Thank you, Mike, for your question. Keeping in mind that we don't want to share too much about 2027 yet. We remain within that strategy to be the best operating efficient machine we can be to expand -- have that further margin expansion. But our growth opportunities is very diversified, like Neal just went through the Africa and the international strategy for organic growth. And then if we go back to our capital allocation, we really take a bit of that money that we have to reinvest back in our business. So our marketing ratios, we keep within the range of 21% and 22% for 2027 also to show that this commitment to grow those markets. But the real success is in the efficiencies of the business. And that's why we continue to quarter-on-quarter to see this margin expansion.

And I'll add, obviously, the World Cup did help us in June and July. But remember, it was the wrong time zone. So it doesn't have that effect on our international customers and our African customers because the times were wrong. But yes, you've got all from the World Cup, Rugby, et cetera, coming this year. So it all just add extra content to our ecosystem. So we're excited about that.

And remember, we also talk about capital allocation. We talk about inorganic growth. Obviously, we're always looking for inorganic growth, but the price has to be right. And when we find the right one, we will definitely execute on it. So for us, we've got all these levers to pull. But most importantly is, again, what we have achieved this year, especially is the cross-pollination of international and Africa together. We are one business. But anything we see that works well, we can use that in each of the markets we're in. And it's all about being local in each of the markets and then with this overall tech stack that supports it.

This is a quick follow-up, Neal. The friendly outcomes, not unusual in your business. I think you had a big one last fourth quarter, '25 tied to the Africa Cup. And of course, post that, we saw really strong recycling activity from your players. It sounds like October has been strong. I'm just curious how much of that you think is the recycling of the sports winnings from 3Q into your sports and casino business. And if that recycling activity has been sort of normal or if you think maybe given the amount of parlay exposure and the size of the winnings that we could have more duration in that recycling cycle?

So listen, we run different sportsbooks, right? Especially international is very different to Africa, right? So international looks obviously like other operators when you compare us. But obviously, our Africa parlay is quite unique, right, because what it does is parlays are sometimes 10 or more legs with small stakes and then -- but they can get large wins. So even when the big winners come, they keep placing small bets relative to what they want. So the money comes back in Africa over a much longer period.

So that is why we occasionally see bigger swings than our peers and it will take us a little bit more time to get it. And of course, then they go and recycle into casino, et cetera. So -- but overall, it always -- we always manage over time to claw it back. It just takes slightly longer in Africa, right? And -- but I suppose that is the brilliance of the African model and why the structural hold, retention and margins are so much higher than our international side.

Your next question comes from the line of Brandt Montour of Barclays.

Sorry if I missed this topic earlier on. Can you guys just talk a little bit about some of the news over the quarter about proposed South African gambling tax. What's the latest there? And how are you thinking about a potential earnings impact if something like that was to come to pass?

Okay. So as a reminder, just a reminder, there's currently a 6.5% provincial tax in South Africa and a 15% VAT, which goes to the state. So this probably comes in at just under 20% of GGR. Treasury had put some discussion paper out a while ago. We are talking about additional 20% tax on GGR on top of all of it. But remember, it's not a concrete proposal yet. There's currently a lot more industry consultation. Any update on this is obviously expected in the February 2027 budget.

But importantly, a proposal is not law and the new national tax would require legislative, provincial, and presidential approval. And the numbers are out there, so we're going to be able to struggle to work out what the impact will be from that. But this increase won't be immaterial, but our business obviously is strong, and we've been navigating this for 3 decades. But there's quite a road to go on there between the provincial and the state.

Okay. And then just a quick follow-up. The -- in terms of Kenya in '27. Can you just give us an update on that market and your thoughts around potential timing and anything else -- any other developments in that -- into that market over the last few months?

So basically, Kenya, I mean, it's funny, before we listed, we were in Kenya and then they increased the taxes and we actually ended up giving our license back. But now what's happened, it has become the cheapest regulatory regime in Africa tax-wise. Now we have to go through all the process again and reapply. So we've reapplied and we're hoping in 2027 to be able to turn it on again. So I suppose that's just a yes and rather just keeping all the licenses we acquire over time.

And also Supercoin is also going to be getting the Kenyan Shilling stablecoin. We're hoping to get there as well on that. But really, when it comes to all of these markets, Kenya, Rwanda, et cetera, we're patient before we relaunch. We understand the regulatory and tax environment, capital controls, product, finding the right local people and everything must work together. And when it works together, that's when we start executing our marketing machine.

Your next question comes from the line of Ryan Sigdahl of Craig-Hallum.

I want to start with Alberta, evidence, you guys -- province, excuse me, you guys, took a more phased regulated launch here in October. But can you talk through kind of key takeaways from that transition for you guys and then what you're seeing in that market?

Sure. So obviously, we've done a good job or the team have done a good job transitioning our customers to the newly regulated market, which obviously happened in October. The customers are adjusting obviously to the new changes in the product environment, such as the removal of autoplay features. We're keeping a close eye on it. We're making improvements every day, every week. The marketing machine is going to start resuming its rollout. We've moved all our customers across on to the new regulated platform. And overall, we expect it to be more rational -- I mean, a more rational competitive environment than what we found in Ontario. So let's see how it goes, and we are well-placed there.

Maybe some users, monthly active users. I appreciate Slide 10 with the monthly cadence. I think that's helpful from a seasonality standpoint to show. 6.2 million in September, are you willing to say what it was in October, at least directionally if it was higher? And then kind of break out, I know you had some tax changes in a couple of smaller African countries, Malawi, et cetera. But just kind of piecemeal the low-value customer churn with kind of some higher value additions, et cetera, the puts stakes within that MAC number.

All right. So first of all, what you are seeing is summer seasonality. So remember, the 6 million customers is almost up 9% on last year. We have got persistency of our cohorts continues to be as strong as ever. We keep layering the cake. And I suppose the key driver for us has always been in this business for the last 2.5 decades is the super persistence and yearly profitable revenue per customer. So we're not chasing these unprofitable customers simply to maximize our MAC.

Yes, sorry, just to add a bit more color there, we closed September at 6.2 million customers. So remember, we report on the average for the quarter. And as we alluded to, October is off to a great start.

Your next question comes from the line of Jed Kelly of Oppenheimer.

Just looking at your customer acquisition efficiency, if I kind of look at like where your guidance is going to shake out, how you're performing, it looks like marketing is going to be flat to down this year. Just can you talk about how sustainable that is and what's driving that and how we should think about your customer acquisition?

Okay. So I'll start there. One of the important drivers of our business has been besides the operating efficiencies is our marketing efficiencies. So it's a big number we are spending every year. And we found some areas where we can be more efficient. And for us is do we have enough in our marketing budget in order to compete, and we absolutely do. There are over $500 million or even more, we absolutely do. So now the question is finding even more homes for it. So I mean, some of our competitors are less than 15%, some are less than 18%. So we, around 20% to 21%, 22%, we are more than happy with how those returns are coming and how those cohorts are paying back over time.

And our focus is always to optimize marketing spend and to move it to areas where we see the returns. I think as well, it can't be just a percentage all the time. You have to look at the monetary value because the revenue keeps on growing. But we've always been a business about acquiring customers with organic approach and with the funds that we generate to invest it back in our business.

Great. And then just on the buyback, can you talk about sort of implementing a buyback versus measuring the float on your shares and how you kind of try to thread that needle with buyback in your current float?

So let's just recap the Board did approve a $150 million buyback, and they wanted the buyback to be meaningful, but still we need to remain disciplined. So this is the first driver for us. And we -- with this, it gives us the ability to still be opportunistic in other areas with using this cash, like Neal alluded to organic investments and M&A. We can always revisit the size with the Board at any point in time and if the circumstances materially change. But keep in mind, our regular dividend remains the foundation of our shareholders' returns. In the last 12 months, we've returned more than $220 million to the shareholders, and that's quite impressive.

Your next question comes from the line of Matt Weber with Canaccord Genuity.

I just want to ask about New Zealand. I believe you previously said that you expected regulation to have little effect on profitability in that market. Now that you know the auction price and have the right to apply for the 3 licenses, does that assessment still hold? And then are you able to comment on how much of your current New Zealand's casino revenue comes from brands that you expect to take forward?

Okay. So let's start there, we've obviously operated in New Zealand for over 2 decades. And in the last year or 2, we haven't been able to market there, right, because there's certain marketing restrictions. So when they came out with these 15 licenses, we decided to get 3. So our 3 top brands can now go live and continue there. And just to remind everyone the it's an 8-year license that costs about $1 million a year. But all the other taxes of that market, we already pay.

So for us, as we transition them to the new software, and we can go and start marketing as we used to. So actually, we're really excited about it because we've been in no man's land now. We weren't allowed to market. And yet we still preserved our revenue there, which is how strong our brand presence is there. And now, I think about it only 15 licenses, and of which we are 3 out of 15 of that, so about 20%. So we think there's lots of opportunity there.

And maybe just to add there, keep in mind that we've already been paying taxes in New Zealand for the last couple of years. So we won't have that impact on EBITDA, but we can now also turn on marketing, which we haven't been able to do, so which will have a favorable impact on the growth.

Got it. That's helpful color. And then maybe if I can just on the United Kingdom, it seems like another quarter of solid growth and share gains there. Just how durable do you see those share gains over the course of 2027? And do you expect any material impact from the new duty on most remote sports bets when it takes effect next April?

Yes. So U.K. is still good for us. Remember, I still think we're still under-indexed there. All our competitors now, they've even also increased rates in the shops as well for the slot machines. So I think that everyone is reading into how they can make this market work. For us, it worked. We're efficient. We've combined our businesses there. So we're really seeing this operating efficiency. And over time, the marketing rates are coming down.

So for us -- and remember, key, a lot of our sponsorships come from English Premier League. So we're really visible there. We're improving our product there. So for us, we have navigated that really, really well. And we've got a disciplined marketing team and obviously leaner cost base. All of that leads to be able to take those extra taxes into account.

Your next question comes from the line of Chad Beynon of Macquarie.

Given that you're not as focused on the U.S. OSB and iCasino market, how are you thinking about potential prediction market opportunities here stateside or in other markets as well?

So listen, for us, it's already when we exited the U.S., we really focused on Canada and our international markets and in Africa. And in most of our markets, actually all of them, most of them, they basically, prediction markets are gambling. They all have to be regulated and pay the local taxes. So the truth is we're not -- we don't have a predictions product. We are focused clearly on our sportsbook and our online casinos, which is what we built over the last year. And that's where we are able to literally compete head-on with all of our competitors.

And then, Alinda, you kind of touched on this in terms of sponsorship and marketing, but I just wanted to ask directly on the Man U sponsorship. So you talked about MAUs increasing in the last couple of months against that average. But notwithstanding the current team's results, which will hopefully and most likely improve as we get through the season, how are you measuring success with that sponsorship at this point?

Yes. The partnership started with the new season, obviously, in this quarter, and we are seeing positive engagement from our customers, particularly in Africa. I think last quarter, we called out that in Africa alone, there's more than a quarter of -- 250 million fans in Africa alone. So the engagement is just big, big for us in Africa. And importantly, this is a long-term investment in the brand, in our brand and the strength that supports the sustainable customer growth. So across all our key markets. And this is exactly what this exclusivity brings us with these partnerships.

And then I will just add in here that, yes, so I will just add in, obviously the results on the pitch do not change the value of Man City's part of the exclusive deal, right? Probably more favorable for our sportsbook when Man United draws or loses. But otherwise, yes, it is excellent.

Your next question comes from the line of Bernie McTernan of Needham.

Can you -- Neal, can you -- I don't think I've heard you mention Germany before. Can you just detail that opportunity and maybe what's changing there and why now?

I mean, I've done it probably over the last 4 years, kept mentioning Germany. And basically, Germany moved to a regulated regime, and they forced us to have separate wallets for casino and sports. But when we built our software, it was always built with one wallet. So it's taken us a little bit of time to actually get there to be able to separate the wallet. And now finally, we can operate with casino separately on a separate wallet. So let's see how it goes. The regulatory regime they're still very tough because they've got deposit limits, et cetera. But because we have done this sportsbook and done all the work, we have done this extra work to decouple the 2 wallets. So let's see how that goes.

Okay. Got it. And then just a follow-up on guidance philosophy now that we're -- that there could be a couple of potential new markets coming next year. Should we expect you to start the year with any of those launches in the guidance? Or is it just going to be kind of steady state and that would be incremental if they do come to fruition?

I mean we will communicate in detail the drivers of our guidance in 2027 when we come out with guidance. But the key drivers will remain the same as what we've had in 2026. What we know at that point in time, we will guide for. It will be strictly organic growth. There will be no aggressive persistency assumptions, and we will remain -- we talked a lot about this marketing discipline. So anything over about 19%, 20%, we will see as investment back into the business. And we will assume our sports margin will be within our expected range, which is always a tricky one. We will include, however, anything that we already have launched in 2026, such as Alberta, which will have new tax regime, et cetera, that will be in the guide.

Thank you. I'd now like to hand the call back to Neal for closing remarks.

Okay. Thank you, everyone, for joining today's call. We are really proud of the team's execution, and we remain focused on delivering against our strategy. We look forward to speaking to you all again soon.

Thank you for attending today's call. You may now disconnect. Goodbye.

Thank you for standing by. My name is Jay, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Super Group Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Webcast and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Nkem Ojougboh, Head of Investor Relations for Super Group. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Super Group's results for the second quarter 2026.

During this call, Super Group may make comments of a forward-looking nature that are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed further in its SEC filings, which could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or from our forecast. We assume no responsibility to update forward-looking statements other than as required by law.

On today's call, we may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures are in addition to and not a substitute for measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures are included in the press release issued yesterday and available on the Investor Relations page of our website. We recommend that investors refer to the supplementary presentation posted on our website.

Today, I'm joined by Neal Menashe, Chief Executive Officer; and Alinda Van Wyk, Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared remarks, we will open the call up for questions.

And now I'd like to turn the call over to Neal.

Thank you, Nkem, and good morning, everyone. I am pleased to report that the second quarter 2026 marked another exceptional period for Super Group, surpassing the record set in the first quarter.

Revenue, adjusted EBITDA, deposits and wagering activity all reached new highs, supported by strong underlying momentum across the business and increased engagement during the FIFA World Cup.

As announced yesterday, we are super excited about our landmark partnership with Manchester United, making Betway the club's principal partner and exclusive global betting partner for the upcoming English Premier League season starting later this month. This partnership will further enhance Betway's profile across United's massive worldwide fan base. Man U status is arguably Africa's most popular football club, strongly aligns with our long-term brand and growth objectives.

The World Cup drove exceptional customer acquisition and solid cross-sell across the business. New customer acquisition increased more than threefold compared with the prior World Cup period. During the tournament, customers placed over 166 million football bets. Approximately 60% of those bets or 100 million were on World Cup matches.

Our sports margin hit a record 17% for the quarter, reflecting improved pricing and risk management, the continued growth of parlays and most importantly, the quality and durability of our customer base.

Our focus remains on acquiring and retaining customers who generate sustainable long-term value. Our super persistent annuity revenue model is intended to sustain customer cohorts that generate predictable revenues and profits. This disciplined approach is intended to ensure robust long-term returns that are coupled with healthy and sustainable unit economics.

We see this working particularly well in Africa, which delivered another outstanding quarter. Revenue grew 36% year-over-year, while adjusted EBITDA increased 47% to $133 million, driven by broad-based growth across the region. Sports and casino wages were up 5% and 28%, respectively, year-over-year.

Looking ahead, we continue to see attractive opportunities to expand our footprint and remain on track for the expected launch of Namibia in Q4. We also remain focused on increasing the utility of our ZAR Supercoin. We are expanding wallet functionality, broadening exchange access and advancing the phased rollout strategy while building the foundation for broader adoption and remittance across key African markets.

International grew 7% year-over-year. Ex the U.S., it was 12%, while adjusted EBITDA held steady at $84 million, with strong underlying growth offset by the U.K. tax and short-term cost of strategic generosity key campaigns that we expect will deliver ongoing benefits in due course.

In Europe, revenue grew 22%, led by a 34% increase in the U.K., which delivered record revenue in May. Ireland was up 18% year-over-year. We expect to launch slots in Germany this month, bringing our full product suite to the market.

North America, excluding the U.S., grew 9%. Canada ex-Ontario delivered 11% revenue growth, supported by strong retention and continued product enhancement. In Alberta, revenue was up 8% year-over-year, ahead of the province's regulated market launch on July 13. We are approaching the rollout in a disciplined and phased manner to support sustainable long-term growth.

Rest of world revenue increased 6%, led by strong performance in New Zealand, which grew 14% year-over-year despite reduced marketing spend. We are preparing for local licensing and positioning the business for a seamless transition to a regulated market.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Alinda.

Thank you, Neal. Quarter 2 2026 delivered a record total revenue of $684 million, up 18% year-over-year, while adjusted EBITDA grew 30% to $204 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 30% compared with 27% in the prior year period. Average monthly active customers reached 6.2 million, up 13% year-over-year. Total wagering increased 8% for sports and 15% for casino.

Free cash flow conversion reached 68% in the first half of the year. We closed the quarter with $548 million in cash, up 39% year-over-year, even after returning $25 million to shareholders this past quarter and $218 million over the last 12 months.

Disciplined cost management, the enduring strength of our casino business, a boosted sports performance driven by the World Cup, enhanced pricing and our commitment to high return markets are all reflected in these results. Supported by our efficient approach to capital allocation, our balance sheet remains as robust as ever.

Finally, as a result of our strong first half performance and a solid start to the third quarter, we are pleased to raise our full year 2026 guidance. We now expect total revenue to be more than $2.6 billion and adjusted EBITDA to be greater than $710 million.

I will now hand back to Neal for closing remarks.

Thank you, Alinda. Over the first half of 2026, we have once again demonstrated the strength of our brands, business model and customer base. We are driving growth through disciplined execution and operational excellence.

Given our exceptional performance and the strength of our balance sheet, capital allocation is very much front of mind for both management and the Board. While we remain committed to maintaining a strong balance sheet, we recognize that we have excess cash. As shareholders ourselves, our interests are closely aligned with yours, and we're actively evaluating the most effective ways to deploy our capital to maximize long-term shareholder value.

With steady momentum, our highly engaged customer base, our new Man U partnership kicking off the football season and multiple growth drivers at play, we believe Super Group is well positioned for the remainder of 2026.

Operator, please can you open the call up for questions?

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Jed Kelly of Oppenheimer.

Another nice quarter. Just circling back, I guess, given all the engagement in the World Cup, can you just talk about your MAUs and your marketing being down, I think it was down 2% year-over-year, and just kind of your choice to maybe not market as much as we thought and then some of the sequential decline we saw in MAUs?

Sure, I can talk, no problem. Yes, the headline number for MAU is down, but it's not a concern for us. There are a number of reasons. The World Cup was great for acquisition, and we saw super engagement from those customers. But you must bear in mind, it was only 2 weeks of the quarter, and 3 weeks before that, there was no soccer at all. So what we're seeing is very normal seasonality for the quarter as a whole. And the quarter, we also had some tax effects to deal with the 2 smaller African markets. This had an impact on customer counts at the lower value add, but revenue still grew sequentially, and these markets' mix grew sequentially. So we're very happy with that.

Overall, we expect resumption of customers in Q3 and Q4, in line with prior quarters on the back of the new EPL season, of course, the Man U new partnership. But remember, this is also key for us. The key driver for us is super persistent annuity, profitable revenue per customer. And I think you see that coming through in our results.

And on the marketing, I'll hand over to Alinda.

Thanks, Jed. Yes, the marketing is down around 1%. Seasonality plays a role because quarter 2 is normally a much quieter period for us around marketing. We're also pleased with our World Cup acquisition campaigns, but we did not spend as much as that you would expect. The reason for that is, remember, the time zone for the World Cup is quite not ideal for our book and a large portion for our customers is outside the time zones. And we expect to revision back to our guide of around 21% to 22% for the remainder of the year.

Great. And then just for my follow-up, Alinda, can you just help us think about the back half cadence between third and fourth quarter this year? I know I think last year, fourth quarter might have been impacted by adverse sports results. So just any way you can just help us with the cadence would be great.

Yes. So we've got -- remember, 2024 was a very hard comp. And then we had the adverse effect of the sports in quarter 4 2025. We expect -- that's what makes guidance quite difficult for us around the sports, and we're quite consistent in our approach just to be a bit more conservative around that. It will be normal levels that you've seen in the first half of the year. Our marketing discipline, like I said, will be back at 21%, 22%. And we've got high confidence in our business and in our customers. So we still have embedded in the half year guide of organic growth, no aggressive persistency assumptions. And we still see the continued support and the momentum from the customers post the World Cup. But -- and then we've just also just embedded the U.K. tax effect and Alberta tax is from July onwards in our guide, for the half year, but very consistent to what we've previously put out.

Your next question comes from the line of Jordan Bender of Citizens.

I want to start in Nigeria, still early days there. I know you've been looking at the strategy in the country this year. But how has that strategy and product evolved over the course of the year? And how do you anticipate to be competitive with the 2 top operators there that have a strong retail presence in that market?

Neal here. Obviously -- so Nigeria is obviously a big opportunity. It's the largest population in Africa, growing TAMs, et cetera. What we're doing and we've been doing it and we're still doing it is improve technology, improving our product, our team and our bench strength. We signed Don Jazzy as an ambassador. So we launched driving acquisition and brand recognition there. We're diversifying our marketing channels. So remember, Nigeria is still very small relative to our other African countries. So we really are optimizing the debt. So it's coming together. The numbers are going in the right direction [indiscernible].

Okay. And then, at the end of the prepared remarks, you kind of circled back to the capital allocation piece. Is there any change to how you think about how you're allocating capital outside of your dividend? You kind of talked about the most effective ways. I'm just kind of curious, has that changed in your mind of how you want to allocate capital?

Thanks for the question. We are actively working with our Board around this, and we recognize that we have excess cash. With that said, there's no change in our approach at this point. We -- discipline comes first, but we remain flexible. We believe in organic growth. So we're going after opportunities with a high return of investment. And we -- like we said, we'll up the marketing spend again. And -- but we also have dividends and buybacks always on front of mind. And for M&A, staying disciplined around opportunities that make sense to us, bolt-on opportunities that will strengthen our core. So very consistent to prior approaches, but it's definitely -- we focus on it all the time.

And I think -- sorry, and [indiscernible] obviously, when it comes to an even M&A, we're selected. And also, we don't have lots of debt, we are placing minimal debt, and we don't want to lack the flexibility. So we're really in a good place. And the operating cash flow is coming into the business.

Your next question comes from the line of Bernie McTernan of Needham & Company.

Maybe just to start, I would love to dive into Alberta a little bit more, maybe in terms of what the underlying guidance is, assuming, in terms of either retaining the revenue that you have in the region now or even growing it.

Okay. So -- okay. So let's talk Alberta. So obviously, all brands have to follow the local regulation by the middle of October, right? So we focused on, obviously, the regulation readiness and getting the tech, everything working really well there. We're taking on a phased brand rollout approach, unlike Ontario, which was a big bang, you had to move everyone over on a set date. So for us, it's making sure the UX is right, focused on our HVC, the VIP cohorts to ensure the retention. But overall, we expect also a more rational competitive environment in Alberta versus what happened in Ontario. But we've got time for the next few months to do it. So everything is on track, and our teams are very happy with it.

That's great. And then maybe just a quick follow-up for Alinda. We said G&A, the adjusted G&A step up this quarter sequentially from about $90 million to $100 million. Was there any kind of onetime in nature there or any increased costs that we should be thinking about going forward?

Great pickup, Bernie. It is 100% like you said, there is quite -- this 40% of that increase is about one-off costs. There was some audit alignment for 2025 audit and some additional tech and infrastructure costs. Also keep in mind that we've acquired 2 operational businesses. We brought in the Apricot business, operational business, so about 100 headcount as well as a small eMarket -- marketing company called [ eMarket ]. So that spiked the G&A, but the savings and the operating leverage will now standardize that call and stabilize that amount towards the end of this quarter, down again to a more normal benchmark of high $90 million -- low $90 million, sorry.

Your next question comes from the line of Ryan Sigdahl of Craig-Hallum.

I want to focus on some of the trading and operational things internationally. I know you're bringing some of the product from Africa to the international markets as well as the Apricot integration, but curious for an update on some of the synergies and cost optimizations and product enhancements you've seen from those 2 initiatives.

Okay. So I think funny enough, there is some cross-pollination, what I've been talking about is top of mind. We've been doing it from an international to Africa and Africa back into international. I mean I'm pleased to announce that all our call centers now are under one roof, on one tech stack, including our risk, and we are seeing massive opportunities there. I think you can see in our margins, everywhere we look in our EBITDA margins, in our sports margins, it's all starting to kick in.

We've got the personalized pricing, our features. We're pushing different sports in Africa. It's finally all coming together. And this is the key of this what we call operating efficiency, product efficiencies, marketing efficiencies. Even the marketing efficiencies are starting to come in. So we really are -- remember, Alinda and I've talking about this a lot. It's all about increasing that margin. And I think this quarter, you see it went to almost 30%, right, which is even ahead of our own expectations, right? And most of -- we also got cross-sell opportunities. But I think we are really super happy with our teams, our product teams, our trading teams, and we're finally working as one Super Group and bringing the best to every country we operate.

Looking at Slide 8, African new market expansion potential. Good to see Namibia coming in Q4. You mentioned excess cash and trying to figure out what to do with it. I count 7 additional adjacent countries there that seem very logical places to place some of that cash as an investment. But how do you think about kind of expansion, the need for cash and if that's a potential use for it and then the time line to expand into those countries? And if some of your recent expansions maybe accelerates some of the timeline that you've talked about in the past?

Yes. So we are excited about Namibia. Remember, it borders Botswana and South Africa. So the brand recognition is really high. And there are obviously other markets around there as well, but we have to get the taxes right and how the money flows. There's Zimbabwe, Rwanda, there's lots of them. So we also aim to launch probably 1 to 3 countries a year. I think 3 would be the top end, but like 1 or 2, but it's got to make sense. And of course, we've got this loads of money that if there are opportunities that are priced right, and we can execute on, then we will obviously delve into that.

And just to add there, because our trusted global brands already resonate in these African countries, it is quite low cost to market for us. So it's not like a launch in international market. African market launch is quite efficient and at a low value.

Yes. And then I would add as you have the headline of the Man U partnership. But I think what everyone needs to understand is if you take the top 3 teams who came first, second and third in the English Premier League, the EPL last season, we are now the exclusive global betting partner for every single one of it. So Arsenal, Man City and Man U. So when you see those games, you're only going to be seeing Betway. Remember, football soccer in Africa is our #1 bet on sport, and that's definitely the biggest league.

Your next question comes from the line of Mike Hickey of StoneX.

Neal, Alinda, Nkem, great quarter, guys. Congratulations. I guess just on the World Cup, obviously, you gave us some really incremental data on your success there. But Neal, just curious overall, maybe relative to your expectations, how you view the success of the World Cup now that you've had a chance to digest that. How we should think about how you build momentum on that in terms of customer retention, casino cross-sell, which I think has started really strong and maybe that -- how that sort of sets you up for Q3 trading that we're in now and maybe the second half overall?

So okay, when it comes to the World Cup, right, obviously the meaning was -- really a meaningful acquisition and engagement catalyst. So that's for us with the sportsbook inflows. We did like almost 50% cross-sell into casino from those new customers. But here's some stuff about the World Cup, and I did mention this before, right? The time zones were not ideal for a vast majority of our customers. And remember, in the World Cup, a big part of our business is parlays, right? But they want 10D, 12D, 14D. You don't get that in the World Cup. So for us, the World Cup was great, but it was not like this unbelievable event that we had. Our unbelievable events are what's about to start in August, September with the soccer season. But -- and we are very happy with how it's gone and how the activation of those customers. And the cross-sell has been great as I said.

And again, I mean, I keep saying this, sorry, we keep bringing this up, and I think we have to, the persistency of our cohorts continues to be as strong as ever. And even in our investor deck, I think on Page 10, it is showing the cohort analysis we have put it in the deck this time along, you can see that layer caking is as it needs to be, makes fans very happy.

A follow-up on the Africa question from Ryan. Is Angola a new launch country? I know we've got Namibia for Q4. Are we also doing Angola now? And is that new to your guidance?

No, it's not -- we just showed some of the countries. All these countries are in play. We just have to make sure that, again, the taxes and the way we can operate in those markets make sense. So it's all fluid. We've got lots of them on the go, but the ones which will come to fruition is if we can get the banking and everything right. So they're all within our sight, and it's just got to make sense financially to be able to do this.

All right. Great. Last question. Congrats on the Manchester United deal. Obviously, you already have some significant sponsorship deals. How are you able to add Manchester to your stable of other IP here and keep costs manageable, like it sounds like they're going to be in the second half. And how quickly do you think this new partnership can start to be a contributor for you in terms of customer acquisition and revenue?

So I think, remember, and Alinda's point to this, we aim to be between 21% to 22% of revenue. So this is within that guide. So -- and remember, our total marketing brand is a portion of the total market. And I think with Man United, it is one of the most recognizable sports club in the world. And in Africa, I think it's got the biggest fan base. So for us, it's just adding another team on top of that. But we've still got the other team we've got. We still got the other leagues we do. So it's all part of our strategy.

But again, this is not a strategy. It's a portion of the strategy. And this is what given our leadership in Africa, partnering with them is just natural for us. And I think this is a long-term investment in our brand strength that then supports our sustainable customer growth across the key markets and just adds to then our digital marketing comes on top of that, et cetera. So listen, for us really exciting. And just a -- I'm a Man U fan, but I understand how unbelievable this football team is worldwide.

Your next question comes from the line of Chad Beynon of Macquarie.

Nice quarter. I wanted to ask about the U.K. business. I know previously, you talked about the mitigation efforts and what the expected impact would be post the iGaming tax increase back in April. It sounds like the revenues and the profits are definitely better than expected. Can you just kind of talk about the cadence of what's happening in the market and if you expect to see maybe mitigation vary versus what you originally announced?

Thanks Chad, for your question. We have significant product improvements this quarter as well in the U.K. You can see it from the revenue uplift. Our marketing is really returning to what we're spending at the moment, which is really a good strategy and happy with that performance. We continue to, like we said previously, if your taxes go up, you have to be efficient around your marketing spend, actually around all your economics. And we have to improve every single dollar we spend in the U.K.

So we're very happy with how the U.K. is going. We see obviously the impact on the EBITDA at this point in time in the international results. But it is so important to note that by optimizing marketing to becoming efficient in the way we operate in that market, would just deliver better margin in that jurisdiction.

And I'll just add, as we deploy more and more of our sports product enhancements, we've seen the revenue stick even more. And that's really, really been great. Plus our -- plus we've been clever in our casino operations there and the whole market has now reassessed the U.K. market and the cost of acquisitions, et cetera. So we're definitely seeing that play. And remember, we're not a major player in the U.K. So there's a lot of market share we are getting. And that's again why when we've got our overall brand that we spend taking Man United, Arsenal, et cetera, we amortize that over all the countries, not just the U.K., but in the U.K., obviously, it's present a lot. So it gets a natural spillover there as well.

And then maybe related to the U.K., I know there was an announcement during the quarter from a competitor just in terms of an acquisition. So with your $500 million of cash and no debt, how are you prioritizing M&A? And are there markets that are more on your radar versus what you had previously talked about at the Investor Day recently?

Yes. Listen, M&A is always top of mind. I think we've been right so far. We need to be highly selective and the price must be right. We must be able to add value. We will not overpay and we do not need to rush. But again, we're always looking on bolt-on. We're always looking at M&A. And you're right, we've got this money. We've got our shares. We've got lots of things to be able to use, but the deal has to make sense. And I think we'll see a better pricing over the coming months and years based on where some of our competitors are who've been very acquisitive in the past, but now have this huge debt pile that they have to service.

Your next question comes from the line of Matt Weber of Canaccord Genuity.

Congrats on the strong quarter. Maybe just to dive a little deeper on the World Cup. I think I saw a 21% World Cup gross margin versus 11% in 2022. Could you just unpack a little bit more how much of that is structural from increasing parlay adoption versus maybe more outcome driven? And then I have a quick follow-up.

Well, I think definitely structural. And also, remember, the Africa business is much bigger now than it was 4 years ago. But I think it's everything. It's our pricing, it's how we've done it, it's how we price the market, what the product has to offer. So I think from that point of view, it was definitely for us a great World Cup. But remember, we should expect our sports margins to be between 13% to 14% combined. That's for international and Africa. And that's, I think, a good cadence for you guys. But the sports and the margin, we are really getting better at. And I think the team has done a great job there.

Got it. And then I appreciate your comments earlier on the casino cross-sell. Just curious how the 53% number of the World Cup cohort that has already placed the casino wager, how does that compare to the 2022 cohort? And what are your expectations in terms of engagement from that group, say, a year out from now?

Okay. So I think the cross-sell for 2022 was 23%. That's really, really, really we were all over this. This is one of our key areas. And remember, why it was important for us to do this cross-sell, the time zones were not right. So we were even more adamant to keep the customers in our ecosystem. So we're really happy with that. And I think the World Cup generally did really well, but I think we're even more excited now for the start of the new football season, the EPL, the La Liga, et cetera, and that will start towards the end of August.

Your last question comes from the line of Clark Lampen at BTIG.

Maybe one just to come back to sort of the margin point. Neal, you made some comments earlier that made it sound like this was sort of an important transition quarter from an operational standpoint. And I'm curious when we get into 2027 and you're annualizing some of these improvements and changes, how should we think about sort of medium-term margin trajectory? Are we posting towards a number that's sort of consistent with what we saw in Q2? Are there other sort of important puts and takes that we need to consider from a timing standpoint or maybe the new deal is a factor in 2027 that's sort of transitional. But would just be curious sort of directionally where we're going and what you think is possible.

Okay. So are we talking about sports margin, EBITDA margin, both -- you want both. Okay, I'll touch on both.

Well, sure, we can do both, I guess I'm a little more curious on the EBITDA margin side.

Okay. I'll leave it to Alinda. Go for it, Alinda.

Thanks for your question. We're obviously very excited about this quarter being at 30% EBITDA margin. It's the first time we called out a solid 30%, which is definitely in the right direction, as our operating leverage is our primary driver for this EBITDA expansion -- EBITDA margin expansion. Remember, it's quite simple. Our revenue grows faster than our cost base at this stage, which makes us very efficient. And we are realizing efficiencies across the board. It's not just in one specific place. It's around trading, marketing, processing and technology.

And if you want to look at a model -- and how to model it maybe for the rest of the year, we still see in half year 2, obviously the World Cup effect and the cross-sell that will come in. We've included Alberta migration, which will be by the end -- will be completed by the end of September. And then we called out Namibia as our one launch country in 2026. But all in all, we continue to build branded partnerships so that we can work on the acquisition numbers.

Yes. And then 2027, I imagine is -- 2027 is, yes, we'll get closer to the 30%. Obviously, this quarter slightly less marketing quarter 2 as you would expect. But overall, is getting closer to what Alinda promised, the 30% EBITDA. So we did promise, we did deliver there. So now we got to...

We promised '27.

Yes, now we got to promise that, keep closer to that for 2027. But I think the ecosystem and the correct customers in our ecosystem is what this business is all about. It's about having the right customers, paying the right amounts for them, et cetera, and I think we're starting to see that now. And of course, and I'll end off with this, the cross-pollination of our international to Africa is really starting to show great signs, which we knew it would.

If I may actually just sort of squeeze in one additional one. I know at points in time in the past, you guys have sort of given either entry or exit rates from a customer account standpoint. If you have a July number handy, could you give us a feel for where the active base is sort of trending right now? And maybe alongside that, what have you seen, if anything -- if it's notable to call out from a results standpoint to start Q3? We've heard from some operators that the World Cup was a tailwind to performance. Did you experience something similar to start Q3?

I guess, so I think obviously there still was the World Cup in the beginning of the first 2 weeks of July. So yes, we saw good momentum in -- we're seeing good momentum in July. I also think where we are now -- we don't have the World Cup, and I'll give you an example like last night, is there were so many bets on these other leagues, the Champions League, Europa League, et cetera, these games that did really great volume because again, for a large portion of our customer base, it's all about these parlays, and that's what we need. And the World Cup never gave that, and it didn't give us the right time zone. So it was really an add-on in the middle of the year, but we're definitely seeing our customer base starting to get excited, and I really think towards the middle to the end of August, this is our big play from now till the end of the year.

And just to conclude there, because we had such a great start to the quarter, that's why we just came out and raised our guidance again.

Yes, and I think both for Alinda and I, and the whole team, the ecosystem is in a great place. From cost base, cost efficiencies, product, it's all coming together.

With no further questions, that concludes our Q&A session. I will now turn the conference back over to Neal Menashe for closing remarks.

Thanks everyone for joining today's call. We are really, really proud of the team's execution, and we remain focused on delivering against our strategy and creating long-term shareholder value. We look forward to speaking to you all again soon. Thank you.

Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Super Group First Quarter 2026 Earnings Webcast and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I'd now like to turn the call over to Nkem Ojougboh, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Super Group's results for the first quarter 2026. During this call, Super Group may make comments of a forward-looking nature that are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed further in its SEC filings that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or from our forecast. We assume no responsibility to update forward-looking statements other than as required by law.

On today's call, we may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures are in addition to and not a substitute for measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. We have provided a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP figures in the press release issued yesterday and available on the Investor Relations page on our website. We recommend that investors refer to the supplementary presentation posted to our website.

Today, I'm joined by Neal Menashe, Chief Executive Officer; and Alinda Van Wyk, Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared remarks, we will open the call up for questions.

And now I'd like to turn the call over to Neal.

Thank you, Ink, and good morning, everyone. The first quarter of 2026 marked a record-breaking start for Super Group. We delivered all-time high quarterly revenue and unprecedented monthly active customers. Deposits and wagering also reached peak levels, extending our Q4 momentum. These results reflect the strength of our strategy, our brand and our people. As our business evolves, so does our reporting. We are introducing a new reporting structure consisting of 2 segments: Africa and international. Africa includes all revenue generated across the African continent, while international includes all revenue generated outside of Africa. This new approach highlights the distinct operating models across our core regions, providing shareholders with deeper insight into each unit's drivers and growth potential. The executives responsible for these segments remain unchanged.

Africa delivered an excellent Q1. Revenue for the quarter grew 33% year-over-year with adjusted EBITDA up 21% to $98 million. Sports and Casino wagers were up 33% and 36%, respectively, year-over-year. Botswana continues to perform well. I recently spent time on the ground with our team in Nigeria and the actions we are taking there will strengthen our growth profile as we ramp up execution. The phased rollout of our ZAR Supercoin consumer wallet began in mid-April with a soft beta launch for our Betway South Africa customers. Our goal is simple: expand utility and gradually increase customer engagement across our ecosystem.

We will reach a key milestone late in the quarter with additional listings on OVEX and VELA, 2 of the largest exchanges in South Africa. These listings significantly enhance liquidity and accessibility and provide a solid foundation for broader adoption as we optimize engagement and unit economics.

For the International segment, revenue was up 9%, with adjusted EBITDA growing 26% to $73 million. European revenue growth of 18% year-over-year was strongly driven by a 29% increase in the U.K., where we are capturing market share, thanks to record customer acquisition off the back of continued product improvement and a successful Cheltenham Festival. We remain encouraged by Ireland's growth of 13% with local regulation expected in the second half of this year.

In North America, Canada ex-Ontario delivered 16% revenue growth, supported by retention and product enhancements. Despite an increasingly competitive environment, Ontario achieved a post-regulation record for new customers. Alberta, up 22% year-over-year, remains on track for local regulation in July with a [indiscernible] method brand rollout. Overall, North America, excluding the U.S., grew 15%. Rest of World saw revenue growth of 8% with New Zealand growing 6% year-over-year, which is particularly encouraging after last quarter's 5% decline. We remain disciplined while we await the anticipated local regulations framework.

Overall, our sports business continues to enjoy strong margins. We are fortifying our sports trading and risk management capabilities ahead of the World Cup. This quarter, we implemented targeted changes to materially improve margin resilience within our promotional mechanics, pricing and payout structures. These measures proved their value in February, which was a particularly challenging month for sports due to customer-friendly outcomes.

Meanwhile, our casino business remains the super reliable, steady and constant engine of Super Group. We don't take this for granted. We continue to innovate, extend and improve in numerous and meaningful ways. We have made it easier for our customers to discover content. We are personalizing their experiences, and we are stepping up gamification and engagement. The result is targeted product and incentive management that delivers strong retention and responsible, consistent and profitable customer behavior. Net effect, a business where 80% of our revenue is driven by predictable, high-quality and super persistent annuity revenue streams that offer shareholders unwavering reliability and confidence.

With that, I'll turn it over to Alinda.

Thank you, Neal. Quarter 1 2026 marked an outstanding start to the year for Super Group, and I couldn't be more pleased to share these results. We have delivered a record total revenue of $612 million, up 18% year-over-year, while adjusted EBITDA grew 36% to $152 million. Our margin expanded to 25% compared with 22% in the prior year period. Driven by strong acquisition and retention strategies, average monthly active customers reached a record 6.4 million, up 18% year-over-year, with March setting a new monthly high of 6.5 million customers. Total wagering increased 23% for sports and 20% for casino compared to last year.

Disciplined cost management, controlled marketing spend and strong operating leverage are clearly reflected in our results. With continued focus on AI-driven efficiencies and high-return markets, we are well positioned to pursue sustainable long-term growth. Our balance sheet remains really strong, supported by high-quality earnings and measured capital allocation. We ended the quarter with $422 million in cash. This represents a 20% increase year-over-year despite returning $152 million to shareholders, including the special dividend paid in February. Our free cash flow conversion of 75% remains strong, reinforcing the confidence that we showed when we recently increased our minimum quarterly dividend target to $0.05 per share.

Building on the strong momentum of quarter 1, we are entering the rest of the year with confidence. Quarter 2 is tracking positively with growth opportunities ahead, bolstered by an action-packed World Cup calendar. Our focus on marketing and operational efficiencies remains unchanged. As a result, we are reaffirming our full year 2026 guidance with total revenue expected to reach at least $2.55 billion and adjusted EBITDA to be more than $680 million.

I will now hand back to Neal for closing remarks.

Thank you, Alinda. This quarter underscores the effectiveness of Super Group's strategy and discipline. We are building momentum across regions, bolstering margin resilience and enhancing our product and customer experience. With a strong start to the year, strength in our casino business and attractive global sporting calendar ahead and a strengthened leadership team focused on execution and efficiencies, Super Group is well positioned for the remainder of 2026 and beyond.

Operator, please open the call up for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Michael Hickey from StoneX.

Neal, Alinda, Ink, congratulations, guys, on a great 1Q. Two questions from us. Neal, just -- Alinda, on your 1Q performance here, obviously, a strong beat versus expectations. And the MAU growth was exceptional, plus 18%. I think you hit a record of $6.5 million in March. So I guess how are you thinking about the decision here, Alinda, Neal, to reaffirm your guidance versus raising for the full year at this stage?

Okay. Mike, thanks. So our guidance, as you know, was for revenue greater than $2.55 billion and very importantly, EBITDA greater than $680 million. So we are confident about those numbers when we told them to you in February. Now after Q1, we remain confident. But this isn't the first time that we've outperformed, Mike, in Q1. We've never increased guidance at this stage of the year. It's just not something we do so early on in the year. We obviously are focused, as you know, on executing and delivering growth, and we're not finessing projections and guidance. It's really this simple.

And just to add to that, I think it's important also to note, we're just not in that beat and raise treadmill game, as you all know. We are tracking ahead of our expectations, and we're very encouraged by what we're seeing in the momentum, but we're only 25% into the year.

Next question from us, just on the World Cup. You gave some great data here in your deck. It looks like 80% -- 88-plus percent of your revenue generated from World Cup participating markets and 73% of your GGR from football. So obviously, it looks like World Cup here is shaping up to be a significant catalyst for you guys Q2, Q3. So how should we think about the potential uplift to both player activity and revenue during the tournament period? And then the follow-up, how should we think about the timing and scale of the cross-sell of these incremental players to casino, which, of course, would make this World Cup catalyst durable?

All right. So I mean, listen, I love this data point that basically, and I thought a lot about this, that 40% of the countries we operate in are participating in the World Cup, and that represents almost 88% of our 2025 revenue. So what we will get is we're super confident about the engagement of our customers in these markets. We've obviously got strong product stability and enhancements we've done ahead of the tournament, and we're focusing on the scale and the customer experience.

A bit different this World Cup to the 2022 World Cup. The 2022 World Cup was played as it was in the winter months. It was played in November and December and at 64 matches. Because there are more teams in this year, it's now, as you know, June and July, it's 104 matches. So literally 63% more matches with more engagement. So for us, it's all about it's giving us the content for our customers.

And the first half of the competition, because there are 48 teams, there might be -- in our business, it's all about the favorites drawing or losing. So hopefully, let's see how the first half goes. So obviously, as they get into the knockout stages, which will be at the beginning of July, we will see what happens there. But again, it's about engagement in the sports and then the cross-sell into our casinos. And the cross-sell normally is like 60% to 70% into casino.

Your next question comes from the line of Ryan Sigdahl from Craig-Hallum.

I want to stick just one follow-up on the guidance. Are you willing to comment on trends you've seen in April and May? I get the reason to reiterate this early in the year. But curious if you've seen any deceleration in the business or any trends or anything to really give you concern?

All right. So this quarter started off great. Obviously, in February, remember, quarter 1 had a big loss in February on one day when all the favorites basically won and our customers won. So -- but we haven't seen any deceleration. Remember, our guidance is greater than $680 million. So we are confident about that. And remember, our business is 80% casino, stable, consistent, and we are annuity income on top of that every single day.

Second question, just the U.K. tax effect went in effect recently here. What are you seeing in the market from your competitors? What have you done from a marketing, promotion, et cetera, standpoint and really nice quarter results and momentum, it seems like in that business despite that. But just curious for kind of an industry and company update there.

Yes. Thanks for the question. We called out around 6% pre-mitigation of 2025 EBITDA as a hit is around a $30 million hit. However, we are starting to pull multiple levers in order to mitigate that, as we said. We've obviously don't -- even with the April numbers already in effect, we haven't seen that massive impact because of operating leverage in the way we manage our marketing. So we feel in a confident position to see this through quarter 2.

And also, we did call out that I would say it only kicked in on 1 April, so we're only like a couple of weeks and 5 weeks in that the marketing rates will start coming down when everyone starts doing their numbers. They have to get used to this new world of taxes. And we -- and obviously, we have to be efficient. And that's part of our 2 segments being International and Africa and bringing International together has effectively given us this operating leverage.

Your next question comes from the line of Bernie McTernan from Needham & Company.

First, I just wanted to ask about the new breakdown in terms of EBITDA. Greatly appreciate being able to see Africa versus international. Alinda, can you just talk about the margin opportunity in Africa? Any -- maybe any thoughts on incremental margins just as the region continues to grow, how we should expect margins to scale with it? And then I have a follow-up.

Thanks for the question, Bernie. So it's -- I'm glad to be able to share that transparency now to the market to see what it brings us to Super Group, the difference between Africa and international. So it's not so heavily weighted. The expectation probably was that it's very heavily weighted towards Africa. Saying that, that gives us the ability to have really strong possibility to still have that margin expansion. And we always do it in 2 kind of strategies.

The one is our return on investment, how we make sure we -- the marketing that we spend in that jurisdiction is very localized. It's bespoke for that customers, and we see strong returns on that. And then secondly, our product mix is getting that product really fit for purpose for that local market, getting the pricing right. That really, really helps us with the expansion of not just in South Africa, but the rest of Africa, the margin, bottom line.

Yes. And then I can add, we've got huge cross-pollination between the international side of the business and the African side. And I think we really, in the last 6 months, have scaled that up from the call centers, same software to the risk and fraud to all of that. So we really are seeing super efficient costs coming through there. And also in Africa, we've been pushing on different sports, e-soccer, cricket, tennis, et cetera. So it's all coming together. And we also mentioned our trading. We are really getting stuck into the trading of all the various sports.

Understood. And then in the slide deck, it references Nigeria ramp-up underway to strengthen growth profile. What would success look like this year in Nigeria for you guys?

I think that Nigeria is an interesting one. We've been on the ground there. It's super interesting. I think what we have seen in the African continent and maybe led by Nigeria is that the country as a whole is doing much better, the free flow of the currency is improving. So we have to, listen, double, triple our business size there, at least, right? So Nigeria, as you know, it's the largest population in Africa. It's a growing TAM, and we're getting our product right and again, we can build or buy across the ways and we can do both. So it's really top of our mind.

Your next question comes from the line of Jed Kelly from Oppenheimer.

Another great quarter. Just on the margin cadence between the 2 segments, how should we be thinking about that, particularly in the international margins? I know you have -- you've got the U.K. taxes and then you're launching Canada in July. So can you just give us a sense how we should be thinking about that? And then with Africa, should we expect revenue to grow faster than EBITDA over the medium term?

Jed, great question. First of all, on the international side, the -- how we look at international is the continued customer momentum. So we -- our assumptions in the guide is definitely on organic growth assumption. There's no aggressive persistency assumptions made in there. But we're also making sure that we remain -- have that marketing discipline of around 22%. And then if we caveat then to Africa, that 22% of marketing as a guide towards the spend of revenue is much lower in Africa because of the jurisdiction and the localization of marketing. So that gives that ability for the EBITDA margin to grow as strong as the revenue market targets that we set for Africa. But the interesting thing here is that it's a very equal business. You have -- even though you have probably most of the scale of the growth of the customer base out of Africa, the revenue and the market -- the revenue and the EBITDA margin growth is very similar.

And I could just add, and this is probably a point on Alberta. It's very different Alberta regulation to Ontario. Ontario was what we call the big bang approach. You had to move all your existing customers over on to the new software on day 1 before you could even market the new software. In Alberta, you can market to the new software first and have a period of 3 months or so to be able to move your existing customers over. So that for us is a massive, massive difference. We tried for that in Ontario, but it didn't happen at the time, but now it can happen in Alberta.

And just as a quick follow-up. How should we view World Cup net win margins relative to your historical net win margins?

You've got to hope that the smaller teams like Haiti, et cetera, just draw with the bigger teams in the early rounds. Like, the early rounds might be a little bit hairy, but it doesn't matter because remember, it's all about if they win on those games, what happens on the next games and most importantly, what happens in our casino. So let's see. I think it's going to be interesting. We've never had these many teams. But I think on the plus side, you've got engagement with so many games. I said there's like 63% more games -- matches. It's actually unbelievable. So I think the audience and what we're going to have in our ecosystem should be really, really, really good.

On the cross-sell of 60% that you called out earlier, I think that's a big benefit as well.

Absolutely.

Your next question comes from the line of Clark Lampen from BTIG.

Maybe I can start with a little bit of a follow-up on Jed's last question. I think in the past, your sportsbook margins have basically peaked at sort of an 18% to 19%-ish level, maybe a little bit higher. But I guess what I'm wondering is after you sort of fortified the sports trading and I think pricing, I'm paraphrasing, I guess, from the language in the presentation. But what I'm curious is, are book-friendly months potentially going to produce higher structural sports margins now on a go-forward basis?

A quick follow-up question would be on the leadership team comments that you guys put in the release. Sorry if you've already elaborated on this in the release or in the presentation. But if not, could you give us an update on sort of where you've made hires and where you believe you're sort of strengthening the overall business now?

All right. Okay. So firstly, on the sports margin, we obviously put out there that, that's the average of the 2 sportsbooks, international and Africa. But yes, as we fortify our pricing and the promotions we give in the sportsbook, we would think in months where favorites are not winning or drawing that we are seeing increased margin. That's absolutely -- that's for us, but our trailing 24-month average is almost at like 13% -- 13.1%. And that means Africa is higher and then international is a bit lower, but we've seen increases in international.

When it comes to our leadership team, listen, for me and Alinda and actually all of us, even our Board, it's all about having the right people in the right seats and then you will create a super team. So we've appointed Kirsty Ross as our Chief Operating Officer. I mean, she was our Chief of Staff, but as Operations Officer, I think we are seeing huge, huge efficiencies.

And then we've hired Justin Stock, who's been our external counsel and helped us deliver the business to where it is today. We've finally taken him in-house, and he is our Group Head of Commercial and M&A.

So -- and of course, as you know, we've got Alon Ben-David as our CTO. So we really have a great team at the C-suite level of Super Group. But then when you go into the rest of our companies, we are absolutely got great people there. And with the international and Africa being these 2 segments, we're bolstering all of this.

But in order to grow and keep growing, it's about our people, it's about our platforms. It's about the tech that we're going to use, and we need the best of the best to help us make these decisions. And that's what we have done up till now and will take to the next level.

Neal, if I can just follow up quickly. It's the goal of, I guess, some of that hiring activity to continue driving your corporate costs and the sort of corporate EBITDA that you've now itemized for us down? Or maybe it's something different? I guess I'm just curious what you're driving at.

Both. I think it's definitely always to centralize the cost, not to go to so many third parties. Remember, our legal fees can be a lot, especially if you do M&A and other things. But with AI, et cetera, it's to definitely bring it down and be able to do much more volume based on our current cost base. So it's everything. But again, we've got to make the right decisions, and we have to make them with the best information we have. And for that, I need the best people around.

Your next question comes from the line of Chad Beynon from Macquarie.

Neal and Alinda, nice quarter. I wanted to start with the ZAR Supercoin adoption rate, kind of where this is, how it compares to your expectations? I know that you said in the slide deck, you have plans to roll it out further in the back half, but I just wanted to test your temperature on how this is going thus far.

Okay. So remember, we did call out, we said it's going to take adoption. It's going to take time. And so obviously, we've done a beta now in South Africa. So it's gone quite well in terms of our beta, but it's only a beta. We are obviously getting the utility of the coin in there. But what we have to do is it's going to be a slow process to get them adopted. But for us, it's not only about the Supercoin, it's also about the processing fees.

Remember, to remind everyone in Africa, our single biggest after-tax expense are these processing fees, especially on the sportsbook where depositing in, cashing out, redepositing in, this in and out of the same money costs a lot of money. So that ecosystem, we are getting right. And we're just going to be patient with the ZAR Supercoin and see how it goes.

In other markets, we obviously will bring it there once we've seen how it works in South Africa and there's different legislations. Obviously, we also have the legislations in other 7 markets in Africa, and we hope to bring it there as soon as we get this part right in South Africa. That's very encouraging. It's something new. It's new for the consumer. So let's see how we go. But something that was new a year ago is normal now. So that's kind of what we base it on.

That's great. And then with respect to the M&A environment, obviously, strong Q1. You're tracking at least ahead of expectations for the year, $400-plus million of cash on the balance sheet. How are you thinking about M&A opportunities given your position of strength?

Thanks for the question. We still -- as we've always been highly selective on what we pursue, we don't need M&A to hit our plan. Our plan is based on consistent organic growth. That will be just an added bonus if the right opportunity comes along and at the right price. And it's supposed to be a bolt-on to improve our business overall if we pull the trigger on something. We're also looking at vertical opportunities such as improving technology product or maybe marketing efficiencies. But in the long run, there's always something on the table that we're assessing. And we've got the right balance sheet for it. So we'll just remain disciplined until the right opportunity at the right price comes.

And I said -- and I always say to Alinda, we always say to each other, we are not overpaying for stuff. If it makes sense, we'll do it. And I think as we've got a facility. I think you've seen lots of our competitors have acquired over the last 5 or 10 years. And when you laden with debt after that, these businesses have to perform. So we still got 75% free cash flow because that's what we do. So if we find the right one, we'll do it. But we are not overpaying and that's not how we've operated up until now.

Your next question comes from the line of Matt Weber from Canaccord Genuity.

Congrats on the strong quarter. I just wanted to ask if there was any update you could share on the Apricot transaction and just maybe more broadly how that transaction is framing your key product initiatives for the balance of the year? And then relatedly, could you, just given AI is the topic du jour of every earnings call, could you maybe just touch on what you're doing there in that space?

Okay. So the Apricot, we finally closed the transaction at the end of February. We've got all the IP. So the sportsbook finally is owned by us. So we're very happy about it. We've done the progress of moving all the development resources that support the sportsbook. They're now becoming part of our team. Expect over 100 people or even more to move over to Super Group, be part of our structures, how we work, what we do. So we're really starting to see overall realized cost savings will obviously come over time.

But for us, it's about the product. That's near our product teams here. The teams are together. And I think we've seen that with the global Betway Sportsbook. We've improved speed, flexibility, efficiencies. So there's lots to come there. We really are pushing, pushing hard. And since we've exited the U.S., I've got these teams not having to worry about the 8 states in the U.S., we can worry about all the markets that we're currently in.

And then just on your follow-on question on AI, I think it's front of mind for everyone. It's definitely at the moment for us to tools that initiatives that we use for risk and fraud management. There is definitely some elements being used in development and allowing us to be more efficient and more faster in deploying certain parts of our development in our businesses. It's definitely starting to have a big impact even on my world in finance and how we reconcile and look at accounts and disclosures.

So it's definitely all in all, enhancing efficiencies, but we have to be disciplined. We are working closely with Alon, our CTO is taking the lead on making sure there's a custodian that creates the boundaries around this so that we are disciplined around it. But major impacts. I think the only thing we know is that it's changing fast.

Your next question comes from the line of Jordan Bender from Citizens.

This is Isabelle Slavin on for Jordan Bender. We just want to ask about Europe. What drove the outperformance there? And do you expect this to continue throughout the year?

Yes. So I think Europe, again, as we exited the country that we didn't see a path to profitability, U.S. being one, Belgium, Italy, et cetera, we focus on the U.K., Spain, Ireland. And so if you take the U.K. as an example, as we're dropping more product enhancement, the brand is well known. We are seeing the stickiness of our customers. Our marketing has been really driving record acquisitions because finally, the Betway product is now competing head on with our major competitors there. Same with Spain. We've got focus to casino. We've got new stuff happening there, Ireland as well.

So it's all about the front office being the product and our brilliant back office coming together. And then in Africa, we have got a brilliant product, and we've got a back office, and we're improving the back office to make it as good as the international side. And if we get all of those 2 worlds working, that's when you see nirvana. And that's where you see our retention rates, et cetera, going -- increasing.

And there are no further questions. I will now turn the call back over to Neal Menashe for closing remarks.

So thank you, everyone, for joining today's call. We are really proud of our teams across the globe and their super performance this quarter. We are very encouraged by the momentum we have built early in the year, and we will speak to you again soon. Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining the Super Group Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Webcast and Conference Call. My name is Lucy, and I'll be coordinating your call today. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to hand over to your host, Inka Majuba, Head of Investor Relations, to begin. Please go ahead.

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Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Super Group's results for Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025. During this call, Super Group may make comments on the forward-looking nature that are subject to risks uncertainties and other factors discussed further in its SC filings that would cause its actual results could differ materially from historical results or in the company's forecast.

Super Group assumes no responsibility to update forward-looking statements out than as required by law. On today's call, Super Group may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures are in addition to and not a substitute for measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. SuperCups provided a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP figures in the press release issued yesterday and available on the Investor Relations page of Super Group's website.

Super Group recommends that investors refer to its supplementary presentation posted to i's website. Today, I'm joined by Neil Minasi, Chief Executive Officer; and Alinda Van Wyk, Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared remarks, we will open the call up for questions. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Neal.

Thank you, Ike. Good morning, everyone. 2025 was a standout year for Super Group. We refined our portfolio by exiting USI gaming, allowing us to focus on markets where we expect clear durable advantages and where we believe we can win decisively, concentrating resources in our core regions in this manner has paved the way for the record growth and operating leverage that we continue to see today. Despite some unfavorable sports outcomes late in the year, Q4 was another record-breaking period.

Monthly active customers exceeded GBP 6 million, a new record and deposits also reached new highs. In preparation for a strong 2026, we successfully launched the a Super coin in South Africa, the first step in our broader digital payments infrastructure. We are also pleased that we have received the final regulatory approval of the Apricot transaction, which strengthens our sportsbook technology platform and begins the process of realized cost savings.

Turning to our operational performance. We closed the year with significant momentum across priority markets. Europe saw strong revenue growth this quarter, up 23% year-over-year led by a 37% increase in the U.K. In Spain, revenue grew 5% on the back of strong retention and product improvements. In Germany, we remain encouraged by the upcoming H1 slots launch and the operational efficiencies we continue to implement across the market. Africa grew 27% for the full year against 2024 with Botswana outperforming since launch, and South Africa delivering strong wagering growth and record casino volumes.

Compared to fourth quarter 2024, Africa was up 7%. This was a very solid result given last year's robust sports margin and this year's customer-friendly outcomes. The underlying strength of our Africa business is highlighted by 31%, both in sports wages and 32% growth in casino was year-over-year. Overall, Africa remains a powerful growth engine, supported by continued customer momentum and high brand loyalty across the region, and we continue to assess our strategy in Nigeria.

In North America, Canada ex-Ontario increased 15%, supported by strong customer retention and acquisition, coupled with improved product rollout. In Ontario, product improvements also drove record engagement and deposits. Alberta continues to show solid growth, and we are preparing for regulation in Q2. We Overall, North America, excluding the U.S., grew 10%. APAC revenue rose 6% year-over-year despite New Zealand's 5% dip reflecting our disciplined weight on the sidelines ahead of the long anticipated local regulations framework.

We continue to undertake product innovations in support of future growth. During the quarter, we improved sports promotional bocanics for Betway X Africa leading to a 400 basis point sequential increase in the Sportsbook Palawager mix. In Africa, in the beginning of this year, we completed the technology migration in all our markets. We are now implementing AI-driven hyper-personalized best pricing to translate real-time liability analysis, market data and customer behavior insights into dynamic odds.

We are confident that this will improve our trading efficiency and help to mitigate volatility. These upgrades are all part of our broader focus on improving customer engagement, optimizing the efficiency of our promotional mechanics and building scalable features that support long-term margin quality.

In South Africa, Zar Super Coin has two significant catalysts expected in the coming months. First, the launch of Ropecon Wallet, which will give customers a seamless way to acquire, hold and redeem directly within our ecosystem. We expect this to increase engagement. Second, we are preparing additional exchange listings to broaden access, deeper liquidity and expand distribution. We believe that together, these developments will position us well for this year. With that, I'll turn it over to Alinda.

Thank you, Neal. 2025 was truly exceptional. Our total revenue for the year reached $2.2 billion, reflecting a 22% increase compared to the previous year. Adjusted EBITDA was an increase of 57% year-over-year, amounting to $560 million. This represents an impressive margin of around 25% compared with 19% in the prior year. Despite the challenging year-over-year benchmark, Total revenue grew 8% to $578 million during the fourth quarter, with adjusted EBITDA up 11% to $139 million.

Record deposits were driven by casino momentum and an active sports calendar. Total wider activity remained robust with an increase of 20% for sports and 17% for casino compared to last year. In addition, average monthly active customers reached an all can hire of $6.1 million for the quarter. a $0.16 jump from the same period in 2024. Our results demonstrate a commitment to cost discipline, and we maintained operational and marketing efficiencies. This is supported by further AI-enabled improvements, enhancements in customer support, product customization and sport tradings are ongoing.

The consistent strength of our business lies in our effective conversion of EBITDA to free cash flow, as shown by this year's impressive 72% conversion rate. We closed the year with $513 million in cash, up 32% year-over-year, an increase that underscores the resilience and durability of our business model. Our capital allocation strategy includes a commitment to rewarding our shareholders. Over the course of 2025, we returned $156 million to shareholders, including $20 million in quarter 4 with an additional special dividend in excess of $125 million paid this month. Our robust cash generation allows us to maintain this discipline while funding organic growth.

Turning to guidance. 2026 is off to a strong start, aided by an impressive active customer numbers, even higher than last quarter. After an unusually high performance in January, sports hold has returned to levels this time as our trailing 12-month average of last year. For 2026, we are guiding to total revenue of at least $2.55 billion, and adjusted EBITDA of more than $68 million. This reflects purely organic growth, continued customer engagement and a FIFA World Cup uplift.

Notably, this guidance assumes ongoing marketing discipline at roughly 22% of revenue, U.K. tax increases taking effect from April, Alberta regulated locally from midyear and continued operating leverage supported by a strong balance sheet. We are really pleased to share that the Board approved an increase of our minimum quarterly dividend target from $0.04 to $0.05 per share. The first payment will be made towards the end of March with the board reviewing this on a quarterly basis thereafter. And to conclude, we expect to release full financial statements in April consistent with prior periods. I will now hand back to Neal for closing remarks.

Thanks, Alinda. Looking ahead, we are really excited to continue scaling our strongest markets exploring expansion into new African territories, and we believe that our teams are well prepared for upcoming regulation. The expanded World Cup schedule offers a driver for global engagement setting the stage for a strong 2026. To our employees, thank you for an exceptional year. And to our shareholders, thank you for your ongoing support. I'll now hand over to the operator to open the call up for questions. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Ryan Sigdahl of Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

Neal, Alinda, congrats on the strong business trends I want to start with the customer-friendly outcomes in December. Curious how much that impacted results, if you can quantify that? And then secondly, how that's translated into potentially greater recycling of profits in play as you look at January and February and if there's any notable trend differences to call out between sports and casino as we start the new year?

So the quarter started up really great, but obviously, in December, the sports outcomes were more customer than obviously in Africa, a couple of nations, Champions League and the English Premier League. You recall, quarter four 2024, we had a hard comp of like 16%, and we finished the quarter with sports at 11.4%. December was meaningful given that we edema was probably about a $20 million EBITDA impact. from these customers. But obviously, it did flow through on our side in January, as Alinda said, we really had a fantastic January. But again, it's all about the favorite and drawing or losing, but this is what we sell. We sell that's the favorite obviously, sometimes can win all the done. And we see lots of lots of activity, obviously, in our casino. If you compare Q4 2025 to the prior period, it's up significantly.

Just given the strength of the business, and some recent news. I guess, can you explain what the company is doing from a charitable standpoint with Bet lake Care's reinvestment in the community? I saw Mr. Beast yesterday. Certainly, it seems like a lot of good things you guys are working on. It's been spun a little bit negatively by certain people. So curious just to level set what you guys are doing with your communities and reinvestment, and then secondly, Alinda, if you can just explain at a high level, all those expenses and the spending flows through the income statement.

Before I hand over to Linda on to the accounting me some context. On Betway Care at high-level Betway Care is our peritol trust in South Africa, dedicated to community initiatives, clean drinking water, sports development, arts cultural access and with obviously the goal of driving long-term impact. So we do vast amounts of charity cost perspective. ALinda can now talk to covering how that flows through our income statement.

Thanks, Ryan. On the accounting side, IFRS requires us to consolidate 100% of the earnings of the South African entity as well as then 100% of the expenses of the minority, which is Betway Care. And the operating expenses of Beta is expensed as general administrative expenses and what we stand as shown as restricted cash on the balance sheet.

The next question comes from Jordan Bender of Citizens.

Two for me. One on South Africa, we saw potential flare-up in tax change towards the end of last year. Are you able to help us just better understand kind of what you're hearing and seeing on the ground and maybe the outlook for that -- and then the second question, so we have '26 guidance. You guys gave us your '28 targets at your Investor Day a couple of months ago or back in September. From what the guidance range maybe tells us is you can potentially get to the low end of your '28 targets by this year. So are you able to just help us understand what you're seeing might be running better than expected when you gave that outlook back in September?

So I'll start with South Africa. There are obviously no new update. All the operators in South Africa specified their responses at the end of February to the government paper and then go through different committees. So we will see how that goes. From our perspective, when it comes to all these countries, it's all about operating efficiently, right? And that's what you'll see in our guidance and our margins. So it's all about that every the operating leverage that we keep talking about in this business all sits at that extra revenue coming in at almost 50% to 60% to our bottom line.

So from the guidance for next year at ZAR $680 million, we hope like '27, '28, we will increase that that as the operating leverage kicks in and our marketing efficiencies across the world start playing out.

Yes. Maybe just to add to that, we made specific reference to long-term goals more than guide. And what we had to embed this quarter for the guidance of 2026. And just when we put it altogether, it's just to keep in mind the effect of the U.K. tax that is in effect in April of 2026 as well as we change over to regulation in Alberta, which we embedded in the guidance of 2026 halfway through the year. The interesting thing as well as we build our guidance on our continued customer momentum. I think we spoke a lot about our cohorts and that is even though we have a lot of confidence in what it exists within our business, we remain quite conservative in how we roll it out in the next couple of years.

The next question comes from Bernie McTernan of Needham & Co.

Maybe just start -- or I have 2. I just wanted to add on Nigeria. So the slide deck mentioned assessing a new plant in Nigeria. So just wanted to get a sense is of what's contemplated in the guide. And what's the time line of the rollout of that new plan? And then also discussion on the final regulatory approval for Apricot. So I just wanted to make sure, was this -- was Apricot always treat arm's length since the original deal announcement, I think, a couple of years ago at this point. And -- but more importantly, what will you be able to do now with the final regulatory approval that you weren't able to do before?

So just obviously, in Africa, we continue to operationalize in all the countries within Africa. And we're still refining our strategy in Nigeria. We expect low single-digit World Cup tailwind there, right? So Nigeria is more to decide what we're doing, which part of the market we are assessing and we've got 1 or 2 other African countries we are looking at that. But we see lots of low-hanging fruit in all other African markets operationalized in the same way we've operationalized the other markets across the world.

When it comes to Africa, we purchased, as you know, we purchased the sportsbook technology, bringing it in-house just just to explain that sportsbook technology is for beta outside of Africa. We now have full control over it. So it means that all its staff, et cetera, come into our organization. And then we can even do more product enhancements with the software because now we are in that part of it.

Yes. And maybe just to add to that, even though the transaction was reported on and Neal has explained in the 20-F that we previously published last year, we only completed the transaction now when we had regulatory approval to operate this product in different jurisdictions.

The next question comes from Jason Tilchen of Canaccord.

Just wanted to start with a question. You obviously provided some extra balance sheet flexibility. Wondering if you could just remind us a little bit of what some of the key considerations as you contemplate potential M&A opportunities are what would be sort of the type of acquisition you'd be focused on here in the near term? I mean is there any sort of country or region in particular you feel could be strengthened via M&A.

So as you know, when it comes to M&A, we always are highly selective. We really need M&A to hit our plans. Obviously, the bolt-on improves tech, our product or market position with attractive returns, we will engage. But I think the real key for us is we're not overpaying. We've seen lots of our competitors overpay, and that's not what we do. It has to make strategic sense for us. the businesses we acquire have to either be standalone or if they're coming into our world, we can take them to another level. So that's always been how we've looked at it.

And yes, Jason, am I reference to a nice amount of cash on the balance sheet. So how we deploy that is disciplined first and flexibility next. Organic growth has always been important to us with a clear eye on return on investment. And then you've noticed we've paid regular and special dividends. So as Neal said, we'll only select bolt-on opportunities that strengthen our core.

And then just one quick follow-up. I'm wondering if you could share a little bit more on the strategy in Alberta and how you're taking learnings from the Ontario transition and applying them to sort of improve the performance here this time around.

Okay. So as we know, Alberta is now expected to regulate in Q2 2026. I mean I'll say this, we are ready -- we learned our lessons from Ontario of how to migrate the customers from our dot-com product to now Alberta, we've also obviously enhanced our Rest of Canada product and our Ontario products, all those features will now come in diverse product. I think we saw lots of heavy marketing activity early on in Ontario. I'm not sure that all the competitors can keep spending as they have been spending.

So we think that will be a more rational competitive environment. And as you know, we've already got the revenue. So when we spend x percentage of our market on revenue, we already have that revenue. So we're waiting to see it as soon all the regs come and we're ready to go, we go for Alberta.

The next question comes from Clark Lantin of BTIG.

I wanted to follow up on Bernie's question before around Nigeria, but maybe in sort of a broader context. If I think back to what you laid out for us in September, I think they were up to 4 markets that were targeted potentially for expansion. Are any of those encompassed in the plan for 2026 or embedded in guidance or whether yes or no, maybe you could give us an update on which of them seem most addressable or I guess, sort of most actionable near term.

Yes. Thank you for your question. The only market expansion into Africa, that is included in the guidance is Namibia at this point in time. We did call out 1 or 2 other markets as well in Investors Day like you've mentioned. But we also remain disciplined to have a strategic rollout plan and make sure that how we operate in Africa is 100% effective. And we also obtained that operating leverage there.

And I'll just add to that is remember besides of the 1 country, we're obviously rolling out of Jackpot City brand has a pure play casino into more African markets. and we've got a few of them coming online. So -- and then at the same time, operationalize the listing products and teams that we've got in those regions.

Understood. And a very quick follow-up, if I may. Neal, I think you called out a low single-digit benefit in Nigeria from the World Cup. Would it be possible to quantify how big the tournament could be for your sports business in 2026 from a handle standpoint? Yes, go ahead. Sorry.

Yes. Okay. So no, what we said is generally in our budget, we've got low single-digit World Cup tailwinds across -- I mean just putting the 40% of the countries we operate in are participating in the World Cup. So the World subs obviously an expanded format. So what it can mean in the beginning part of the World Cup, you'll have really good teams again, not such good things. I mean that we might have more favorite wing in this World Cup, but it's a longer tournament with a lot more games. So we believe the engagements, et cetera, over time, is going to be fairly good. And obviously, the World Cup is at that time and it is, we normally wouldn't have any sport events. So it's really going to fill the calendar for us from a net perspective.

The next question comes from Mike Hecky of StoneX.

Neal, Alinda great job guys on stellar '25. Just a few questions. as first on Apricot. I think, Alinda, you were sort of penciling out $35 million in EBITDA savings from the deal and integration. Is that still the number you're thinking about in '26? And how much have you baked into your guidance now that you've completed or have the official approval to complete this deal?

Thanks, Mike. During Investor Day, we called out $35 million, this is not day-1 saving, this is an annualized sizing projection. And these savings will come from reduced royalty fees infrastructure enhancements and most importantly, bringing staff closer to Super Group, so we're starting to bring the team together. And the savings definitely already started, but this is an annualized number that we bought out. And we will pay on progress as we continue and execute according to our plans.

I wanted just to confirm that you've put the presumed savings now into your guide, correct?

That's correct. The savings that we will realize in 2026 is in the guide, correct.

Okay. Awesome. I guess next on the -- I guess, just to stay on the guide, Alinda, did you also can presume savings on the Super coin initiative as well? Or is that something that you'd look to just earn as you sort of continue to roll out the product? I guess the next big step would be the wallet.

Yes. So obviously, the launch in South Africa. And obviously, it's a step towards broader payment and engagement. It's near -- it will take us time. Obviously, you can't just switch the lights on and it just happens. The customers have to adapt it. So one is we have the customer base to is we have the product that African customers love. So we're going to start as soon as the wallet comes in, in the first half of this year, be able to incentives to that, but it's already helping us save on other banking fees from the different suppliers we use. So we are really seeing a benefit. So some of that is obviously put into our guidance.

Okay. Last question. On the World Cup, I mean it's pretty obvious to see how strong of a catalyst that's going to be for you guys, onboarding players here in the cross-sell, the iGaming is significant. I think you said 60-plus percent, but just I guess reflecting on the Africa Cub. And the pressure on hold that you experienced at the beginning of that event, given that the World Cup this year has expanded significantly, how do you sort of assess, sort of early tournament risk on hold and what you would do to mitigate that, if that's a factor that we should be thinking about.

Yes. So life, I think it is better that they're more teams, right? In all the past World Cup, we've always found in the early in some of the favorite don't win, either when we draw, sometimes don't even qualify for the next round. What we have done and will do is that we don't -- we are all over our sense and our boost that we give the customers in the tournament, especially in the early round. So this is all the mass exercise of working out where the volatility lies. And as you can imagine vesifrom Africa Cup of Nations, we've learned some clever lessors there.

Also, what does happen is you saw what happened in December, and then it all flow through in January where the sports results went the other way. So then you get Novan, you get brilliant sports margin and you get your constant casino. So together, that helps us. And also, we've got all the new AI pricing new initiatives we are then embedding from our traders, et cetera. So we are all over this.

And listen, the World Cup, I think, is going to be a real catalyst for -- it's all about the customer engagement. Remember, it's not about the customer just in the first week or 2 of the world copied engagement is too engagement going forward. And that's our whole business is about.

And then the coal altonalysis, that spend that gets on showing on our Investor Day is how the cake is lowering. This just helps lowering the cake.

And just to conclude, if you remember, our sports is 20% of our business 80% is casino. We like to believe that casino being casino faces, gives us the ability to navigate the ups and downs of sports.

Next question comes from Jed Kelly of Oppenheimer.

Just looking into your guidance, can you just talk about some reps we should turn your aspect, there's any kind around comp? Anything we should be on think of.

So you're just breaking up. We've got some of it, not all of it. Do you want to just, sorry, just repeat that, sorry, we just we heard every second word.

Yes. Could you just talk about some of the risk in terms of potentially some of the risk guidance on why it could come under your stations?

Hello. I think the risk around any guidance is usually the variance that varies a cut by wise. So Abe-san, hopefully, like Rich just mentioned, the the sports results will normalize, and we feel comfortable that, that will even be the effect of our 2026 guide. And we've already started to see that because January was exceptional more than we've ever seen, but it's already normalized to our trailing 12-month average of the results in February. And we just have to make sure that we -- like Neal made references to launch more of the jacket city in different countries. So we have that uplift in growth.

And then I think to answer some of the questions, I thought we got was in the guide we've done a normalized sports margin is how is embedded into the guide, yes.

And maybe there's always at risk of sudden regulatory shifts like taxes and -- but that we have been navigating for the last 20 years. So we take a conservative approach around including that in the guide.

And then if you can hear me all right, I'll sneak 1 more in. Any regions outside of Africa, we should be watching that could potentially open up?

Listen, at Brazil was last or the year before. this talk of UAE, et cetera, coming. So again, it's all about the numbers. It's all about what are the taxes, what you can do in those markets, what product is it support to the casino. So from that perspective, that's probably only the other one, right? Most of the European countries, as you know, are all regulated today. And there are some 1 or 2 African countries that are starting to regulate over time. So we're all over it.

Any more questions from anyone?

We have no further questions.

Alright. Okay. So again, thank you, everyone, for joining today's call. We are really, really super proud of our performance in 2025 and the start of the new year, and we'll speak to you again soon. Thank you.

That concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

Hello, everyone and thank you for joining the Super Group's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Webcast and Conference Call. My name is Lucy and I'll be coordinating your call today. [Operator Instructions]

It is now my pleasure to hand over to your host, Nkem Ojougboh, Head of Investor Relations, to begin. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us today to discuss Super Group's results for the third quarter 2025.

During this call, Super Group may make comments of a forward-looking nature that are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed further in its SEC filings that could cause the actual results to differ materially from historical results or from the company's forecast. Super Group assumes no responsibility to update forward-looking statements other than as required by law. On today's call, Super Group may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures are in addition to and not a substitute for measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. Super Group has provided a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP figures in the press release issued yesterday and available on the Investor Relations page of Super Group's website. Super Group recommends that investors refer to the supplementary presentation posted to the company's website.

Today, I'm joined by Neal Menashe, Chief Executive Officer; and Alinda Van Wyk, Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared remarks, we'll open the call up for questions. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Neal.

Thank you, Ink. Good morning, everyone and welcome to Super Group's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. We delivered another strong and resilient performance this quarter, powered by consistent execution, record customer engagement and continued focus on margin expansion. We achieved this despite customer-friendly sports results in September and with customer acquisition up very nicely year-on-year, we are positioned for a good fourth quarter.

We enjoyed seeing many of you in our London office for our Investor Day in September. Now we would like to share some key takeaways since then. First, we hit a record of 6 million monthly active customers in September, which we have already surpassed in October. This reflects the depth of our global footprint, our localized execution and the value loyal customers continue to place on our products and platforms. Second, we are proud to officially announce the upcoming Q4 launch of Super Coin, our South African rand-pegged digital asset stablecoin initiative. This marks a significant and strategic step forward in how we think about payments, rewards and engagement. Finally, despite unfavorable sports outcomes in September, rolling marginally into October, we are raising our full year group revenue and EBITDA 2025 guidance.

Before I turn to Alinda for the financial details, I wanted to offer a quick overview of our operational performance this quarter and elaborate more on Super Coin. Europe's revenue surged 46% year-over-year with the U.K. and Spain leading the charge, up 71% and 11%, respectively. This outstanding performance reflects a combination of regulatory stability, product innovation and enhanced marketing execution. In contrast, Germany continued to be impacted by tighter regulatory restrictions as well as an intentionally reduced marketing spend to preserve unit economics in a challenging environment. Africa delivered 36% year-over-year growth, driven by strong performance across all markets. Botswana remains a standout with continued momentum since launch. Malawi and Tanzania also posted solid gains, while South Africa grew 23% year-over-year.

In Nigeria, we have successfully completed the migration to our new technology platform, which positions us for improved scalability and customer experience. In Zambia, we are proactively navigating casino tax headwinds and are making good progress. North America grew 14% year-over-year. Canada ex Ontario increased 15%, supported by higher deposit volumes and strong customer retention. Ontario increased 3%. We are planning to launch our new casino client there in the first half of 2026. APAC revenue was also up 3% year-over-year, marking a solid improvement from last quarter's 6% decline. In New Zealand, revenue declined 2%, primarily driven by continued marketing restrictions. We are obviously actively addressing this issue.

We are on track to launch the ZAR Super Coin in late November in partnership with Luno, the largest customer, consumer crypto exchange in South Africa. This new South African rand-pegged stablecoin is designed to deepen customer loyalty, reward engagement and enable cross-platform benefits across the Super Group ecosystem. We intend Super Coin to be more than just a rewards tool. It marks a crucial first step in integrating digital assets into our product stack. Our digital asset wallet is expected to launch in Q1 2026, starting in South Africa, where adoption of alternative payment methods continues to accelerate. This wallet will provide customers with a seamless and secure way to store, send and transact using Super Coin and we expect it will lead to cost efficiencies over time. In the longer term, we plan to expand availability in line with local regulatory frameworks.

With that, I'll now turn over to Alinda.

Thank you, Neal. Let's now walk through the financials. We had an exceptional July and August. And despite those sports outcomes that Neal mentioned, our core business outperformed, enabling us to confidently raise our full year guidance above previous Investor Day targets. The group generated a total revenue of $557 million, up 26% year-over-year. Group adjusted EBITDA reached $152 million, representing 65% year-over-year growth with a robust margin of approximately 27%. This quarter's margin improvement reinforces the strength of our model. We are investing in markets that deliver the best returns while maintaining cost discipline and increasing operational efficiency, including expanded use of AI across customer support and trading.

We again improved our marketing ratio and still drove record customer engagement and wagering growth. These fundamentals, disciplined reinvestment, efficiency gains and a sharper ROI positions us to finish this year strongly and carrying momentum into 2026. The quarter was also driven by strong sports outcomes in July and August and increased uptake of parlays. Growth was further supported by favorable wagering activity with sports betting wagers hitting $901 million for the quarter, up 12% and casino wages up 20% year-over-year. Our sportsbook margins also improved from 11% in quarter 3 2024 to 12.8% in quarter 3 2025. Our balance sheet remains strong. We ended the quarter with $462 million cash on the balance sheet.

Over the last 12 months, we have returned $136 million to shareholders, including $20 million paid out in the past quarter, once again, demonstrating our robust free cash flow generation and careful consideration capital allocation strategies. Today, we are raising our full year 2025 group revenue to be between $2.17 billion and $2.27 billion and group adjusted EBITDA guidance to between $555 million and $565 million. This uplift reflects our robust growth in monthly active customers, diversification in our revenue mix and steady start to quarter 4.

I will now hand back to Neal for closing remarks.

Thank you, Alinda. Q3 showcased the power of our diversified global footprint, efficient cost structure and strong operating leverage. Even in a tough sports hold environment, we delivered record customer activity, 65% year-over-year growth in EBITDA and consistent reinvestment in our product and tech platforms. As we move into the final quarter of 2025, we remain focused on executing our growth strategy, unlocking further margin expansion and delivering long-term value to our shareholders.

I'll now turn the call over to the operator to open the call up for questions. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Jason Tilchen of Canaccord Genuity.

One thing I'm curious about, if you could share a little more detail regarding the magnitude of the difference in payments costs in Africa relative to some of the other markets you operate in and a little bit more about maybe the level of investment required in this initiative relative to the potential savings over time from reduced payments costs.

Yes. Not yet. So in Africa, because of the wallets and stuff, it's significantly more than other markets in the world. So with this initiative, it can over time, obviously reduce that. And yet, the cost involved in implementing the Super Coin haven't been excessive at all. It's actually quite -- it's easily manageable. And over time, obviously, with the engagement in the customer base going forward, we are really excited about this opportunity.

And just to follow-up on that. You mentioned in your prepared remarks a few times about rewards. I'm just curious what the opportunity is to potentially use this as a mechanism to drive retention for the user base in those markets.

Yes, the -- listen, it's all about our customer acquisition, keeping the -- retention of our customers and keeping them in our ecosystem. So with the Super Coin, we -- there's lots of different benefits we can give them as they start interacting with that because it's a method that we will control and we're in total control of that destiny. So for us, it's a very exciting opportunity, because of that. This bonus money where you can give them, there's lots of different things you can give them.

The next question comes from Jordan Bender of Citizens.

I want to start on guidance. Adjusting for the tough sports comp in the prior year, 4Q revenue still implies slowing growth trends from what we've seen year-to-date. Are you seeing anything into November that would imply anything slowing across some of your major KPIs outside of just some of the poor sports results that have bled into October?

Thank you, Jordan, for your question. We -- in the guidance for the remainder of the year, we just assumed a normalized sports hold in line with around 14%. As you can see in the investor presentation, we've prepared a slide on that. We can't -- as you know, it's very tricky for us to have any kind of understanding of the impact of when it does have a outlier like in September. But what happened in September is well because July and August were so significantly higher, you do have a equalized quarter. So that's why we just kept it normalized. And we're also very excited about the continued momentum in the customer activity, fueled by also marketing efficiencies in line with our prior quarters. So that all will help deliver that last part of the year. And furthermore, we just have to rely on consistent execution and a seasonal supportive calendar.

And also I'll just add in Jordan, that obviously, quarter 4 2024 was a hard comp because the sports margin was at 15.9%.

Perfect. And then just maybe a follow-up on the U.S. business. Anything left from a revenue or a cost standpoint we should be expecting in the fourth quarter?

Yes. So the gaming operations is all wrapped up in the U.S. And that -- the only thing that is now -- that we're just doing is the operational wind down and wrap up. In the guidance for quarter 4, we've included that. That is a absolute immaterial number. So -- and we won't foresee any revenues coming through in quarter 4.

The next question comes from Jed Kelly of Oppenheimer.

I think you highlighted we're kind of watching some tax developments here in a couple of countries in Africa and then potentially in the U.K. Can you just remind us how much of a tax cushion you baked in, in sort of some of the medium-term guidance you laid out at your recent Investor Day?

Yes. So remember, taxes, obviously, with us, the way to mitigate taxes is, #1, cost efficiencies. There's cost efficiencies in everything we do, then it's the product efficiencies and it's the marketing efficiencies. So all of that is coming together. And for us, we have lots of headroom there to take some of these tax increases. The big one, obviously, for everyone's mind is the U.K. and how much they plan to go up. But for us, we've got a resilient business model and we're growing. So yes, it might take some of the extra profit out of it. But with all the other savings coming in, we hope to mitigate against them.

But just to go back to the reference to Africa, the only really impact at the moment on tax in Africa is around Zambia and that's been embedded in the Q4 guidance forecast.

Got it. That's helpful. And then just circling back to Ontario. I think it's -- you said -- you highlighted it's growing 3%. I think overall, Canada is growing high teens. How should we think about Alberta's growth rate when that market legalizes? Should we think that grows mid-single digits? Or should -- do you think you can maintain sort of that strong growth you're seeing in the rest of Canada?

So I think we've learnt our lessons, obviously, as we always say, in Ontario. Again, we've got the new clients being launched there shortly in next quarter in Canada -- in Ontario and we're obviously enhancing the products. So all of that will help us deliver more in Alberta. But this is one that we -- I would say Alberta would be higher teens, et cetera. We would expect to be closer to what else we see in Canada.

The next question comes from Bernie McTernan of Needham.

This is Stefanos Crist, calling in for Bernie. Pretty healthy margin level despite some negative sports results. Can you just talk about the puts and takes on margin in the quarter and if that's sustainable going forward?

Yes. Stefanos, directionally, 100%, our model benefits from mix towards higher-quality casino revenue. We also have the strong geographic diversification. And what we've been seeing, even though the sports results have been under pressure, we've seen increased parlay contribution, which had a favorable impact. Otherwise, what Neal and I constantly talk about our structural efficiencies as we roll out AI-enabled operations and disciplined processing negotiations, et cetera, we definitely believe that this margin is sustainable.

Got it. And then you called out strength in the U.K. and Spain. Just anything specific to call out there?

So I think if you take U.K. and Spain, it's the product, again, remember, we closed a lot of markets. And I keep telling people that when we close those markets, we'll then to be able to focus the resource in on the markets where we're winning. And that you can see that in obviously the U.K. and stuff. So all the stuff we're doing on parlays, the product, the processing, everything that happens in the product is you're seeing a direct correlation of how those numbers are going. So it's not fluke. This is a dedicated resource allocation and we keep pushing more, more and more. And our brand strength, obviously, is compounding. Spain, we've got like the Super Club loyalty was introduced, ongoing product upgrades. And so all of that's coming together. And that's all about this operating leverage that sits in our platforms.

The next question comes from Clark Lampen of BTIG.

Neal, maybe I can follow up a little bit on that comment around U.K. growth and the product, I guess, sort of driver underpinning it. Was that Apricot driven? And if so, is that something that we should think about maybe being sort of earlier stages with the U.K. sportsbook? And then sort of second question, as we think about the sportsbook business overall, maybe as sort of a follow-up on Jordan's question around the forward outlook. If we sort of run forward the numbers with seasonal improvements in your customers in line with what we've seen in the past, it would seem like there was a pretty significant downtick on a per customer basis. Is that in any way sort of related to engagement patterns? Have you seen any downtick? Or maybe should we read this as just sort of a prudent way of approaching, I guess, the sort of 4Q setup and modeling?

Okay. So just back on the U.K., obviously, I always think we under-index. The brand was really good in the U.K. But as we've got more focus on the product, you've seen an uptick there. Plus remember, we've also launched the casino over at Jackpot City, et cetera and we put a lot of effort into that. So all of that's coming together. Plus you've got the parlay mix that, that product, which is obviously that we purchased from Apricot, that we're almost finally getting over the line and owning it in the next few months is all coming together because we actually own 100% of the road map there and what's happening. So that's all coming together for what I call Betway Global internationally. Obviously, the Betway Africa has always been running a superb product, right? So that all helps.

No, I think when it comes to the outlook and stuff, it's not -- we -- listen, we're always prudent as you know. We -- this is how we operate. Again, we're still 80% in this quarter, I think it was 83% or something in casino. It just depends how the football lay of the land actually unfold in because football is our #1 sport. I think in September, what we saw with the Champions League was that all the favorites were winning in the Champions League round robin. But now we're starting to move and we'll move into the next couple of months into the next phase and that's when there's the favorites don't always win. So for us, it's just being prudent. We've got -- listen [indiscernible] all about and [indiscernible] always keep discussing, it's all about customers in the house and how they engage and we're delivering more and more of those month-on-month. And that's why I said October numbers of customers in the house worth even more than September.

Okay. If I could throw one more in, your Africa growth was up 36% this quarter. Anything that you would call out sort of along the lines of the same sort of underpinning drivers with product in that territory? And maybe more importantly, how should we think about the sustainability of growth at an elevated pace?

It's definitely more durable broad-based growth. We do obviously seeing Botswana as a standout in the mix when it comes to first launch. I mean Botswana was about 4% in quarter 1, 4.5% in quarter 2 and now 6.5% in quarter 3. So that just shows that how that one country contributed to the growth of Africa. But generalized, the growth is around the consistent African -- consistently across all the African countries. And we've also just completed the Nigeria tech migration, which we hope to also see a nice uplift in stability in the next couple of months. And then just to conclude, remember, we've launched Jackpot City as a secondary casino brand in Africa. It's now live in South Africa, Ghana, Malawi and Tanzania. And we foresee that Ghana will be -- the launch will happen in Ghana now.

So we've done that. So I think the moment we set out that we've got to get our casinos in all the markets we're operating in. And that's the same for U.K., same for Africa. We're now hopefully coming soon to Spain. And then the last one, obviously, is Germany that we still got some tech stuff to do there because it's quite restrictive of what we have to do.

The next question comes from Ryan Sigdahl of Craig-Hallum.

Really nice results. Want to move around -- stay on the hold kind of the sports impact in September. If I look at August, it looked like it was kind of an outsized good guy for the sportsbook from a hold standpoint win, offset by September. Are you able to kind of net those 2 together throughout the whole quarter on kind of what the net impact was from sports gross margin impact relative to what you were expecting?

So I think it's on Slide 12 in the investor deck. We've included quite a nice slide now just to explain the ebbs and the flows of sports margin, which is obviously you can't really predict any of that. So what we've just started to see, like Neal explained as well is the timing of the matches and how the outcomes will now be a bit more favorable because -- for the -- for that -- for Betway, not for the customer maybe because of -- in the beginning, you have much more favorable that will. But on this slide, you will see we had a high of 18.8% and a low of 7.3%. So that we've actually marked now. So that average of 14% is what we kind of project forward. But net-net, over a period of time, the margin is increasing due to all -- everything that Neal has mentioned of more rollout of the parlay product in other parts of our -- which was quite dominant in Africa but now in other parts of the world as well as just customer engagement.

Fair enough. Super Coin part -- is South Africa kind of the initial launch? Is there plans to launch a similar coin in, let's say, Nigeria and other markets? Or is this kind of a one, let's trial it and see how it goes before making any other kind of further strategy and decisions?

Yes. So South Africa was the first place to start just because of the [indiscernible] license and high digital wallet adoption there. And so also we've got a big customer base there. So we tried it out there. And as it works there, then we'll see the other markets and are actively looking at other markets. But we rather want to start in one country and then move as opposed to try and do it in so many countries all at once. I mean there's quite a lot of technical lift that has to happen here and with Luno being the largest consumer exchange, having the biggest customer base in South Africa, we decided to start there first. So there's a road to go there. This is obviously the first part, listing on the exchange and then you would get into the wallet adoption into Betway, which I said would probably happen in quarter 1, towards the end of quarter 1.

Maybe just a follow-up on that and maybe a naive question on crypto but can you launch the same Super Coin in other markets? Or would it have to be a kind of full separate infrastructure and coin?

Yes. It's basically every coin will be -- this is a ZAR coin and Super Coin, then you have the different currency coins in each market. But it's all the same technology, same, everything, we just got to get on to those relevant exchanges in the countries we decide to go and that the laws of that country allow us to do it.

The next question comes from Mike Hickey of Benchmark Company.

Neal, Alinda, Ink, Super Group team, congrats guys on a great quarter and a great year, definitely getting a real picture here of 2025, Neal. Just curious when you look at sort of the drivers here of your growth and there's a lot of them, just curious sort of the main drivers, the most durable drivers that you think will also be a positive impact to your '26 outlook. So I guess, Neal, just curious if you can kind of give us what '26 looks like, growing off such a great '25 and how much are sort of existing drivers of growth versus new drivers like Super Coin? I mean Super Coin sounds great. It's just hard to sort of understand the impact and how material you think it could be. It seems like it could be great on revenue and costs. But I guess just getting a better idea of '26, Neal, would be great [indiscernible].

Okay. Michael, I won't comment on 2026 yet but I'll tell you where -- what we've delivered on. So we've delivered on marketing efficiencies everywhere, right, in the business. We spent [indiscernible] $500 million on marketing for 2025. So it's getting that efficient. We said in the beginning, we've got to get that more efficient. We're doing it finding the new channel. So that's one, obviously, closing the markets that we were never saw a path to profitability. I always said the opportunity cost of being in those markets is huge and you're seeing it by we can redeploy into the product, into the markets we are winning in. And that's one like Ontario now, the new clients coming, new stuff coming there. So -- and that's all happening.

Plus, we've got product -- it's all about your product, right? It's like what is your product, how is your product relative to the competitors in each market. So in Africa, I think we got a standout product. I think we're catching up in some of the other markets, especially the U.K. And as we're closing that parity, we are seeing the uplift in our customer behavior, customer loyalty, et cetera. We then talk about process efficiencies. One is payment efficiencies. We're all over that, new rates, et cetera. In the African business, processing is expensive. It can be anything from 3% to 6%, right, of deposits. But remember, what happens in those markets is they deposit, they cash out. They redeposit, they cash out, they redeposit. So you've got a lot of churn of the same money. So you're paying deposit fees in and out all the time. So hopefully, with our Super Coin, et cetera, we can build that balance that stays in our ecosystem. We're not paying for the same money, but 3 or 4 or 5x.

In the U.S., as an example, in the U.K., the processing fees are tiny. They're pennies, right, in transaction fees but not in some of the other markets. So that's where that comes together. And then what we always said and we said for the last 3 years and since we finally got stuck into it, especially as Alinda has been really pushing it is these cost efficiencies. It's how do we do the business, how do we double the business without doubling the costs. And that's really what this is all about. And we're finally seeing that coming through and there's more and more efficiencies, new call center software, new risk management, that's happening everywhere and that's what, what we have been pushing. And then that you ultimately need that because in some markets, you can win, in some markets, you're not winning like Germany. But Germany is really a function of the [ regs ] but also in Germany, we had to wait to split out our wallet. So yes, has it been on the main burner for us, probably not. But now we can finally get to it that we split out the casino wallet from the sports wallet, so we can finally offer casino in Germany.

So all these things take time but we're finally getting them. And I think it's about actioning the points that we believe in and that's what you can see dropping down. So if you have to look to 2026, we are setting some of the goals we set on our Investor Day, how do we increase the revenue and then the operating leverage kicks in. So you'll probably hear from us about 2026 in February time, right when we do our end of year wrap-up, et cetera. And most importantly, our deposits and net revenue are really tracking well and it's all about the customers in the system. And again, if you look -- remember, at Investor Day, we had one slide, which obviously explains a bit on this cohort analysis but around it, it's all about the customer. And we can't forget this business is all about this customer. And everything we do has to involve around the customer. And as you get 6 million in, you've got a lot of work that the system has to do to make sure that all 6 million are treated correctly, right? And that's what we're striving to do.

Thanks, Neal. The other piece on Africa, obviously, it just seems like a incredible opportunity for you guys near and long term. We noticed that Kenya has made a change to their tax scheme. And we know that you exited Kenya because of some, I guess, you could say one of your guys say ridiculous tax environment. Obviously, it wasn't great. You laughed and now they've got a change. Just curious your thoughts on that change and if you -- if it's significant enough that maybe you can reexamine that market as an opportunity. And if you think the new tax scheme may have positive implications for other countries where you operate?

Yes. I think that's -- I mean, that's actually a very good point. If you bring up Kenya, they had this excise tax on sports and casino where you could actually do it on sports, you couldn't actually apply it to casino. And it takes them like what 2 years or almost to do it. So yes, absolutely, that's a case that we could absolutely go back in and turn on the software. And it just means they finally found a mechanism that they are more comfortable in, which is taxing on deposits in and out, which is a much more fairer and easier way basically for them to monitor the tax collection. So Zambia also went against this excise tax.

But I think the first time what we saw in Zambia is, as an industry, all of us came together to go and lobby the government to finally say you don't have casino there, you'll lose all this revenue and they're slowly lifting. And in Kenya, as we do it, Kenya goes with the exact model that we suggested for Zambia. So I think it's the ebb and flow. And as these new businesses come in, we are working with the government. So absolutely. And for us, I think the [indiscernible] point is that you have always got opportunities to go back in. And so and that's what we will do. And our products there, we just got to get the resource to be able to just turn it back on.

And Neal last question. The -- when Laurence gave his presentation on Africa at your Investor Day, he noted 4 countries that were -- maybe Kenya was one of them, I can't remember but 4 countries where you're not in today but are sort of on the radar. And this sort of maybe ties back to '26, which I know you can't exactly talk about but I appreciate the color. But it's a pretty significant TAM that he outlines in his presentation. Is that something that we should pencil in as a possibility? Or is it still fairly remote? It just seems like given the success here that it could be something.

No. We haven't gone into them yet but we are far down the line, getting the model right, getting how the money has been charged, et cetera. So we're all over them and there are a lot of them. They've got the capacity to deliver them. The question is at what stage in next year, we will be launching them. But that's definitely 100% part of our plan. It's all about [indiscernible] yes, absolutely.

When you say far down the line, Neal, that means that your -- there's no roadblocks to opening those countries.

No, no, no, it's just about the regulation and getting the legal structures in place, et cetera, because each one has got a slight nuance than the other one but there's lots happening. The team is on it and we -- and for us, that's all part of our journey. That's exactly what we want to be delivering on, absolutely. And that's why we freed up all that. And that's simply why we speed up the Africa business just to do Africa. And we speed up the rest of the world for them to do the rest of the world. This is exactly the point, right?

The next question comes from Chad Beynon of Macquarie.

Nice results. So wanted to start with the New Zealand regulatory news that we've seen in terms of the online gambling tax change and I guess, it's a fairly different licensing regime. I know that's been a smaller market and one that hasn't led to as much growth as others. But Neal, can you maybe just kind of touch on how you're feeling about the market and kind of how you think operators will react to this?

So again, it's still -- all these regulations are still in and out of the different committees in New Zealand. We are all over it. We've -- it's just a matter of when they actually finally decide that they are going to fully regulate it, especially this is all to do with casino, right? So we're all over it and what we are doing is -- and have been doing it for a while, is they've got certain advertising restrictions that we are adhering to. And that's very important where some other competitors aren't but we are because for us, it's all about the long-term longevity of that market for us. So we're doing that. We're able to do certain marketing, not others. So we've actually taken a constant stance there, which is why you see the growth not being what it is, also subject to there has been some devaluation of the New Zealand dollar.

And just to add to Neal's point, remember, New Zealand has been taxed for a very long time. So we pay a GST tax in New Zealand for a very -- for a couple of years already. And mid last year, they introduced a smaller gaming tax. And the noise around tax is just how the regulation now coming to maturity to when they launch to peg that rate of tax. And I think there has been now rumors to increase it a bit more. But like Neal said, this is very early days. But the point I'm just making is that we have been paying tax there for a while, even though there wasn't a regulation regime at that point in time.

Great. And then lastly, just in terms of the strong capital position that you're in, any update in terms of how you're thinking about tuck-in or bolt-on M&A in this market?

So we look at this. Listen, we're highly selective. We don't want to overpay but also I don't think we can totally underpay either. So we have to find that balance. But at the moment, we make small, tiny little ones along the way, marketing ones, et cetera. But it's all about, is it at the right price and does it work? And we can't just base these acquisitions on synergies, right? They've got to stand on their own 2 feet. So when we find the right ones, it's not that we're not looking, we've got a long list, it's got to make sense for us, right? And that's what we're doing. And really, what we're also doing is, operational side, is we're working out where we need to bolt on along the way. So it's in the marketing domains, if it's in other stuff, et cetera, which is what we're doing. It's like -- the Super Coin one is another example. We bought a [indiscernible] license. We had to buy it from [indiscernible]. So we bolt on these smaller ones along the way. [indiscernible] comes, we're all open.

We currently have no further questions. So I'd like to hand back to Neal for any closing remarks.

So thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We are really proud of our performance this quarter and excited about how well positioned we are for the future. We will speak to you all again soon. Thank you.

This concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.