Buenos Aires. In regards to EBITDA,
Analyst
As we discussed in last quarter's earnings call, the uptick in negative EBITDA versus the prior year quarter was primarily due to the higher levels of marketing and other operational investments to drive the accelerated net gaming revenue growth we are delivering and expect to continue delivering into year-end. At the country level the negative EBITDA generation in Latin America was partially offset by Spain, which generated €3.6 million of positive EBITDA in the second quarter, the highest level since the second quarter of 2020, despite the regulatory hurdles in place since last year. We have spoken with a number of you that are on this call and understand that you and the market in general are interested in having further information regarding our pathway to profitability in Latin America and overall as a company. We are expecting to be in a position to share additional information with you in our third quarter earnings call scheduled for mid-November once we have finalized our operating plan and budget for 2023 and updated our expectations for 2024. In the meantime, please note that this is a business where we make a significant upfront investment to acquire customers, none of which may be capitalized, and which on average generates net gaming revenue of between three and five times that upfront investment over a five-year period. In terms of the payback periods on that investment, this varies market-by-market that is it depends on how developed the market is and our strategic and financial objectives for that market. But generally we seek a contribution margin based payback of between one and two years. On a sequential basis however, our EBITDA decline from negative €13 million in the first quarter to just below €10 million in the second, partially due to timing issues in regards to marketing investments we made in Mexico in the second quarter. As a reminder, a significant portion of our overall marketing spend is discretional, that is, can be increased or decreased at any time based on what we are seeing across our markets and our objectives as a company in terms of balancing higher growth with acceptable levels of cash burn, minimum levels of liquidity, especially considering the current challenging state of the capital markets. Turning to the Spanish operating and financial metrics, we see net gaming revenue in the second quarter increase 12% versus the prior year quarter, despite having 4% fewer active customers as a result of the promotional restrictions in place. On an LTM basis, we are 2% below in revenue levels with 6% fewer average monthly actives in the period, reflecting the higher spend per active on the back of improved results, especially in our online casino business. In Mexico meanwhile, net gaming revenue reached €12 million in a quarter, an increase of 85% year-on-year and almost 20% sequentially. This strong performance is supported by both a higher number of active customers and a higher spend per active. In regards to our omnichannel activity, our online business benefits from Codere Group's leading retail presence in the country and sizable customer database, which allows us another channel to acquire customers, offer them a differentiated omnichannel customer experience, and improve our overall return on investment in the market. Moving to Colombia, we continue to see strong growth in the market with a 57% increase in net gaming revenue and 37% in number of actives. This continues to be a small business for us, but one that we expect to continue growing with an improved return on marketing investment. Turning to the balance sheet, as of June 30, we had approximately €80 million in available cash on the balance sheet having utilized approximately €11 million in the first half of 2022. In terms of our net working capital position, we ended the second quarter at negative €26 million, a quarter in which we did some catching up in regards to what is payable with third party providers. So we continue to be a few million extended in terms of payables to Codere Group, which we expect will be addressed here in the third quarter. On page 16, you have further details regarding the cash flow statement and the variation in net working capital in the first half of 2022. Please note that we have changed the way that foreign exchange impacts on cash balances are reflected. This is now included in the reconciliation of cash position located at the bottom of our cash flow statement, as opposed to reflected as cash flow from financing. That's all from my end. I will now hand it over to Moshe for closing remarks.