Lorne Weil - Executive Chairman Brooks Pierce - Chief Operating Officer and President

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Inspired Entertainment’s First Quarter 2021 Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode for the duration of the call. There will not be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions]. Please note that today’s even is being recorded. I'll begin today's conference call by referring you to the company's safe harbor statement that appears in the first quarter 2021 earnings press release, which is also available in the Investors Section of the company's website at www.inseinc.com. This safe harbor statement also applies to today's conference call as the company's management will be making certain statements that will be considered forward-looking under securities laws and rules of the SEC. These statements are based on management's current expectations or beliefs and are subject to risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances. In addition, please note that the company will discuss both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation is included in the earnings press release. With that completed, I would now like to turn the conference over to Lorne Weil, the Company's Executive Chairman. Mr. Weil, please go ahead.

Than you, operator. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining our first quarter conference call. As you might have read earlier this morning, we are launching the capital markets transaction today, actually this morning and as such we will depart from our normal practice of doing Q&A at the end of these conference calls and not be doing Q&A today. That being the case, we’ll try to provide as much information in our prepared remarks as we can, again recognizing the sensitivities. Let me also apologized for starting our call so close to the scientific games call, but again because we're launching the transaction this morning and given the time change between here and the U.K. we need to get going on that, literally the second we're done with this call. Given the constant refraining of COVID, COVID, COVID that has for months been a feeling, depressingly reminiscent of the film which I'm sure you've all seen Groundhog Day, but lately given where we pretty confidently believe we are in the COVID cycle, it's beginning to feel more like the moment Dorothy steps out of the monochromatic nightmare of Kansas, and finally into the technical world of ours. In this connection, I might also mention that the landscape is further brightened this morning by the U.K. pound, which is trading at a little over $1.41, so a lot of very good news. As we have outlined more times than we care to, we haven't had a normal quarter which will define as one that was unaffected by COVID since the first quarter of 2019, when consolidating the automatic [ph] results for the first time, we are a little under $20 million in EBITDA. By the middle of the first quarter of 2020, we were already sliding into lockdown and…

Okay, thank you Lorne. I'll give some detail on the schedule and ramp up of our business globally, and give some further detail by business segment on our Q1 results and some of the key initiatives we're working on for the remainder of 2021. So the retail betting shop business in the U.K. as Lorne mentioned reopened on April 12, albeit with the following restrictions: Only two of the four machines were allowed to be played. A player could only play for a 15 minute session and players were limited to the two visits per day. Even with these restrictions, we’ve been encourage with the early results that validate our thesis of pent up demand with GGR being about 8% above the results when the shops were under the same restrictions in December. The U.K. government has stated these restrictions will be lifted as of May 17, and the only remaining restriction which is to do with social distancing will be lifted in June. Our leisure business consists of machines and pubs, motorway services and holiday parks will also fully reopen on May 17. The early results from pubs thus far being open for a few weeks, but only with outdoor service that’s far exceeded expectations and holiday park bookings are some of the highest that we’ve ever seen. The combination of all these factors, as well as a number of economists forecasting a major spike in demand for hospitality services in the U.K. bodes well for our reopenings in May. Moving geographically, so in Greece the shops have been reopened for several weeks for virtual sports only and our revenue has come back to approaching 100% of its pre-COVID levels and we expect that our VLT business will reopen increasing mid-May as well. Italy is looking more likely to…

Okay, thanks Brooks. That was a terrific review, and thank you again everyone for joining this morning. Again, I'm sorry that we are not going to be able to take Q&A today, but I hope you can appreciate the sensitivity of the issue, and again I also apologize for scheduling hopefully not too close to the completion of the scientific games call. But as Brooks said and as I indicated earlier, I think we are really on the cusp of something fantastic in this company. I really don't think we've ever been more bullish or felt more volume [ph] about what is happening, basically because really everything we've been working on for the last two or three years is coming to fruition. It's obviously, as I've said a few times before, tried our patience because of the stop and start nature of a lot of the stuff becoming obvious, but I think we really are at the point now where it is all becoming very clear and over the next couple of quarters I think the league results will validate that. So, thank you all again for joining this morning, and we look forward to speaking with you it another quarter. Thanks. Operator, you can now end the call.