Neal Menashe
Analyst · Benchmark Company
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.