Allied Gaming & Entertainment Inc

NASDAQ:AGAE

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q1

[Operator]

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Allied Gaming & Entertainment Inc. First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tyler Drew, Addo Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Tyler Drew]

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, and welcome to the Allied Gaming & Entertainment 2023 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Speaking on the call today are Allied Gaming & Entertainment's Chief Executive Officer, Yinghua Chen; and Chief Financial Officer, Roy Anderson. Before I turn the call over to management, please note that our prepared remarks may contain forward-looking statements. Words such as may, will, expect, intend, plan, believe, seek, could, estimate, judgment, targeting, should, anticipate, goal and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those implied by such forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors discussed in the company's public filings, including the risk factors discussed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although the company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be attained. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. In addition, certain of the financial information presented in this call represents non-GAAP financial measures. The company's earnings release, which was issued this afternoon and is available on the company's website, presents definitions of such non-GAAP financial measures, reconciliations to the appropriate GAAP measures and an explanation of why the company believes such non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors. With that, it is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Allied Gaming & Entertainment's CEO, Yinghua Chen. Yinghua?

[Yinghua Chen, executive]

Thank you, Tyler. Good afternoon to you all, and thank you for joining us today. I'm very excited to provide update on Allied's strong start to the year and our continued momentum into the second quarter and the remainder of 2023. As we spoke to you on our last quarterly conference call, Allied is now laser-focused on leveraging our renowned assets, products and services to provide the rapidly growing world of gamers with new and unique experiences as the entertainment landscape continue to evolve. We recognize it is crucial to provide consumers with captivating and stimulating experiences in various formats to compete with the increasing number of entertainment options available. We are uniquely positioned to capitalize on this ongoing shift and, in turn, help brands connect with consumers in most cost-effective ways. As evidence of this shift, Gallup reports that fully engaged consumers represent a 23% premium in share of wallet, profitability, revenue and relationship growth over the average customers. Our live events, both in-person and virtual, and the associated brand activations are carefully designed to achieve this engagement and leave lasting impressions for participants who often become our loyal customers. Speaking of events, let's now turn to our in-person events during the quarter, starting with our flagship venue, HyperX Arena, located at Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas. Demand remains strong, and we produced a total of 82 events, comprising 42 proprietary events and 40 third-party events, with the latter recording a 5.3% increase compared to the first quarter of 2022. Notable third-party events include HyperX CES Event, Nighthawk Picture Production, View Sonic Event, ReliaQuest, LVL UP and Astral Clash, just to name a few. Following another successful quarter, we were thrilled to announce the renewal of our exclusive naming rights agreement with HP/HyperX, along with the total naming peripherals upgrade. This multiyear agreement will enable us to continue working with HP/HyperX, who has been an incredible partner over the years, and also ensures that our flagship arena will remain branded as HyperX Arena Las Vegas. HP/HyperX will receive prominent branding and signage inside and outside of the venue as well as across all arena promotion, content and social media platforms. In addition, we will continue to partner on a variety of co-branded experiences and events at the arena focused on growing gaming and e-sports communities. Excitingly, the top line of HP Omen PCs and monitors will also be used to retrofit and update the gaming zones within the HyperX Arena, which is yet another way we will further enhance gamers' and viewers' experiences. As part of the expansion of the agreement, HP Omen will now also sponsor our Allied Mobile Esports Truck, which includes prominent branding and signage on the truck as well as HP/HyperX gaming equipment. The renewal and expansion of this partnership is further proof that brands see the value and the reach of our business model. We are also making progress on producing more of our own live shows from the arena, which focuses on highly engaged live and virtual experiences and really brings together all of Allied's unique assets and content capability. We will look to generate revenue through multiple channels together with content creators and influencers, who will join us in these shows, many of whom we have preestablished relationships with. We're in the process of testing to deliver these events and are targeting to bring them to market in the third quarter. Moving on to our original content program. Season 2 of ELEVATED, sponsored by Progressive Insurance, debuted the first 2 of its 10 episodes last week. This season, we're joining forces with One True King, or OTK, the award-winning gaming and entertainment content collective and one of the most watched organizations on Twitch. Each episode of ELEVATED will be hosted by different OTK members who have a collective reach of more than 35 million followers across their channels. Season 1 brought in more than 10 million live views and 3 million VOD views over just 4 episodes, and we're excited to see these numbers rise with a full 10 episode slate and our new collaboration with OTK. Our other original series, WANNABE, is available on the Emmy Award-winning YES App, which has a reach of 9.3 million homes. We also have plans to continue Season 2 production, which will include participation from the outstanding winners from our ELEVATED show and further build up the value we bring to our partners and viewers by fully utilizing our unique assets and resources to grow content creators and gaming entertainment communities. We will continue to expand our content offering and have a strong pipeline of original content to be released in the near future. We look forward to updating you further on future seasons as they are brought to the market. Last, but certainly not least, we are continuing our efforts to identify appropriate opportunities in the mobile gaming space. We have seen mobile gaming generate over $90 billion in revenue in 2021, which equates to more than 50% of the global gaming market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 12% through 2026. We're looking to take advantage of the opportunities and expand into this quickly growing market. We look forward to engaging with consumers with our new product offerings as soon as they become available. Before I turn the call over to Roy, I'd like to reiterate that we maintain the belief that our stock price is undervalued. To that end and under our share repurchase plan announced in November, we repurchased approximately $2 million of AGAE stock in total up to Q1 2023. In summary, we remain confident in the strategic shift of our business, and we are seeing encouraging results from our early work. Allied is trusted in the gaming community. And as we continue to build out and expand on our assets and capabilities, we are well positioned to further validate this trust and become the go-to name for gaming consumers as well as the brands that aspire to reach them. With that, I'd like to turn the call now to our CFO, Roy Anderson, to give you updates on our Q1 financials.

[Roy Anderson, executive]

Thank you, Yinghua. Total first quarter revenues of $1.2 million were essentially flat from the fourth quarter of 2022 and down from $2.4 million for the first quarter of '22. The year-over-year decline is primarily attributable to the timing of our original content series, ELEVATED. Season 1, which consisted of 4 episodes, was launched and entirely recognized in the first quarter of 2022. Season 2 with 10 episodes will be distributed and recognized in full in the second quarter of 2023. This timing issue was partially offset by a 9.5% year-over-year increase in revenues from proprietary and third-party events held at the company's HyperX Arena Las Vegas and in our Allied Esports Truck operations. Total costs and expenses for the first quarter of 2023 were $3.8 million, a decrease of $2.3 million or 38% compared to the first quarter of 2022. Costs and expenses decreased in large part to the timing and accounting expense recognition of ELEVATED as well as a 26% reduction in our general and administrative expenses, principally cash, severance and stock-based compensation. Net loss for the first quarter of 2023 was $1.9 million compared to a net loss of $3.8 million in the prior year period. Our results for Q1 2023 included approximately $734,000 of interest income earned on short-term investments. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $2 million for the first quarter of 2023, a 20% reduction as compared with a loss of $2.5 million in Q1 2022. Our adjusted EBITDA includes adjustments for depreciation, amortization, stock-based compensation and interest income. Now moving on to our balance sheet. As of March 31, 2023, our cash and short-term investments position totaled $84.4 million, including $5 million of restricted cash, compared to $86.8 million at December 31, 2022, which also included $5 million of restricted cash. As of March 31, 2023, the company's working capital position was $75.6 million, including the current portion of an operating lease liability of $1.3 million that was recorded in connection with the implementation of the new leasing standard, ASC 842, on December 31, 2022. Also during the quarter and under our stock repurchase program, we acquired 1,105,604 shares of our common stock in open-market transactions at an average selling price of $1.26 for a total repurchase cost of $1.43 million, excluding broker fees. This brings us to a total of $2.02 million in repurchases since the commencement of the plan. Moving forward, the manner, timing and amount of any purchases will continue to be based on an evaluation of market conditions, stock price, and other factors. Overall, it was a solid quarter at Allied, and we are trending well so far in Q2 as we begin recognizing revenue from Season 2 of ELEVATED and continue moving forward on our strategic plan. I will now turn the call back over to Yinghua for closing remarks.

[Yinghua Chen, executive]

Thank you, Roy. These are exciting times at AGAE as we build out our ecosystem for the gaming community and expand our partnership with world-class companies who understand the market's potential. It is becoming clear to brands that we are an established name in the gaming community and offer an inroad to this crucial and growing multibillion-dollar marketplace. Looking ahead, we will remain focused on expanding our capabilities and providing gamers with engaging touch points across the entire gaming ecosystem. Thank you for joining us today as well as your continued support. We look forward to speaking with you again to discuss our second quarter results in August.

[Operator]

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect.