Good afternoon, everyone. I am Umut Akpinar, CEO of Azerion. I am here with my colleagues, Mrs. Julie, our Chief Financial Officer.
Hello.
Mr. Sebastiaan Moesman, our Chief Strategy Officer.
Hello, everyone.
Mr. Ben Davey, our Chief Investment Officer.
Good afternoon, everyone.
We would like to welcome you to today's webinar to present Azerion's Q3 and year-to-date 2024 interim results. Before we start, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the disclaimer and our forward-looking statements. Thank you. Let's please move on to the presentation. This has been a strong quarter for the company, with the business gaining momentum, and we are on track to deliver our 2024 financial guidance. We have performed strongly, both financially and commercially. Our teams have worked hard to deliver relevant and highly engaging ad campaigns across multiple channels in Europe and America. We also optimized the monetization of our publishers. This resulted in over 20% growth in both the platform and premium games segments, leading to 23% growth in revenue for the group, excluding social card games portfolio.
Looking closer at the business, our platform segment continued to show strong growth, with total revenue of close to EUR 111 million in Q3 2024. This was due to increased revenue from the advertising platform, particularly in direct sales, and healthy AAA games distribution performance. Premium games also improved the revenue, totaling EUR 13.9 million in Q3 2024. We continued to benefit from the success of the Habbo Hotel: Origins release last quarter, combined with spend from new users in social casinos. Commercially, we have made significant progress in executing our strategy to build Europe's largest digital advertising platform. Thanks to our progression towards being the European champion, more companies like Microsoft, Deezer, and Captify are partnering with us to deliver at scale.
We also have strengthened our technical capabilities across emerging channels such as CTV, digital out-of-home, and audio, while improving our cookieless targeting solutions and launching our generative AI contextual solution for publishers in the Azerion Marketplace. Our growth, combined with the current market dynamics, excites us. As a consolidator in a fragmented market, we see increasing opportunities for partnerships and acquisitions. With favorable market dynamics, we see an increasing number of attractive opportunities to accelerate our growth through further strategic partnerships and acquisitions. At this stage, the highest conviction components of the pipeline represent annual aggregate revenue of between EUR 255 million and EUR 285 million and aggregate Adjusted EBITDA in the range of approximately EUR 20 million to EUR 25 million.
We have mandated Pareto Securities and Arctic Securities to conduct a series of fixed-income investor meetings, and subject to market conditions, a subsequent bond issue within the company's current senior secured bonds framework may follow. We are on track to deliver our full-year outlook for 2024 of between EUR 540 and EUR 560 million revenue and an Adjusted EBITDA in the range of approximately EUR 75 million to EUR 80 million. I would like to hand over to Julie for a more detailed look at our Q3 financial performance.
Thank you, Umut. Let's start by looking at Q3 and year-to-date group financial highlights. For clarity, the figures on the following slides exclude the social card game portfolio divested in Q3 2023. So Q3 group revenue amounts to EUR 125 million, a growth of 23% year-on-year. This growth is driven by increased direct and automated auction sales and the integration of past acquisitions, including Hawk as Azerion's single media buying platform. As a result, we have an organic growth of more than 6%. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was approximately EUR 18 million, up by 9% compared to Q3 last year. The growth is explained by the revenue trend impact detailed, combined with the cost savings and efficiency program. On a year-to-date basis, revenue amounted to EUR 383 million, an increase of 22% compared to last year.
This was mainly driven by the performance of our platform segments that we will see more in detail later. Organic growth on a year-to-date basis amounts to 8%. Adjusted EBITDA grew more than 26% year-on-year to EUR 45 million. This is driven by four factors. First, revenue growth of platform advertising throughout the year, strong performance in the sales of AAA games titles in both Q2 and Q3, improved premium game segment performance due to the successful launch of Habbo Hotel Origins in Q2 and the continued benefit in Q3, and all of this alongside cost savings and efficiencies from the integration of previous acquisitions. Moving now to our segments. First, platform performance. Let me remind you that the platform segment is a combination of our advertising platform in the dark blue and our AAA game distribution business in purple.
The total platform segment revenue had a strong growth in Q3 with EUR 111 million, up by more than 22% year-on-year. Year-to-date also showed healthy growth of 29% compared to last year. This growth was driven by increased advertising platform revenue, especially in direct sales. The advertising platform revenue represents 83% of the total platform compared to 80% last year in the same period. Then, within the advertising platform, you have basically two components.
First, the direct sales, which contribute approximately 70% of platform advertising revenue versus 60% on Q3 last year. And the second component is the automated auction sales. On AAA game distribution revenue in purple, we generated approximately EUR 19 million compared to EUR 18 million last year in Q3, an increase of 6%. We had good performance of B2B sales of high-profile AAA game releases. This came from promotional sales increases and new retail partners added in Q3 2024.
Adjusted EBITDA amounts to EUR 13.1 million in Q3 2024. We had a small decrease from the same quarter last year, mainly because the margin linked to the Hawk acquisition is lower than the rest of the platform. Despite this, year-to-date adjusted EBITDA is still up at EUR 36.2 million versus EUR 30.4, an increase of 19% compared to last year. Moving on the right side, on the non-financial KPIs presented, average digital ads sold per month increased 6% to 12.6 billion in Q3 2024. This reflects the platform demand-side growth. On the average gross revenue per million processed ad requests, it was EUR 23.4 in Q3, as we continue to balance and optimize between volume and efficiency to grow the revenue via our single media buying platform. Now, let's have a look at our premium game segments. Strong performance of the segment premium games.
Total revenue amounted to EUR 14 million in Q3 2024, an increase of 26% year-on-year. In the social casino, we increased user acquisition, improved discount strategies, and added new sale features. We also benefited in Q3 from the performance of Habbo Hotel: Origins released in Q2. Year-to-date revenue was just over EUR 39 million, an increase of 11%. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter amounts to EUR 4.6 million compared to EUR 2.7 million last year. This is an increase of more than 70%. The strong performance is thanks to the release of new social casino products, as mentioned, and Habbo Hotel: Origins, combined with the continued consolidation and integration programs that we initiated just after the sales of the poker. Year-to-date adjusted EBITDA was close to EUR 9 million compared to a little bit over EUR 5 million last year 2023. It's an increase of circa 63%.
On the right side, looking at our operational KPIs, average monthly active users around EUR 240,000 in Q3 2024, slightly lower than Q3 2023, as we focus on greater engagement with higher-paying users. Indeed, these efforts are reflected in our average time in game per day, which remains really high, with players spending more than 85 minutes per day across our premium games titles. Finally, on the upside, it increased by 30%, driven by improved in-game sales mechanics in social casino and, as mentioned, continued benefit from the successful launch of Habbo Hotel: Origins. To conclude on my side, let's look at the operating efficiencies and financial framework. Looking at operational efficiencies, we continue to optimize our staffing levels while increasing our revenue per employee year-on-year.
In this chart, in light blue, you will notice a small uptick in FTE in Q3 2024 due to the onboarding of Captify employees both in France and Italy. The revenue per FTE visible in the black line grew from EUR 100,000 in Q3 2023 to EUR 126,000 in Q3 2024, which shows our capacity to optimize our organization, and this is highlighted in the white column. On the financial framework, we can say that we confirm our resilient performance in Q3 2024 and year-to-date. At the end of Q3, on a year-to-date basis, total group revenue grew by around 22%, adjusted EBITDA grew by around 26%, and EBITDA margin grew by around 3%. On the cash flow from operating activity side, we had a net outflow of EUR 11.4 million in Q3 2024, and if we compare with the same period last year, the outflow was EUR 15.8 million.
Indeed, Q3 reflects the impact of the seasonality of our business, as it tends to be the lowest revenue-generating quarter of the year when we have to pay the publishers and the partners for stronger performance in Q2. Net interest debt of the quarter amounts to EUR 177 million. After this focus on the figures in itself, I would like to hand over to Seb for a market and business overview and update on our strategy.
Yes, thank you, Julie. As many of you will know, the digital advertising market is growing rapidly as audiences continue to move online, and the digital advertising market is anticipated to grow to close to $1 trillion by 2028, or at a growth rate of 10%. Part of that growth comes from the increasing digitization of advertising channels, such as TVs getting more connected, audio being streamed digitally, and out-of-home screens being increasingly digitally driven, and Azerion is innovating in these channels to remain at the forefront of the developments in our industry.
A big and still rapidly growing market, but at the same time, for advertisers and publishers, the market remains complex and highly fragmented, making it costly and inefficient to operate, and therefore ad spend gets concentrated amongst the top and mid-tier firms because advertisers trying to reach audiences are not technical specialists in digital advertising, and navigating this complex ecosystem can be extremely challenging for them. So they are looking for help and easy, comprehensive solutions. And on the other side, the publishers, the creators of engaging content viewed by the audiences, like advertisers, most publishers aren't really monetization experts. They're content experts, and they may struggle to maximize revenue from their content amid all the complexity in this chain.
This is precisely why we focused on streamlining and innovating in this space to reduce complexity, improve efficiency, and create a more direct connection between advertisers and publishers, ultimately driving better results and value for everyone in the chain. We provide a one-stop shop through our teams on the ground, delivering performance efficiently and effectively while minimizing risk and cost. And on top of that efficient one-stop shop, we keep innovating to provide our clients with campaigns that not only deliver efficiently, but also with real impact. We use our data and technology to make sure ads only appear when and where they're relevant, and we utilize automation and generative AI to optimize the content of the creatives to be as tailored and specific as possible for the consumers that are watching them.
And all of this is delivered across multiple channels, including mobile, web, digital out-of-home, audio, in-game, and connected TV. This comprehensive approach ensures that we reach audiences wherever they are most engaged. Let me illustrate the importance and the added value of reaching those audiences in the right place at the right time through this example. This is one of our clients in the U.K., and basically, we set up a campaign where the ads appear on digital out-of-home screens very close to subway stations in London, and they only appeared when in the metro stations there was congestion downstairs, so heavy traffic, and also when the weather was going bad. And at that particular time, with all of these conditions at the same time, we would show an ad next to the metro station saying, "Hey, why wouldn't you take your app and book a cab?
Because that's probably going to be faster." So that gives you a little bit of color about all of this tech talk, but if you bring all the data and capabilities together, then you can really tailor the ad specifically to the needs of both the consumers and the advertisers at the same time. All right, so that proposition is very appealing to our customers, as of course evidenced by the 23% increased revenue in Q3 year-on-year. And in the last months, we further strengthened our local connection with advertisers and publishers through the expansion of our technical and commercial partnerships, as you can see on this page.
After acquiring a minority stake in Eniro in April this year, we further strengthened our partnership with them through the recently approved commercial agreement in which Azerion will provide marketing solutions to Eniro's 50,000 advertisers, including channels such as digital out-of-home and audio, while Azerion will exclusively monetize Eniro's search sites. Next, we acquired the French and Italian assets of Captify. Julie already mentioned it for a second in her, a leading provider of real-time audiences and insights fueled by search intelligence. By incorporating their technology, we further strengthened our targeting capabilities in a cookieless world, empowering brands and advertisers to target and reach local audiences at scale through multiple channels. This asset deal also brought Captify's existing sales operations in France and Italy, including their existing business with their customers.
The strategic partnership and integration with MyAdbooker SSP gives us exclusive digital out-of-home inventory in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. And lastly, our very recent announcement of the acquisition of Goldbach Austria, which is currently being reviewed by the Austrian government, will bring their strong sales team and digital out-of-home and CTV network into the Azerion family, which further strengthens our position in the DACH market and expands our efforts in these new and emerging digital advertising channels. Of course, those additional clients and partnerships expect the technology platform that helps them reach audiences, build a business, or distribute their content, and we've made significant steps in developing that technology further over the course of the quarter. First, let's talk about channel and format expansion. We broadened our digital reach by enhancing our capabilities in CTV and set-top box targeting.
Next, we developed our real-time advertisement auctioning capabilities for digital out-of-home inventory. This enhancement provides better monetization options for screen owners and digital out-of-home networks like Goldbach. So not an accidental acquisition there. We're also proud to introduce programmatic ad break advertising for CTV publishers, creating more opportunities for engagement in high-demand environments. And as the industry moves away from cookies, we launched contextual intelligence technology within the Azerion marketplace. This solution empowers publishers to better monetize their inventory by leveraging more nuanced data coming out of their site visits without relying on cookies. Finally, brand safety and control is at the heart of everything we do, and we launched a child-safe marketplace in collaboration with Beeswax to ensure that our platform is a safe environment for younger audiences.
Moreover, we integrated with DoubleVerify's verification solutions, giving brands additional assurance that their advertisements appear in safe and verified environments. All these innovations are designed to elevate our platform, make it more robust, versatile, and reliable for advertisers, publishers, and audiences alike. There's one specific area in our tech environment that I'd like to call out on this separate slide: our audio solutions. After integrating our 2022 acquisition Targetspot, which was completely focused on audio technology, we've now introduced two powerful tools aimed at enhancing the audio experience for publishers and maximizing their monetization potential. First, Azerion's podcast hosting platform. This platform is a comprehensive solution that enables publishers to leverage Azerion's technology for creating, distributing, and analyzing podcast content, and designed to make the podcasting process totally seamless while providing valuable insights that help publishers understand the audience and drive more engagement.
And secondly, we launched an audio ad server product, an improved standalone audio ad server created specifically with audio publishers in mind. As sort of a symbiosis of our original platform combined with the specialty knowledge of the Targetspot tools and business, we're proud to show the synergies of these companies through this release of audio products. All those tech advancements and developments add to our fully integrated tech stack, and that stack is key to our success. Over the last few years, we focus and will continue to focus on basically the two parts of the technology. On the left, the ongoing consolidation and integration of technologies and products that we partnered with or acquired in the past, constantly improving a single efficient delivery engine for advertising.
And on the right, all of our efforts on top of that efficient stack to really make a difference for the advertiser through capabilities like targeting, AI integration, and omnichannel ad formats. This makes the Azerion proposition a very attractive one, and it's why both brands and agencies, like you see on this page, as well as publishers, partner with us. And with that, I would like to hand over to Ben to take you through our business and M&A strategy.
Thank you, Sebastiaan. Good afternoon, everyone. So as you can see from this slide, Azerion is now establishing itself as a European champion, one of Europe's largest digital advertising platforms, connecting the world's advertisers to engaged digital audiences at scale. Turning to our growth strategy, we have four main drivers of growth. Firstly, structural growth. In other words, we benefit from underlying growth in the market and tend to outperform it. Secondly, platform growth. In other words, driving our business organically through, for example, commercial partnerships and the relationships that we build locally on the ground through our local sales teams. Thirdly, platform synergies, consolidating and integrating our past acquisitions. As you know, this has been a real focus for Azerion over the last 18 months or so and has delivered significant tangible benefits. And then finally, inorganic growth and our M&A pipeline.
So that is working hard across our target markets and identifying synergistic additions to our platform. Over the last 18 months, we've slowed the execution of this part of our strategy while we were focusing on the consolidation and integration of our previous acquisitions. But as a management team, we remained very active in building our pipeline of opportunities, and we're now ready to increase our M&A activity. By way of context to our strategy, the digital advertising market continues to change rapidly. At the market level, we are seeing a number of positive dynamics. Firstly, increased competition leading to further consolidation of smaller market players who are less able to compete effectively. Secondly, gradual but ongoing shifts away from the dominance of a few very large big tech players and the surge in demand for new innovative solutions.
And then thirdly, increasingly realistic valuations on behalf of those who wish to be consolidated. We believe these trends are likely to continue and therefore create exciting possibilities for Azerion as one of Europe's largest digital advertising platforms. In addition, we also benefit from a number of specific tailwinds. These include our ability to grow in the fastest, most engaging advertising formats and channels, such as CTV, digital out-of-home, and audio. Secondly, the benefits of our country sales teams driving local strategic relationships and revenues. And then thirdly, our ability to deliver tailored, high-precision advertising campaigns. So an important part of our success is our ability to consolidate and integrate strategic partnerships and acquisitions. Previously acquired companies become an integral part of the Azerion platform, creating synergies across our demand, technology and data, monetization, and content capabilities.
Some examples of our more recent partnerships and acquisitions are summarized for you on this slide, mapped to the various Azerion capabilities that they have integrated into and enhanced. This approach to integration creates a powerful platform capable of delivering competitive performance across all components of the digital advertising value chain. Having discussed the attractive market dynamics, some Azerion tailwinds, and our track record of successfully integrating past acquisitions, we turn now to an update on our M&A pipeline. As this slide illustrates, we have a strong pipeline of attractive and actionable acquisition opportunities. With a total pipeline of over 20 engaged partners, we spotlight here the current eight highest conviction opportunities.
These companies all fall within at least one of the three identified focus areas, the first being the expansion and consolidation of our commercial sales organization in Europe, the second being to enhance our technology and data capabilities, and the third being to access further high-quality exclusive content and scaled audiences. As you can see, the eight current highest conviction opportunities in our pipeline represent aggregate annual revenue between EUR 255 million and EUR 285 million and an aggregate Adjusted EBITDA pre-synergies of between EUR 20 million and EUR 25 million. All of these companies are Adjusted EBITDA profitable. Our track record demonstrates that Azerion can help these small companies drive their top-line revenue growth while reducing their cost basis through scale and operational efficiencies. That's the value that we believe we bring to these partnerships.
So in summary, a combination of positive market dynamics, Azerion tailwinds, and progress in the consolidation of our past acquisitions have enabled us to build a strong pipeline of acquisition opportunities, and we're now ready for the next phase of our execution. And it's in that context that Azerion has mandated its bank advisors to conduct a series of meetings with investors with a view to funding the next stage of that strategy through the debt markets. That concludes our presentation, and I'd now like to hand over to the operator for any Q&A.
We will now move into our Q&A session. For those of you who are joining us via Zoom, if you would like to ask a question at this time, please raise your hand by clicking the raise hand button at the bottom of your Zoom window. Once called upon, please unmute your audio to ask your question. If you have joined via phone line, please press star nine. For those of you watching on the webcast page, if you would like to send a question, please type it in the ask a question tab at the right-hand side of the player. Thank you. There are currently no verbal questions at this time. I will now hand back to Azerion for written questions.
Thank you very much, operator. Yes, we've had a number of written questions, so we'll work our way through those. And thank you very much for giving us those. So the first question is, are any of your top eight M&A targets negative on reported EBITDA? So the answer to that question is no, they are all Adjusted EBITDA positive. The next question relates to the big tech observation. So can you give any examples on industry and audiences shifting away from big tech on the slide in your market section? Sebastiaan, would you like to pick that one up?
Yeah, sure. I think the easiest way to see that this is happening is in our, let's say, emerging channels. So we see a lot of activity and growth in digital audio and connected TV, in digital out-of-home. And those companies that were previously basically dominating a whole space, like a YouTube on video, they are suddenly not as big in those markets yet as they were previously in that video market. And it's probably also because those markets are more fragmented. They're more local. Digital out-of-home in Milan is really an Italian company. So it's harder to do a one-off global solution for that. So only there already you see a lot of budget also going into these new directions in local markets.
Okay, thank you very much. And just to follow up on one of the answers that we've given, the reference was to non-adjusted EBITDA. I mean, obviously, part of the synergies that we bring include our own operation and our own approach to integration. But the starting point is that the targets that we have on our list should all be reported EBITDA positive pre-synergies. So that's the starting point for our more focused list. So thank you for that follow-up. Okay, if I now move on to some questions that we've received from Wim Gille at ABN AMRO. He says, in your press release, you refer to the attractive pipeline of M&A prospects you're keen to chase. Please, could you provide further detail? And he has three specific requests.
Can you give a split between your classic targets, high growth, low profitability, and lacking scale, and more the other end of the spectrum, profitable but not growing, lacking scale? So I'll address that first. So in the context of the focused list that we showed on the slide, around two-thirds to three-quarters of that list fall into the high growth but lower Adjusted EBITDA margin. And so we believe that we can bring scale and benefit to really drive margin and drive profitability. And so about a third to a quarter of the identified list would fall into the lower growth bucket with higher EBITDA margin. And obviously, in that context, we believe we can really drive top-line growth, in particular through our distribution and scale. So that's the first question. The second component of that is, what technology capabilities do you want to add to your portfolio?
Look at a big picture level, we're very keen, I think, to build out our data assets. There are lots of interesting things that we can do with data assets, enhancing our ability to target attributes and identify the most appropriate audience for our advertising clients. But also, as I think Sebastiaan's mentioned in particular, we really see strong opportunities to grow across CTV, digital out-of-home, and further in the audio space. Those are examples of where we believe we can continue to grow our technology capabilities. Then the third question was, what is the regional focus of your targets? As hopefully you saw from the slide, all of the shortlisted eight have a strong European presence. Then there's just one that has more of a meaningful presence also in the U.S. The real focus for us is Europe, of course.
And that's very much reflected in the mix that you saw on the slide. So that's the first question. The second question relates to net debt. Your net debt has increased during the course of the year. Taking seasonality and working capital into account, where would you expect to end at the end of the year? So I'll hand that over to Julie.
Yeah. Yeah, as mentioned, our Q3 is the quarter where it's the more difficult and where we're winding up our working cap because basically we are collecting our lowest quarter in terms of revenue, and we are paying a stronger quarter previously. So Q2, if you look at basically the seasonality and historical figures, so on Q1, basically we were more or less generating around EUR 1 million from the operations. On the Q2, we were generating EUR 7 million, and on Q3, minus EUR 11 million. Last year, on Q4, to just give you and to remind you the figures, we generated EUR 36 million in the last quarter. So we know that our Q4 is the strongest quarter in terms of cash generation.
And then, of course, that clearly means that it's sort of very much dependent on how the rest of November and December go. But that hopefully gives you a sense, and obviously across the industry, Q4 being a very important quarter for the whole industry. Okay, thank you. We'll move on to the next question. This is a third one from Wim. In relation to your M&A agenda, you seek to raise EUR 85 million or up to EUR 85 million in additional debt. However, you're already above two times leverage on your balance sheet. Taking into account your current quarter cash utilization and burn, how does management see the right level of leverage midterm and the structure of any M&A? And in particular, how would you think about the financing for that M&A? So I'll start with the very last one.
We look at the next part of our execution strategy as being funded by the debt markets. Obviously, in that context, we need to manage the balance sheet as we do from quarter to quarter. Although we've not formally guided, we have said that we keep an eye on the sector leverage ratios, which by and large tend to be in and around two and a half times. I think if you do a pro forma calculation, we're about at that level right now. Of course, what we're proposing to do is utilize some of the funding that we're raising here, in particular in relation to acquisitions that themselves will bring their own EBITDA.
So we do believe that through a combination of some careful management, appropriate negotiations, and to Wim your final point, the right deal structure, we believe that the debt funding is both manageable and appropriate in the context of the pipeline that we see. And then, although each deal obviously has its own characteristics, we do normally seek to align incentives through a combination of payment in cash upfront and then some earn-out structures to make sure that we all share the benefit of our performance in the later periods. So I think those are the levers that we use to make sure that we manage the execution of the pipeline in an appropriate way. Okay, thank you for that question. The next question, and then I'll give the final one from Wim for now, and then we'll move on to one or two others that have come in.
Your gross margin was relatively strong, ticking up 420 basis points against the second quarter. Can you split this mix between segments and the underlying improvement in the business? Secondly, the Hawk acquisition diluted gross margins in the first half. You're now addressing this. How much more leeway do you think you have there? Perhaps, Julie, if you could pick that up for us.
Yeah, sure. I assume the calculation is made like total revenue minus cost of service and materials, which is the gross profits. So yeah, indeed, it's coming from 34% in Q4 2024 when we used to be at 38% in Q3, sorry, Q3 2024, 34%, and Q3 2023, 38%. Basically, here you have two components. First, the impact of the sales of the social card games where we had higher gross profits and the integration of Hawk, which has a lower gross profit profile. However, it's part of our integration program to restore the gross profit margin. And basically, if you look at the trend, it's already going up since the beginning of the year. Q1, we were at 28%, Q2, 30%, and Q3, 34%. So it's going in the right direction.
Okay, that's great. Thank you very much. We're getting lots of questions in, so we'll keep going. The next question, thank you very much for that. I think it's from Thomas at Citi. You talk about acceleration in the rates of which you sign partnerships. What is driving this? Genuine enthusiasm about the future or a more defensive mindset driven by macro uncertainty? Sebastiaan, would you like to pick that one up?
Yes, because I'm, of course, genuinely enthusiastic about the future. So that's always part of the answer. No, Tom, thanks for the question there. I think when we sign partnerships, it's really also about, it sounds a bit warm maybe, but about the market coming together. It is super fragmented, and people are spending, concentrating a lot of spend in the top 20 companies. And it means that if you're not of a material big size, you need to work together. And we see all of these companies active in our ecosystem because they're probably already connected to our technology. So we're working with them already. We're talking with these people every day. And what we see is that they have a need or a wish to really make a big step. And those big steps are not easy in the, let's say, macro uncertainty that you're referencing here.
So talking with a company that is like Azerion, that's big enough and also focused on the markets that they're in, really provides a lot of local opportunities for us to sign these partnerships. So yeah, it's both, let's say, supply and demand. We see a massive uptick in interest for both doing more business, but also to be defensive.
Okay, great. Thank you for the question. Thank you, Sebastiaan. Just moving on to the next question. The reported EUR 4.8 million in Q3 2023 for premium game segment, what is that number excluding the social casino business?
Yeah.
Julie, perhaps you can pick that up for us.
Sure. The adjusted EBITDA excluding social card games, you can see it on page nine of the internal report, and it's EUR 2.7 million excluding social card games.
Okay, great. Thank you very much. Next question, and thank you very much for this. How much do you have to pay? Price versus revenue for the acquisition targets or the longer list of companies that have the EUR 255 million to EUR 285 million ? So obviously, thank you for the question. Each situation is specific to its facts, of course. But what we have tried to do, and certainly in the past have been able to do, is think about multiples more on an EBITDA basis. And what we tend to look at is what I would call the sort of average sector multiples for Europe, pre-synergies. We obviously believe that for our selected targets, we have quite an attractive synergy case that we can then implement on. And that, I think, hopefully gives you a sense as to how we think about the value opportunity.
Then that sometimes will translate into an EBITDA sales range, but it really depends on whether it's more an advertising type target versus a content type target. Perhaps if I stick to the sort of more average sector guidance, that will hopefully give you enough color. Obviously, we can follow up if there's any more detail that we think we can provide you. Thank you for that question. Okay. In the next question, in your presentation, you discussed many tailwinds and positive market dynamics. What are your expectations for full year 2025 in terms of revenue and Adjusted EBITDA growth? Julie, perhaps if you can pick that up for us.
Yeah, Sebastiaan mentioned it's positive. We remain positive about 2025 because it presents many opportunities for accelerated growth. As of today, because we are now in our process of business plan, we are maintaining our medium-term revenue guidance of 10% growth and Adjusted EBITDA margin of between 14% to 16%.
That's right. So for the time being, we see us holding the medium-term guidance. We're obviously in the process of updating our thinking in more detail for next year, and we'll update that guidance at the appropriate time early next year. But what I would say is we are very optimistic about the outlook for some of the reasons that I mentioned in my presentation. We think we're benefiting through a combination of positive market dynamics and some Azerion-specific tailwinds. We've got good working relationships with a whole range of partners across Europe, and we really think there's an opportunity to work closer with them in some instances, even possibly to acquire them into the wider Azerion family. So that's the context for next year. We're doing the work right now in terms of how we think about guidance for 2025 full year. Thank you very much for that.
The next question is in the quarter. Apologies. Yeah. So I think the final question for now, can you please comment on the average gross revenue per million ad requests dropping to 23.3 in the quarter? Is it the lowest in the period?
Yeah, it is. I'll take that one, Ben. So yeah, we track this as an efficiency measure, meaning that the higher that number, the less ad requests we need to generate a certain revenue. At the same time, we're also balancing the total amount of revenue and the total ad request. So sometimes you allow for more ad requests to get more revenue in. Sometimes you're trying to just optimize only towards the gross revenue per million ad request. So it goes a little bit up and down. And then the second thing is that we have and we need to make sure that we do this also for the future. But if we work with publishers that also help us and allow us to charge them for hosting the ad requests, you don't see it here, and it's not in the efficiency metric.
So in the end, I think we're actually doing a little bit better there, but it doesn't come through in these numbers. So something for us to look to in the future.
Okay. That's great. Thank you, Sebastiaan. I've got another question just come in. Can you give us an update on the current status of the earn-out related to the sale of your social cards portfolio and what are your expectations for total cash balance at the end of Q4? So just as a reminder, the sort of reference period for calculating the earn-out ended towards the start of October. There's then a sort of process in terms of information being formalized and then discussed between the parties. So that process is ongoing, but there are no material updates in terms of information as of this point. So we're waiting to receive that information. The timing of that and then what happens next rather depends on, obviously, sort of what the parties sort of see in the information.
So what I would expect to be able to do is receive information in a relatively short period of time, next handful of weeks. And then, obviously, what follows in terms of timing rather depends on that discussion. So no new information as at this stage, but obviously, we're working now in the final stage of that timetable. So thank you for that question. Okay. Look, thank you very much. That was obviously a great set of questions. Much appreciated. As ever, thank you for your time in joining. And we'll look forward to catching up, hopefully, with many of you over the next few weeks in more direct and one-to-one discussions. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.