Perfect. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to ZEAL's earnings call for the first nine months of 2026. I am Andrea, the CFO of ZEAL, and I am joined with our CEO, Stefan. This presentation is available for you also on our investor relation website if you do not see it now live on the screen. Let us start with the agenda. The agenda for today's call is, we will start with the highlights for the first nine months and then talk you through the financial and operational update. Afterwards, we will go into the strategic progress and our guidance for the full year 2026. At the end, we finish with key takeaways, and then we open up for your questions. With that, handing over to Stefan.
Thank you, Andrea. Also from my side, good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining the call. Let me start with the highlights of the first nine months of 2026. We delivered double-digit growth with 22%, including the first-time consolidation of SevenCanyon, our acquisition in the U.K. Andrea will provide more detailed insights later. What is very important is that our lottery business kept growing even though the Eurojackpot situation was somewhat weaker than expected. Despite all of this, we added more than 1 million new customers in the first nine months of this year. That is the first time that we have passed this mark in that period. With the acquisition of SevenCanyon, we diversified our business into the highly attractive U.K. prize market, and that integration is progressing very nicely.
We raised more than EUR 300 million for public funding and charitable causes in all of our markets. Following the consolidation of SevenCanyon, we have updated our revenue guidance by EUR 20 million, now incorporating the newly consolidated U.K. businesses. To sum it up, the core business is growing, our customer base is growing, and SevenCanyon opens new markets for us. Back to you, Andrea.
Thanks, Stefan. Now let us look at the financial and operational performance in more detail. First of all, let us put everything into context, and here we look into our jackpot environment in Germany. The jackpot environment was mixed over the first nine months. LOTTO 6aus49 reached its EUR 50 million maximum for the first time ever and stayed there for 26 draws. This was quite outstanding. As a result, the average jackpot for LOTTO 6aus49 rose from 9 to 32 million year-over-year. As you might remember from our last earnings call presentation, the key driver for our customer growth is actually Eurojackpot, and Eurojackpot was weaker. Eurojackpot reached EUR 120 million, the maximum, only in May and remained there for two draws, compared to 4x in the previous year.
In average, it fell from EUR 50 million to EUR 41 million. This is why we are particularly proud of our record new customer growth in the first nine months of 2026. Now, let's see how this translates into financial results. Here you see our group P&L with the main revenue and cost items. Let me explain a bit the items and especially the one-off effects that we have inside with SevenCanyon. Revenue increased strongly by 22%, up to EUR 199 million, with EUR 10.5 million coming from SevenCanyon, which we consolidated from July 9 onwards. Even excluding SevenCanyon, revenue grew by 16% year-over-year, driven by the strong performance in our core business in Germany. On the operating expenses, the increase reflects our continuous investment in growth and diversification of our strategy, really important for us.
Personnel expenses increased by 11% as average FTEs rose by 30%. This, of course, includes also our U.K. businesses and their teams. Marketing expenses rose by 35% up to EUR 67 million, and this also includes SevenCanyon with EUR 4.8 million. We are very proud of these investments because this is actually considering our very strong boundary conditions that we set up for our teams. On the indirect expenses, they were up 61%, mainly driven due to one-off effects in the consultancy cost and advisory area of EUR 4.9 million that are related to the SevenCanyon transaction. This is, of course, a non-recurring item. Additionally, EUR 1.8 million of this increase is linked to the SevenCanyon Group. As a result, EBITDA increased by nine percent to EUR 59 million, and our EBITDA margin amounts to 30%, reflecting the M&A-related one-off expenses as well as higher marketing investments within our guardrails.
Net profit shows EUR 32 million. Here is to remember that the year 2025 had a one-off effect, a positive tax attribution based on the reevaluation of deferred tax liabilities that was in place in Q3 2025 with EUR 4.1 million. In 2026, we are just posting the normal tax rate of around 32%. Therefore, if you want to compare like for like without the special tax effect from 2025, basis of our net profit grew actually by eight percent. Let's have a brief look on the one-off effects that we, or on the effects that the SevenCanyon had in our EBITDA, and we are providing here an EBITDA-adjusted bridge where you can see how the effects from SevenCanyon impacted our ZEAL P&L.
If you start with the reported EBITDA of EUR 58.7 million and take the contribution from SevenCanyon out from the revenue side, but also from the cost side, as well as the one-off expenses that we already communicated to you of EUR 4.9 million, and the FX effect of the transaction, you are actually ending up with an underlying core business ZEAL EBITDA before the transaction of EUR 62.7 million, what is really a strong result for the first nine months of 2026. Now, let's look into our businesses. We start with the core lottery business. The lottery billings increased by 10%, and the main driver, like in the last quarters, were, of course, the more active customer base and the higher spend. The higher spend was mainly supported by the LOTTO 6aus49 jackpot that we had in Q2 and Q3.
Average monthly active users increased by seven percent, and our monthly billings increased by three percent. Even more important, the lottery revenue increased by 16% year-over-year, a really strong growth ahead of the billings growth that we just communicated to you. The gross margin improved by 0.8 percentage points from 17.5% to 18.3%, a really strong number. This margin improvement was again driven by favorable product mix and also highlighting our diversification strategy that we put into the products in Germany. Overall, we achieved a strong top-line growth with further improving the margin profile of our lottery business, what will benefit us for the future. The second growth driver is, of course, our customer acquisition, as you know. Here we reached, Stefan said it already, the new nine months record with 1 million new customers we acquired, 15% more than last year, despite a weaker Eurojackpot environment.
That with keeping still track on our boundary conditions on CPLs and payback periods for any kind of investment that we are doing in marketing. Cost per lead increased by 11%, reflecting this higher acquisition volume, rising media costs, and also the marketing investment into the launch of Traumautoverlosung. You will hear about that later from Stefan. For the core brokerage business, CPL was EUR 47.1 compared to EUR 42.5 in the prior year period. This demonstrates still very strong and healthy unit economics that we are really proud of, and we stepped up our marketing even in weaker jackpot environments. That is reflecting our diversification strategy, making us more independent from jackpots. Now, let's look at the other segment in Germany, games.
Our games business continues to grow as we expand the portfolio of our games. We have currently around 840 games live, and we also increased our user base. Revenue increased by 18% to EUR 12.1 million, while the active customer grow by 27%. As expected, the strong growth year-over-year of the MAUs results in a broader player mix where the higher portion of newer, lower-spending customers consequently lower the relative share of high-value players. As a result, the ARPU declined by seven percent, as we expected, so nothing that surprises us. Overall, the year-on-year increase in active users more than offsets the lower ARPU, and the segment actually contributed EUR 5.5 million in EBITDA, a growth of 12%. We continue to expect further growth in the game segment, although the pace of customer additions is likely to moderate depending on the overall lottery customer behavior.
Let me now briefly talk you through the SevenCanyon impact in our numbers and how it contributed with the first-time consolidation in ZEAL. After consolidation, SevenCanyon contributed EUR 10.5 million in revenue and EUR 1.4 million in EBITDA to the group. Marketing spend, as I said already, was at EUR 4.9 million, the largest cost item within the overall P&L, and is in line with an acquisition-driven business model that we have in the U.K. prize market. It is included, as you have seen it already, in our segment Other. Apart from the contribution of the P&L, we also have two acquisition-related effects in our overall group P&L.
First one, consultancy cost of the transaction of around EUR 4.9 million, as mentioned already, which are booked on the group level, and also an amortization of EUR 1.4 million in the third quarter on the intangible assets identified in the preliminary PPA, and that reflects mainly brands, customer relationships, and software. Looking at the P&L of SevenCanyon for the third quarter, I would like to mention that the EUR 1.4 million EBITDA contribution include one-off expenses, non-recurring one-off expenses of around EUR 800,000. That means the underlying EBITDA contribution is actually by EUR 2.2 million. With that, back to Stefan for some exciting updates on our own lottery products.
Thank you, Andrea. As you know, we have social lotteries in Germany that help us to get more independent from the standard lottery products and the jackpot cycles. One of them is Traumhausverlosung, and Traumhausverlosung continued to scale during the first nine months. We completed four house draws in 2026. House number nine reached a draw after 36 days, 63 days, sorry, in line with house eight, and delivered billings of EUR 8.8 million. The direct-to-consumer share billings remain strong, is at more than 50%, 58% to be exact, and is up one percentage point in comparison to earlier houses. The 11th raffle, a house at Lake Tegernsee in Bavaria, is currently underway, demonstrating the repeatability and growing maturity of the product.
A product that is not yet mature because we only launched it this year is our third charity lottery, Traumautoverlosung in Germany, and that also continues to develop very well. The second draw was completed with more than 258,000 tickets sold and more than EUR 2 million in additional billing. The format has proven its appeal and contributes to both revenue growth and gross margin. For our car raffle business, we also strongly benefit from a fruitful exchange with the SevenCanyon team, as they have a longstanding experience with executing car raffles. So, the acquisition of SevenCanyon is a two-way learning street. With that, I am handing back to Andrea for an update on our strategic progress.
Thanks, Stefan. Yes, strategic progress, as we always want to be very transparent what we have as targets for 2026 and where we stand. First of all, Germany. Our goal is to strengthen further our acquisition effectiveness, and we achieved that with a 1 million record new customers in the first nine months this year. So really strong performance. As I always remind you, with the clear boundary conditions on CPL and payback period, these are great investments for the future of ZEAL. Secondly, we continue to scale our own lottery products, and Stefan just gave updates on two of the products, Traumhausverlosung and Traumautoverlosung. Four houses are drawn in 2026, and in total, the 11th draw is on the way for Traumhausverlosung. Traumautoverlosung is developing well as well. Thirdly, in Germany, we sustain our games growth by expanding the portfolio.
We are now at 840 titles, as I told you already, and our monthly active users rose by 27%, revenues by 18%. Really good numbers. The fourth strategic target that we added after the acquisition is, of course, the diversification into the U.K. market and where we now build a meaningful second home for ZEAL. With that, following the first-time consolidation of SevenCanyon, and we mentioned it at the beginning already, we raised our revenue guidance to EUR 270 million up to EUR 280 million. The increase is around EUR 20 million, and this reflects solely the expected SevenCanyon contribution from July to December within the ZEAL Group. We confirm our EBITDA guidance of EUR 70 million-EUR 75 million, assuming a normal jackpot environment in Germany for the rest of the year.
This range includes, as you know, the positive SevenCanyon EBITDA contribution, as well as the M&A-related one-off expenses and integration expenses that we have. For Germany, we continue to plan marketing investment of around EUR 85 million-EUR 95 million, and we ramped that up actually quite well in October with the nice EUR 120 million jackpot in Eurojackpot that we have seen. On the other hand, the midterm guidance stays as it was communicated to you already for 2027 - 2029, annual revenue growth in the mid-teens and an EBITDA margin above 30%. With that, for the conclusion, back to you, Stefan.
Thank you, Andrea. I am super happy to summarize the key takeaways of the broadcast the first nine months in 2026 for ZEAL. First, our core lottery business continued to grow despite the somewhat weaker jackpot environment. Group revenue increased by 22% to EUR 199 million. In EBITDA, again, unadjusted, but growing by nine percent, EUR 59 million, while we absorbed the one-off effects of the cost of the SevenCanyon acquisition. Second, we acquired more than 1 million customers in the first nine months of this year, a first for ZEAL's history. We did so with very disciplined unit economics in a weaker jackpot environment. Third, we enter the final quarter with a broader product portfolio, a second home market in the U.K., and a clear path for continued profitable growth.
Finally, following the first-time consolidation of SevenCanyon Group, we have raised our revenue guidance to EUR 270 million to EUR 280 million. EBITDA guidance and our marketing budget remain unchanged. Thank you very much for listening. We are now open for Q&As, and I hand back to Andrea and the team to open the channel for questions.
Yes. Thank you very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, now it is your turn as we are opening the Q&A session with questions via audio line only. Therefore, please click on the raise hand button. If you are dialing in by phone, please press star key nine to raise your hand and star key six to unmute yourself. Please make sure you introduce yourself with your full name and institution. We are coming with this to the first hand up of Tim Kruse. The stage is yours.
Yes. Tim Kruse from Montega. Thanks for the presentation and taking my questions. A few questions on the lotteries. Actually, I saw that freiheit+ was very successful in the third quarter, especially comparing to last year. Can you comment on those effects? Is this sort of the organic development? Is there anything we should factor in Q3, which made that quarter especially good? On the Traumhausverlosung, can you comment on sort of the growth pattern of that in the third quarter, especially maybe on sequential development compared to the second quarter? I mean, I don't have the concrete numbers at hand, but if I try to exclude sort of all the other effects, it seems that, yeah, it was more or less flat maybe compared to Q2. On the other hand, the Traumautoverlosung looks very interesting from the unit economics.
I think you had EUR 2 million in billings, if I recall that correctly. That compared to the car prices seems even more favorable than maybe the Traumhausverlosung. Maybe you could comment on that. I have a few housekeeping questions, which I would come back to. Thanks.
Thank you for the question. Let me pick up the first one of freiheit+. Great for mentioning that. We are super proud of the development that we have with freiheit+. It's kind of the poster child for a subscription-based annuity lottery product that we are doing together with BildungsChancen here in Germany. The team has really driven that product to new heights month by month. There have been several product improvements, several pricing improvements, several improvements from the winning perspective. So actually, that product is really one that we can use as a foundation for the other social lotteries and also for our business in the U.K. when we drive further subscription rates into these markets. So actually, a product that we're very proud of. Thanks for the question.
On Traumhausverlosung, I think it's important that we look at the raffle periods as well, because in the third quarter, we just had one actual raffle happening. The next raffle happened beginning of Q4, and therefore, it compares to a raffle, a Q2, where actually two raffles happened. Why is that so important? Because these FOMO phases, so the phases, the two, three days before the actual draw, are the highest sales events that we have within that product, and therefore, it's relevant to count how many draws we have in the different periods. The last one on Traumautoverlosung, it's the same license concept and it's the same unit economics as Traumhausverlosung, so they're actually 100% comparable.
Okay. But maybe just from sort of the outcome of the raffles compared to the pricing of what you are drawing looks more favorable. That's what I mean. The unit-
Yeah
The unit economics is understood. That's sort of given by the regulatory environment, as I understood, but that's what I meant in that respect.
Not really, because really the RTP is defined by our license. So the return to player, the prices that we have to give out to our customers is defined by the license and by the regime, and they have both the same target RTPs.
Oh, okay. Okay, understood.
You have to look at the entire package of cars
Yeah
and not just at one car. The RTP is really similar. The good thing is that we open up a new segment of players. We have very relevant numbers of new players that have not played any lottery before in our customer segments for the Traumautoverlosung. Plus, it's a great add-on product in the supermarket, where we upsell our existing lottery customers. We are very happy with the overall development of Traumautoverlosung.
Okay, then two questions on the P&L. Firstly, the other income and indirect cost both increased. I guess that's related to the consolidation of SevenCanyon. Andrea, could you maybe just comment on the background of that, what different cost items are in there? Not in detail, but just as a general understanding, or if there's anything, or if that's also the transaction-related topics we are looking at in the cost part for the third quarter. Then on the transaction costs, actually those seem very high in related to the transaction price. In the last call, you mentioned that there's an insurance premium on those VAT topics you are still solving or are still to be solved for SevenCanyon. Is that included in these transaction costs? Maybe you could comment on that, and that's all from me. Thank you.
Yeah. I start with the stuff that I remember, then please remind me if I miss one of the questions. Let's start with the transaction costs. The transaction costs do not include the VAT costs. The VAT costs are before the consolidation of the SevenCanyon Group, so that is not an expense in our P&L. What is included are the overall transaction costs, and you have to remember that we actually bought the SevenCanyon Group to a very good price tag at the end of the process, and therefore, you might think that the related transaction costs are a bit high. I think it is rather a good price than high transaction costs. Then you had a question on the other operating income. These are the special one-off effects that we have once in a while, always in our P&L.
When you look back several quarters, you will see that, or in years, we always have some movements there. They are not related to SevenCanyon, but rather to our lottery gaming operations.
Okay. The last one was on the indirect costs. I guess that is where these one-off.
One point, right.
transaction costs were included. Okay.
Exactly.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Kruse. We are coming to Abed Jarad. The space is yours, Abed. Welcome. I see you are unmuted, Abed, but we cannot hear you. Can you change your in and output of the microphone?
Now, I think.
Yes. Perfect. Hello.
Good morning. Abed Jarad from mwb research. Thanks for taking my question. First on the EBITDA margin, which is expected in Q4. Based on the guidance, you can assume like 15%-20% EBITDA margin compared to 26% in Q3, even though there won't be any additional one-offs, right. Do you expect to increase marketing spending, or where does this decline come from?
In general, as you know, we are targeting a 30% EBITDA margin overall and deliver strongly against that. Of course, like I mentioned before, if jackpot environments and in general the overall structure of the market allows us in marketing to invest more, then we are going to do that. Especially in October, we really used that potential that the jackpot environment had and increased significant our marketing investments.
Okay, so the marketing should also overweight the absence of the one-offs. Is that excluding any one-offs from Q3?
I thought you questioned about Q4 and not the full year.
Yeah.
On the full year, of course, we will be where we always end up, around the 30% margin. That will not change.
I was talking about Q4.
Yeah
I compared it to Q3, which had a couple of one-off costs.
Exactly.
This will fade in Q4, right?
Of course. Yeah.
Okay.
There was a special effect in Q3.
Exactly. The decline in implied EBITDA margin in Q4 is purely coming from expected increase in marketing expense, right?
Yes.
Okay.
Profitable marketing investments.
Yeah. Okay. Maybe regarding the top line. Excluding SevenCanyon, you grew revenue in Q3 by nine percent year-over-year, and Q4 guidance imply broadly flat revenue quarter-on-quarter, like organically. What actually is your organic growth expectation for next year, and where should it come from? Do you expect any pricing effects next year?
Sorry, Abed, can you repeat the question? Was it related to SevenCanyon or?
No. I said excluding SevenCanyon.
Yeah. Okay.
Talking about only organic growth. Revenue grew nine percent year-over-year in Q3. Q4, it would imply broadly flat revenue growth. I am talking, what is your expectation for organic growth in 2027, and where should it come from? If you expect any pricing increases, like in this year.
Remember that you are comparing with the nine percent year-over-year increase, a high jackpot month, quarter last year in Q3, compared to no jackpot in Q3 this year. The nine percent is actually, in comparison, a great achievement. If you look into 2027, we are still communicating and standing strongly by our mid-teens growth expectation that we have on the revenue side. Here to call out, this is based on the overall market shift that we are seeing from the offline to online transaction that we are seeing every year happening. The online market grows one percent-two percent every year, and we as market leader, of course, capture the majority of that growth. Therefore, we still see a continuous double-digit growth over the next years as we guide within our overall top-line guidance, and that in Germany.
Okay. For core, in Germany, you expect also mid-teens growth? Or is it inorganic?
It's organic.
Organic. Okay. Okay. Maybe let's move on to my last question on SevenCanyon. Excluding this one-off effect, EBITDA margin was 21%. Is it a reasonable run rate for this business?
This is the current run rate that we have seen in Q3. That's correct. Our goal is, of course, also to move this business to a 30% EBITDA margin, like we communicated to you in the transaction. That's the goal, but we have to get there.
Okay. All right. Thank you so much.
Thank you for your questions, Abed. We will move on to Lukas Spang. The stage is yours, Lukas.
Yes. Hi, good morning to both of you. In your presentation, you mentioned, besides the consulting costs, another EUR 800 thousand of one-off effects. I think you didn't really mention why these EUR 800 thousand occurred. Can you shortly explain where this EUR 800,000 came from, please?
Yes, of course. They are mainly one-off effects that relate to the former founders' payments that are still in there, that will get out at the end of 2026. It also relates to restructuring within the SevenCanyon Group.
Some of these EUR 800 thousand will be again in Q4?
100,000 of that will still be in Q4. The 700,000 of the rest will not be recurring.
Okay. If we then calculate a, let's say, run rate for SevenCanyon and take the EUR 1.4 million you mentioned and the EUR 800 thousand, we come to EUR 2.2 million. Is this, let's say, an operating run rate for the next quarters we should calculate with?
Our ambition for this business is, of course, higher. Especially Q4 is, in general, a strong sales quarter for these businesses. We expect that numbers increase. In general, as we communicated also, we expect also for the SevenCanyon Group a double-digit growth. That's what we are targeting.
Yeah. Okay. On shareholder value measures, the stock in this year is down 20% while the market is up. You increased your revenues by more than 20%. You could also increase your earnings. You generated roughly EUR 20 million operating free cash flow, so excluding the M&A transaction. In the past, you emphasized that shareholder value measures or shareholder value returns, like share buybacks, are still on the table. What needs to happen for you to take action here?
Like we always say, we look at all the instruments that we have at hand, and of course, want to make our shareholders happy. So, we are, of course, giving out a base dividend, like we promised, an increasing base dividend. We are looking into special dividends as well as share buybacks. And of course, also want to look in the future as well if we can use our generated funds to generate further growth in also inorganic options.
But is something of these measures still to be expected this year, or will this just something for next year again?
Nothing that I can share with you.
Okay. Thanks.
Thank you, Lukas, for your questions. We are coming to the last hand up for now from Simon Keller. Simon, please.
Hey, everyone. Thanks for taking my question.
Simon, can you come closer to your microphone?
Yeah. I do not know where I am right. Does this work better?
A bit, yes. Thank you.
First of all, congrats on the strong Q3. Especially underlying EBITDA was positive, I think, with over EUR 25 million. I am wondering now, if we consider this to be a fair run rate, whether for next year one should at least assume EUR 100 million in EBITDA, because that is what you should reach if you just multiply this quarter by four. Is EUR 100 million a base level for next year that we should calculate and use, in your view?
Nice question. Thanks. You know, we communicated our midterm ambition to you guys, double-digit top-line growth, revenue growth, and 30% EBITDA margin. I think you can run the numbers yourself, and we will communicate the guidance for 2027 for you beginning of next year.
Okay. Fair enough. Thank you.
Thank you, Simon. We are coming to Jack Cummings from Berenberg. Jack, this is your space.
Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I just wanted to ask on the games business. I think billing stepped up quite a bit in Q3. I think it went to EUR 58 million of billings versus EUR 52 million in the last three quarters. Was there anything specific you would call out in the games business that caused that higher level of billings, and should we assume that that level of billings is now a more steady run rate going forward? Thank you.
Thank you for the question. Actually, we are super happy with the development of both the monthly active users that we have in the games business and also the only very slight decrease of average revenue per user. We think that the current run rate is a good indication of what will happen with this business going forward. As you know, there are certain limitations in the German regulatory setup that allows us to do only so much when it comes to cross-selling. Given that we still will increase the number of games that can be played, that we will have a strong focus on VIP players, and that the average revenue per user is well managed, we are quite confident that this business will continue to grow quite nicely on the revenue base.
Okay, perfect. That makes sense. Just a second question. You clearly mentioned when talking about capital allocation, there could also possibly be other inorganic opportunities. It would be good to just understand, obviously, you are entering into the UK prize market. Are there other geographies that are potentially of interest? Is it other product verticals? It would be good to just understand when you are evaluating capital allocation, shareholder returns versus M&A, what are the sort of inorganic options that you would potentially pursue? Thank you very much.
Yeah. Thank you for the question. The kind of internal guidance that we have for looking at these opportunities is products that we understand in markets that we understand. I think the U.K. acquisition is a good indication of that. We take a business like the prize draws for houses or cars and look into markets that are close to us in terms of regulation, close to us in terms of customer behavior, close to us in terms of competitive setup and competitive landscape. That's the framework that we have for looking at these opportunities. We will not look into exotic markets with exotic products. That's not what we are good at.
Understood. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jack. We're coming to Jonathan Neuscheler. The stage is yours, Jonathan.
Yes, good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes, thank you.
Thanks a lot for the presentation and the information you gave us today. I would like to get a bit more information also regarding the general capital allocation that you are planning to do, like Lukas Spang already asked, because I just think you again showed a very strong double-digit growth, a high cash flow. You have a recurring customer base, you have low debt, and also a low valuation, which you also expressed with the insider purchases in the last weeks. When I look at all these points, I would just like to understand especially the timing aspect of a possible tender offer or a new special dividend, because personally, and I really like that signal, you have already bought some stocks, because I think there could be quite some value creation here, maybe levering the business a bit more. How are you looking at that?
I can just repeat the answer that we already gave. Sorry, guys. We are looking in all the instruments that we can use. We want to give back to our shareholders, of course. We are creating value for them. Please apologize, but that is the answer you get.
Jonathan, if you do not have any follow-up questions.
No follow-up questions. Thank you.
Okay, thank you so much. I would come back to Simon Keller. Please, Simon.
I hope you can hear me. I try to speak loud and clear. Regarding games, I mean, the spin limit was increased by the regulator, and I was wondering whether that, I mean, apparently your revenue per user grew again in Q3. Do you see any market development, like higher, more pricing, more marketing for users, or do you see any impact that the market is changing because of it to some degree?
Thank you for the question. Let me start by saying that we balance our growth in the games segment very much with our approach to safe gambling and responsible gambling activities. In everything that we do, that balance needs to be maintained. For example, the increase in the spend per spin that you mentioned is something that we look at very carefully, but it also needs to be balanced with the approach to the LUGAS limit overall with the customers. That is definitely something that we are looking into. But again, the growth of the gaming business needs to be always balanced with a solid approach to responsible gambling.
Yeah, thanks. Would you say that basically now all those that want to play with higher stakes and are allowed to play with higher stakes are basically already playing, or is it a gradual improvement, so we should expect that sequentially in Q4, the revenue per user in games should improve again?
Yeah, we have just increased the maximum spin from EUR 1 to EUR 3, so you will see an ongoing effect of that in the fourth quarter as well.
Okay, thanks. Can you elaborate, when did you increase the spin limit? Was it directly with the regulatory announcement or just-
It was with the regulatory announcement, but spread over a couple of weeks because it is more than 800 games where we have to implement it.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you, Simon. I am holding the room for another moment in case there might some questions coming up. That does not seem to be the case. We therefore come to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you very much for your interest in ZEAL Network SE. A big thank you also to you, Stefan and Andrea, for your presentation and your time. Should you, ladies and gentlemen, have any further questions at a later date, please feel free to contact Senior Investor Relations Manager Frank Hoffmann. I wish you all a successful day around the world, and handing over to you, Andrea, once again for your final remarks.
Yeah, thank you all for your questions and for joining us this morning. We appreciate, of course, your interest and the discussions we are having here today. Maybe we see you on one of the investor activities that we have in the month November, like the Eigenkapitalforum in Frankfurt in a few weeks, and can update you on the next results, of course. Thanks.
Thank you.