Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the presentation of Evolution's interim report for the first quarter of 2021. My name is Martin Carlesund, and I'm the CEO of Evolution. With me, I also have our CFO, Jacob Kaplan. As usual, I will start with some comments on our performance in the quarter. I will then hand over to Jacob for a closer look at our financials, and after I'll round off our presentation with an outlook of 2021. Of course, we're happy to take questions. Next slide, please. This year started with a bang, and I want to begin to talk about what we are really doing in Evolution at the moment. That is more important than the actual figures as we're building our future, and quarter one and the end of 2020 has been intense with an exceptional high pace of delivery for Evolution.
I can assure you that everyone in the company will agree with me on that. It's important for me to explain that to create the figures you are about to see, a lot has to happen. We closed NetEnt integration faster than planned, made reorganization, we're about to launch in Michigan, we have started two new studio constructions, we are revisiting the roadmap for both slots as well as live. We are currently expanding in each existing studio. We're acquiring BTG, handling COVID in a total of 42 locations over the world, and have one of the fastest recruitment paces of new employees ever. When I say we work hard, we do. When I say we have high ambitions, we do. When I say that we need to be better every day, we do. Evolution has a great speed forward and is built of a 10,000-plus crew of fantastic talent.
I want to thank everyone for the hard work in the end of 2020 and this first quarter. Let's move to the coming slides and see the effect on numbers and products on all our efforts. Operator, next slide please. We continue the momentum from 2020 and have seen a very strong start of 2021. As you have seen from the last slide, there has been an almost extreme activity level from December 2020 and through the first quarter. I'm especially excited about the focus on products and future player experiences, but needless to say, I'm also very happy to be able to state to you that the integration and restructure of NetEnt is done and delivering over expectations. I will soon get back with some figures on that. Let's look at the financials.
Revenue in the quarter is EUR 235 million, an increase of 105% compared to Q1 2020. That includes the acquired NetEnt business for a full quarter. Our live business shows fantastic organic growth of 60% compared to Q1 2020. It's the highest growth rate that we have had in a single quarter since 2015 or even earlier. Slots revenue grew 6% year-on-year if comparing to NetEnt's reported figures of 2020, which is in line with our expectations. EBITDA increase is 150% to EUR 160 million in the quarter, and our EBITDA margin is 67.9% for the same period. Other highlights in the quarter includes the integration of NetEnt. Just four months after closing the deal, we have established our new organizational structure and completed our cost synergies targets and closed Q1 with a run rate saving of approximate EUR 44 million.
It is EUR 40 million higher than the original target, and we are also about nine months ahead of our earlier communicated timetable. With this, we now close the reporting of synergies. Moving forward, we will of course continue to work with our cost efficiency. The rapid completion of cost synergies supports a strong margin in the quarter. It has been exceptional hard work put in by all parts of our organization to achieve this, and we delivered 92% on our 100-day plan, which I'm satisfied with. We also, just one week after the end of the quarter, reported about acquisition of Big Time Gaming. This will be a great addition to Evolution and our aim to become the number one in online casino. In my opinion, it's the most innovative slot company in the world.
It's a great fit with our culture at Evolution, always striving new gaming experience and player satisfaction. We very much look forward to welcoming the Big Time Gaming crew to Evolution. I'll come back to the acquisition on a later slide. All in all, I'm very pleased to be able to present yet another very strong quarter for Evolution. We are definitely well-placed for further strengthening our market share and continue to widen the gap to competitors. As always, we need to work hard and become better every single day. Next slide, please. As I think most of you know by now, bet spots is to be seen as the indicator of the activity in our live network. This has not changed and only shows the live part of the total Evo network.
The positive trend with a strong increase of bet spots that we have seen through 2020 continued and accelerated in the first quarter. The number of bet spots from the end user accounted to 17.2 billion compared to 8.7 billion the same period last year, which is a growth by 97%. In the quarter, we have invested in additional studio capacity both in North America and in other regions. Due to the pandemic, several studios continue to operate with somewhat limited capacity. Despite that we experienced a continuous strong increase in volume quarter after quarter, which have the simple explanation, the attraction of our products. I believe that some of the toughest competition we face to our online casino products are other forms of online entertainment. Increases in our volume is partly because we have been able to develop totally new games that have attracted completely new groups of players.
Important to remember. Thank you. Next slide, please. Due to the pandemic and the related restrictions, we operated fewer tables than planned during 2020. The pandemic still limits us in many ways, but we are even so expanding in all locations as fast as we can. As the graph shows, we passed 10,000 employees at the end of the quarter. We operate from more than 20 countries worldwide and are continuously expanding our current location as well as open up in new. Just a few years ago, it was a big step for us to open a new studio, and we will strive to make every new studio the best one ever. Studio expansion is today an integrated part of our operation and not a one-off project. We continue to see very high demand for tables, and we will continue to grow with our customers.
Therefore, I expect the number of employees to continue to grow also in the years to come. Much of our success at Evolution is due to the fact that we have managed to recruit the best talent in each market. Also with the acquisition of NetEnt, we have added great talent to Evolution, and we truly want to create a special place to work. A place that is demanding, yes, but also a place where you can make a global impact, where you can grow. The people at Evolution today create playing experience that millions of players all over the world enjoy. A hub of cutting-edge technology where you want to work if you aim to be the best. Next slide, please. With the acquired RNG business, we now have two legs to stand on.
Our RNG business stands for about 22% of our total revenues in Q1 and Live down for 78%. As I already said, our live casino business had the highest growth rate we have ever seen or recorded in the quarter at this 60%. The growth for RNG, as also mentioned, amounted to 6%. The RNG growth is in line with our current expectations. I'm very excited about the new games that we have in line up for 2021 and also the work with the roadmap for 2022, both in RNG as well as in Live. We have revisited everything that was on the roadmap, and we will have very interesting releases coming.
As a result of the revisits and changes, we will have more releases in Q3 and Q4 than in Q2. We also face the tougher comparable figures in Q2 for RNG as the NetEnt business saw a significant bump up in growth, specifically in Q2 2020 as the pandemic hit. We will also enhance our offering on already existing markets where we are focusing on reaching out with our full product portfolio. We will also, during 2021, release new games to the Live game show segment, as well as new takes on traditional Live games. On top of that, we are very much devoted in adding Big Time Gaming games to the total roadmap. All in all, this will be product-wise, a very exciting year for Evolution. Next slide, please. We announced the Big Time Gaming deal earlier this month, as you know.
As I stated then, our long-term ambition is to become the world leading provider of online casino. Now with BTG, we add an important piece to achieve that ambition. BTG is one of the most innovative slots creators. BTG brings with them a very strong catalog of great games that players love. Take titles like Bonanza, Extra Chilli, Monopoly Megaways have an audience all over the world, simply a great team with great products. In addition, Big Time Gaming are the creators of Megaways game mechanic, which is featured in many of their own games, but also is licensed to over 200 games from many other providers, including our NetEnt and Red Tiger brands.
We have followed Big Time Gaming development for a long time and are impressed with what they have achieved and are very excited to join forces and to continue our journey to create a global market leader in online casino. The deal is planned to close during the second quarter. Operator, please let's go to the next slide. This slide shows the breakdown of our revenue by geographic region, and it's evident that the demand growth is truly global. We see very good growth in all our geography. This quarter, we add the acquired business for a full quarter, so the year-on-year increase is not comparable to previous quarters. As the year goes on, the comparison quarter-over-quarter will be more relevant, so we will move towards a quarter-by-quarter comparison instead. The Nordics make up for about 7% of the total revenue.
NetEnt Games are strong in this region and has been an important contributor to the increase compared to 2020. We more than double our revenues from the region compared to Q1 2020. U.K. is about 9% of the total revenues in Q1. Also here, NetEnt and Red Tiger Games contribute significantly to the increase compared to Q4. Also Live Games have had a good development in the U.K. in the quarter. The rest of Europe is about 44% on the total, so together with U.K. and Nordics, about 60% of the revenues come from Europe. As we have seen during the past year, Asia and North America are growing very fast, with the year-on-year growth amounting to 156% and 204% respectively.
We see good potential in both these markets and expect a continued high growth rate going forward, particularly as we are a smaller actor in Asia and with the recent regulatory movement in U.S. and the coming machine studio. Other, including South America, Africa, and remaining part of the world shows good growth of 67%. Revenues from regulated markets constitutes of 40% of revenues. The increase in their share of revenue from regulated markets, partly due to NetEnt, is having a greater % of revenue coming from regulated markets, but also to the growth in the U.S. for Live. I will now pass to Jacob, who will speak more about financial details. Next slide, please.
Thank you, Martin. Good morning to everyone listening in. We'll now move on to a couple of slides with a closer look at our financial development during the period. I'm on the slide titled Financial Development. As you see in the slide, revenue amounts to €235.8 million in the first quarter. That's made up of €183.7 million related to our Live Casino product, and €52.2 million from our RNG games. The acquisition of NetEnt was completed in December of last year. NetEnt, of course, included for the full quarter for the first time in this quarter. As Martin mentioned earlier, it has been a great start to the year. Our Live Casino business has organic growth of 60% year-on-year in the quarter. We achieved almost 50% growth for the full year 2020. We did have a very good momentum coming into 2021.
Having said that, the growth in this quarter, I would say, is on the high side compared to my own expectations from a few months ago. It's a combination of many factors. Many of our operators have a good momentum in general with the Live product attracting increasing number of players. We're continuously broadening our product portfolio with new games. Also, the pandemic has given a boost to all forms of online entertainment. Many factors contribute to the high growth in the quarter. Our RNG business is developing according to our expectations and plans. Comparing to NetEnt's reported numbers Q1 2020, growth is about 6% in the quarter. In the near term, we do come up a bit against tougher comparable figures as NetEnt had a clear spike in volumes in the second quarter of 2020.
As Martin mentioned, we believe that we have a very strong lineup of new titles, especially during the second half of 2021. I have low expectations on RNG growth in % terms in the second quarter, let's just say that. EBITDA for the quarter amounts to EUR 160.1 million and an EBITDA margin of 67.9% in the quarter. The good revenue development also affects the margin positively, of course. We have been able to complete our planned cost synergies ahead of plan. I'll come back to cost synergies on the next slide. Our guidance for full year 2021 was that we would reach the fourth quarter of 2020 level for EBITDA margin for the full year 2021, which as you can see in the slide, would mean 65% for full year 2021.
We're only a few months into the year now, we will not revise that statement. As I'm always thinking of, many things can still go wrong. With the good start of the year and the completed cost synergies, it's fair to say that there is some upside to that guidance from a few months ago. It's for sure a good start to the year when it comes to margin. Also, what's reminding in the context of margins is that our first priority is the top-line growth. Should we get a chance to expand more, to capture more revenue, we will prioritize that, even if it means a hit on the margin in the short term. That statement is still valid. Okay, operator, let's go to the next slide, please. A few more words about cost synergies.
Our original statement when announcing the offer for NetEnt was that we would achieve EUR 30 million in annual cost synergies compared to the Q1 2020 cost base, which was the latest reported figures at the time of announcement. That's what's shown to the left in the slide. Total of EUR 78.4 million for the combined group, whereof EUR 27.4 million was reported by NetEnt, and the remainder was the Evolution cost base at the time. The synergies included about EUR 50 million of previously announced savings by NetEnt in connection with the acquisition of Red Tiger earlier in 2019. When reporting the Q4 figures in February, we increased the target to an annual run rate of EUR 40 million, and that level has now been achieved, even a bit above that, as the EUR 10.9 million reduction in the quarter is a run rate close to EUR 44 million annual run rate.
During the year, we have, of course, also had increases not related to the acquisition as our Live business has expanded. We've added tables, new studios, and so on. The EUR 8.2 million increase in that part of the business can be compared to the organic increase between the first quarter 2019 and the first quarter 2020 for Evolution, which was about EUR 7.6 million. Relatively normal increase if we look historically. Altogether, that brings us to the reported operating expenses, excluding depreciation this quarter, of EUR 75.7 million. As Martin mentioned, we will definitely not stop our efforts for cost efficiency when it comes to the integrated business. We will not track synergies separately. It will be part of our normal operations. All right, operator, let's go to the next slide, please. This shows our P&L in a bit more detail.
Just walking through the table from the top, we see Live revenue almost EUR 184 million as mentioned, that's comparable to the EUR 150 million we reported in the first quarter of 2020. 60% increase. RNG revenue amounts to EUR 52 million. When we compare our year-on-year growth in RNG during 2021, it will be against the reported NetEnt figures during 2020. What you see on this slide is not the pro forma where we include NetEnt for 2020, just to be clear on that. You see that in the slide. Total revenue, moving down, is EUR 235.8 million, increase of EUR 120 million compared to the same period previous year. Moving down to expenses, also here the comparison to 2020, of course includes the acquired NetEnt business in this quarter, but not in the January to March 2020 period.
As we have stated earlier, our intention was always to integrate the two companies. While we do report revenue by product line, we will not attempt to separate the cost base into Live and RNG. That will be just one segment. Okay, going through the expense lines there. Personnel expenses amount to EUR 48.8 million. That's an increase of EUR 10.2 million compared to the same period last year. Includes increase in staff, both in operations as we're continuously adding tables, and also in our engineering and also administrative functions. Both include additional staff from NetEnt, now included for the full quarter. Depreciation amounts to EUR 18.5 million. That includes EUR 8.9 million in amortization of intangibles related to the NetEnt acquisition. Next line, other operating expenses include items such as consumable equipment, communication costs, consultant, royalty fees. The line amounts to EUR 26.9 million in the first quarter.
Summing all that up, total operating expenses of EUR 94.2 and operating profit sums up to EUR 140.7 million. Tax is at EUR 8.7 million in the quarter. It's a tax rate of 6.2%. All this equals a profit for the three-month period of EUR 132 million, and that equals earnings per share of EUR 0.60 per share for the first quarter on a fully diluted basis. That's an increase of 100% compared to first quarter of 2020. For the rolling 12-month period, EUR 1.83 per share. All right, let's go to the next slide. Before I hand back to Martin, a look at cash flow and financial position. Starting to the left in the slide, the chart shows development of capital expenditure. The gray part of the bars represent investment in tangible assets. This is our studio construction mainly.
It's just under EUR 7 million at EUR 6.9 million in the quarter. As we stated earlier, we maintain a very high pace in our expansion of both current studios and also new studios. For the remainder of 2021, I expect at least this level of investment in studios, possibly increasing some during the year. The blue part of the bar is investment in intangible asset and it's related to development of new games and features to the platform. It totals EUR 6.2 million in the quarter. This is up from previous quarters looking at 2020, but of course now also includes the NetEnt development of new games. Total CapEx for the full year 2020 was around EUR 37 million. For Q1 2021, the total is EUR 13 million, as you see in the slide. We will increase some during the year.
Our estimated CapEx for the full year 2021 in total is approximately EUR 60 million right now. In the middle of the slide, moving on to the next chart, we show operating cash flow, cash conversion at a good level, nearly 80%. To the far right in the slide, a look at the balance sheet. No major changes since year-end. The dividend for 2020 of EUR 145 million will be paid today, actually, so that should be in progress as we speak. All right, I'll stop there. Hand back to you, Martin, for some closing words, and we'll take questions after that. Martin?
Okay, operator, next slide. Last slide, outlook for 2021. Thank you, Jacob. I'm very pleased to conclude a very strong quarter. Looking ahead, I feel very excited about the new games that we have in line-up for 2021. At the end of the second quarter, we will release the first game coming up out of the cross-functional collaboration between Live and RNG product, and it's the Gonzo's Treasure Hunt. We look forward to that. In addition to product development, we continue to invest for the future in form of new studios. As stated, we will during the second quarter open our new Michigan studio, and as we already see, the very good development of our RNG games in Michigan, adding Live will be very exciting.
We've entered the year with a good momentum and equipped with the extended product portfolio and talent following the completion of the NetEnt acquisition and the coming completion of BTG. I look forward with enthusiasm to the rest of the year. We'll continue to push boundaries and create the best games with the highest player entertainment value for the future. We need to inspire our current as well as future players, by new fantastic games, as simple as that. Evolution's core is based on shared desire to win and to collectively, constantly push ourselves to the next level. As paranoid as ever, we always want to do better and increase the gap to competition. With that, I want to thank you for taking your time to listen, and now let's move to questions. The last slide, please.
Okay, thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do wish to ask a question, please press zero followed by the one on your telephone keypad. Once again, to register for a question, it's zero followed by the one on your telephone keypad. Our first question comes from Ed Young from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions.
Morning.
Obviously a very strong quarter. I sort of think that speaks for itself in some regards. I'd like to ask three slightly longer-term questions, if that's okay. On the first one, the NetEnt roadmap, can you talk a little bit more about the changes there? It seems like a relatively recent decision. What have you discovered in the last four to five months within the business that required a change in direction, and would it be fair to describe that change as quality over quantity?
We aim to do the best slots in the market. We have that aim, that ambition. Looking at the slots, I think that there are a number of things that we can do better with NetEnt. There's been some limitations and maybe a little bit more look into the volume rather than the quality. Now we're changing that a little bit and adding the right things to make the best slots. We often talk about like, okay, we want to make, when we release a slot, it should look like, okay, this can be top five in the world 2021. That's sort of where we're aiming. Are we going to succeed with that? Of course, not every time, but we have that ambition. The changes are in line with that.
Okay. Second of all, I'll start the question by acknowledging it's very clear from your comments that the acquisition of BTG appears to be about innovation above everything else. Having said that, do you believe there is any kind of tension between your ambition to become the biggest and best online casino supplier and operators wish not to be beholden to any one supplier, i.e., would you consider acquiring more slots companies or would at some point there be dis-synergies from doing that? If there would, how should we think about M&A targets as you continue to grow your cash pile?
That's actually more than one question, I would say. The first, and this is sensitive to say, but I want us to be the best company in the world, and that is not an arrogant statement. It's done with great-- I want to be humble saying that, but I cannot understand why we can't be that. It's ambition. It's a vision. That's where we're going. Included in that is that we want to work with our operators. We want to expand the market and do good things. I want our operators to see us as a partner doing good things and having a good relation with them. That is important. That's a little bit common to the size and the power that we have and so on. That's the answer to that.
To buy BTG is about the innovative power and the team and the great people that work there and what they have created. We were picky. We looked at BTG for a long time, and I would even also humbly say that we know them a little bit by now, and we were picky when we choose them. That is the way we look at mergers and acquisitions and what we are doing. We're scanning the market, but right now, the focus is to take care of what we have and see to that that works out well.
Understood. My final one, just obviously you talk regularly about the importance of extending the gap to competition. If I look at some of your competitors, they're not just sort of copying themes or concepts. Some of their games look like the studio is in the next room to yours. Some of the interfaces are copied almost exactly. In terms of defending IP, what are you doing and what can you do to ensure that the innovation you're doing gets the best return and the gap to competition is maximized? Thanks.
Stealing is never good. We've stated that before. The true answer to that is that we want to develop, we want to be innovative, we want to move the boundaries further, and we want to be part of digitalizing the online casino market. I think that we need to get the industry to understand that that is a common goal that we have together, and taking and copying from each other is not pushing that boundary. We need to be innovative, everyone in each part. I would rather look at it in that perspective than in lawsuits and other.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Martin Arnell from DNB Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good morning, guys.
Good morning.
I will start up with a question on the organic growth acceleration here. You've been at 50% for a while, and now you're up at 60%. What's changed here? Just in order to try to understand the higher rate in Q1.
We continue to see the global demand, as we talked about, and that comes out in Q1 in a very good quarter, and we see everything moving in that direction. We grow in all markets. We're expanding in all studios at the moment, and it all comes down to that. It's rather a lot of things happening at the same time than to single out one single thing.
Okay. Are there any regions or market that you want to single out as especially important of the acceleration in the growth?
I wouldn't do that. I would say that Europe is growing to 2020, very good. Asia and North America is growing fantastically well. We're now engaging a little bit more focus in South America and Africa, that's early days, but also interesting, yes.
Martin, when you look into the start of the new quarter, Q2, would you say you had a good start and that this level is sustainable, or are you more expecting coming back to 50% level?
It's too early to state anything about Q2. I think that we should say that 60% growth on the size we are is a very good quarter in Q1.
Okay. The upcoming reopenings in many of your markets, how would you expect that to impact your growth? I understand the comments on RNG. It was boosted in Q2 last year, but I'm thinking mainly on the live side.
We're working hard with expansion right now, to say the least, and to see to that we get back. We lost time with the pandemic, but then the activity level increased and the statement is still valid that we made in 2020 that, okay, activity level increased. We hampered the operative capabilities in Evolution, and it came out neutral or a little bit positive. Of course, going back in the other direction, we expect the same.
Yeah. On capacity utilization in the studios for the dedicated tables, where are you now compared with Q1 last year before the pandemic?
I would say, as we said already in Q4, we're back with the same number of tables then as we had pre-pandemic, and then we've increased some from that. I would say compared to pre-pandemic, it's more or less back, I would say, even a little bit expanded ahead of that. You could say in that regard, we're not so much comparing to pre-pandemic anymore. It's more from how we take it from here.
Yeah. At the same time, you've increased your studios capacity during this period, right?
Yes, for sure. Added studios and so on. Yes, absolutely.
Exactly. Just on the margin discussion for the full year, you mentioned that it's only a few months into the year, so you didn't want to revise that statement. You said that there are still many things that still can go wrong. What could this be in your world?
It's hard to paint a picture of what's gone wrong, but anything can happen. As we have stated now, we see an upside on the earlier guidance. That's where we are right now.
Okay. Thank you for-
Just to add to that, before I say. When we have a very good quarter on revenue, that also comes through on margin. If that's a little bit exceptional, I would say that also brings margin up. Compared to where we were a couple of months ago when we sort of had the 65% idea for the year, there's an upside to that even though we haven't stated a number.
Okay. Thank you for confirming that. Final question I have is on your U.S. expansion. Can you comment a little bit on how is it going in New Jersey and Pennsylvania with the upgrade of the product? Also Michigan, how's the construction going? When do you expect to launch there? Finally, how about your preparations for new states? Thank you.
It's a bit dated. We're doing fine in U.S. We're expanding in all studios, and we expect to go live in Michigan during Q2.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
No problem.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Oscar Rönnkvist from Carnegie. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Thank you, good morning, guys. A lot of questions have been asked already, but a few from me. First of all, starting with NetEnt. Could you discuss a little bit NetEnt's market share in Michigan compared to Pennsylvania and New Jersey? Also, how do you see slots and live competition developing in the U.S. ahead? Would also be interesting to hear your take on BTG's U.S. expansion. Thank you.
The market share for NetEnt in all of the states is very good. I don't have the figures exactly what market share. They are actually public, so I don't have them in front of me, so I can't comment on it right now. It's a very good market share for all. Of course, we're strengthening our position with the BTG acquisition in U.S., having one of the strong games portfolio there as well. Going forward in U.S., it's an open market and you need to deliver the best games to attract the players. We believe we have that. We have a good market outlook for RNG slots in U.S. and have a big market share in each state operating right now.
Got it. Regarding the further sort of state-by-state rollout in the U.S., anything new to share there? Any new markets that you see potentially and over the next one to two years opening up?
It's always a big guessing game from everyone because no one really knows. The states that are sort of in the discussion now would be Indiana, Illinois, and Connecticut. I would say that they are running a little bit side by side sometimes, and things are happening. Right now Connecticut is the front runner, and someone would expect that that would regulate somewhere 2021 or 2022. There, my guess in total is as good as anyone else.
A question on the margin side, I suppose. You went through the synergies from NetEnt, which seems to be already ahead of the EUR 40 million pace. You see further potential there in coming quarters. Q1, was that the full run rate, or have you done stuff in the quarter as well?
I can answer that. As I said, the planned synergy initiatives are completed. Of course, as in any business, we continuously look to do things more efficiently and improve and find that. We will continue to strive for that, and there are things going on, but in terms of synergies, we're kind of closing that project as of now.
Understood. I'll leave it at that for now at least. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question comes from Marlon Vaneck of Pareto Securities. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good morning. First of all, well done for the Q1 figures here.
Thank you.
First, an update performance question. It's kind of three questions in one, if you can just comment briefly. The Germany market performance during the quarter, the Live Craps U.S. launch, and maybe also on the Asian growth drivers in the quarter. Germany, Live Craps U.S., as well as Asia.
Germany, we don't have any further information, and of course everything is sort of going down there for the time being. That's the comment, and we'll get back as soon as we know a little bit more on what will happen with the revenues and others. We, as everyone else, took a hit, or whatever you call it, for that. Asia continues to grow. We're still a small player. Market is big, as you know. We continue to see great potential in that market. What was the middle question?
Craps launch in the U.S.
Working on that. That's a regulatory aspect, and we don't have any date for that yet, for the Craps.
All right. The question also on Big Time Gaming. I understand you will continue to provide competitors Megaways and Megacluster mechanics. Will there be any change in BTG business strategy here? What's the reason to continue to provide and not have it in-house as competitive advantage?
No, we won't change the business strategy when it comes to Megaways. It will continuously be provided to other slots as well. We will be a provider to other slots companies on the backbone of that. We think that is a good business model, and it will work.
What's the BTG growth drivers there at usage for next one to two years? For example, how broadly used is the Megaclusters compared to Megaways?
I wouldn't go into the potential in Megaclusters compared to Megaways, but Megaclusters is also good game mechanics of course, and we hope to do even more like that. Of course, we see potential to take BTG into our network, which is bigger than the current distribution channels that BTG have alone.
Okay. All for me now. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Next call.
Thank you. As another reminder, to register for a question, please press zero followed by the one on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Kiranjot Grewal from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hey, morning, guys. Just a couple of questions from me.
Hi, good morning.
You spoke about the EBITDA margin target, and you're likely to see upside from the earlier guidance. Are you also considering BTG when you've mentioned that, or is that another bolt-on to that figure?
No.
Yeah.
Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
No, continue. You can answer.
Yeah, definitely. No, it doesn't consider BTG. The deal has not closed yet, we will wait for that to close until we kind of incorporate that in our discussion. That's where we are today.
Perfect. The other one is around new studios. Could you maybe talk a little bit more about the new studios to come? Are you targeting any specific regions through those studios? I know in the past you've said maybe the Asian-focused studio, and I know you're building out in other regions as well. Is there any sort of skew for that in terms of what you'll be offering? In terms of the U.S., this is the last question. We've often talked about how blackjack is the most popular game in the U.S. Are you seeing any sort of successful cross-sell into your other games that are more scalable? What's the sort of trajectory for more game show games being rolled out in the U.S., you think?
Okay. As I stated, we are building two more studios right now. We're expanding in actually every studio we have. We are on our route to increase supply to see to that we can fulfill the demand that we see. I stated earlier during the call that we are building one studio in Europe and building one studio in North America. To be clear on that is that the studio in North America is to supply current demand, and it's not a new state. It's supplying to demand that we see. It's a constant struggle right now. COVID is still here. It's still difficult to both recruit and manage health for our employees, of course, goes first. There's social distancing and a lot of things. We need to see to that we can demand.
On top of that, of course, we're also seeing we build a network of studios where we can have redundancy and be more resilient to other situations like the one that we have right now with COVID, learning from that. That is also important to see. When it comes to more product in U.S., we're constantly working with the regulators. That's a new area for them, so it's always a bit of a, not a challenge, it's more like a bit of work to get it done, and we're on to that so that we can launch all the products we want to launch in U.S. I hope to be able to tell soon when we're launching what, that's a constant work that we do.
Okay, perfect. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. There appear to be no further questions. I'll return the conference back to you.
Okay. Thank you very much for listening and taking your time. See you in a quarter. Bye.
Bye-bye.