Good afternoon, everyone, and Welcome To High Roller Technologies' First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. Before I turn the call over to the High Roller Technologies CEO, Ben Clemes, I'd like to remind you that this conference call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws with respect to future operations, financial results, events, trends, and performance, which are based on management beliefs and assumptions as of today's call or other specified dates. Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. The High Roller financial results press release and FTC filing for information regarding specific risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ. Except as required by law, High Roller undertakes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements.
I will now pass it over to Ben Clemes. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. I will begin the call by providing a brief overview of our financial performance for the quarter. Following that, both Seth Young and I will focus on outlining our strategic direction in the future, followed by a Q&A. We have provided a presentation that you may access on our website at ir.highroller.com, which we will reference on this call. Starting with our financial overview, we are pleased to report that High Roller delivered modest quarter-on-quarter revenue growth, though our operating loss increased as compared to the previous corresponding period. Our total revenue for the quarter was $6.8 million, with a gross win margin of 4.8%, representing respectively an approximately 4% gross revenue increase and 4.3% gross win margin increase as compared to the same period as last year.
Our net loss was approximately $3.3 million, with a net loss ratio of $0.39, 50% greater than the previous corresponding period. As of March 31, 2025, the group had $4.5 million of corporate cash and $1 million, which is restricted. Our overall loss this quarter was driven primarily by marketing overspend in the amount of approximately $4.1 million, largely in non-growth territories. That spend represented a 50% increase from the previous corresponding period and resulted in the less than attractive return on investment that we typically target. Within the quarter, we also commenced executing against the strategic organizational and operational realignment plan to focus exclusively on high-potential regulated markets.
While we expect the commencement of this plan to contribute to mitigated short-term growth as we continue to wind down the remaining non-growth markets, moving forward, it is also our expectation that the strategic shift will strengthen our stability and future-proof our revenue streams. To assist with this transition, we implemented a strategic advisory board consisting of Daniel Bransky and Robin Reed, both of whom have taken active roles within the company during this transformational period. Daniel has been highly impactful, working with our financial planning and analysis team, and Robin has immediately been impactful, acting as interim CMO leading into Q2. In Q1, Seth Young joined our team to lead our corporate strategy and investor relations efforts, and we also added Emily McAllister as Chief of Staff, who has played a pivotal role in managing the reorganization and optimization of our team.
It is our expectation that cash flow and margin will increase in H2 2025, commensurate with our ongoing exercises to reallocate capital to our growth market opportunities and ensure our organizational compensation is optimized for our launch into a select number of high upside territories. As part of our investment into products in Q1, we added more than 750 new games, and I'm pleased to say 15 of which were exclusive first-to-market opportunities for High Roller, bringing our casino library to over 5,300 exciting games from more than 90 industry-leading providers. We also began working through a brand identity refresh and revitalization for both of our brands, Suka and High Roller. This is in anticipation of our regulated market expansion. In Q1, we also added 30,000 new active depositing customers, representing a 34% increase from the previous corresponding period.
With that, I will hand you over to Seth Young for an introduction and further commentary.
Thank you, Ben, and good afternoon. I'm absolutely thrilled to join such an experienced team, and I'm very, very excited about what the future holds for High Roller. As Ben mentioned, I've recently joined the leadership team. I'm bringing two decades of experience in the gaming industry to the table here, and I've worked on all sides and all ends of this table, so I have an intuitive understanding of the business, its operations, but really, most importantly, its potential. I'm looking forward to meeting and speaking with many of you that have joined this call today, and I'm highly confident that you'll be as excited about this company's future as I am. We'll talk about that future.
Within Q1 and continuing into Q2, the company started the process of reshaping its operating profile to focus on regulated high-potential markets, which is evidenced by the continuing shift in the geography of our revenue composition as compared to the previous corresponding period. This strategic plan is aimed at driving long-term shareholder value, lowering our operating risk and costs, and putting the company in a position for scalable, sustainable revenue growth. To this end, High Roller has identified the core markets of Finland, Ontario, and Alberta as select opportunities of focus. Let's start with Ontario. I'm thrilled to confirm that High Roller has submitted its initial licensing application to Ontario, and directionally, we are preparing to launch in the second half of this year for licensing and regulatory approval. Why Ontario? Ontario is one of the largest regulated markets in the world as measured by gross gaming revenue.
It's actually the sixth largest, and the market is still in its infancy. Over the first three years of the market's lifetime, Ontario has outperformed all other regulated online gambling markets in North America, driving over $5 billion U.S. in revenue since inception, with a current total addressable market opportunity of nearly $2.5 billion U.S. dollars annually, with continued future growth expected. Ontario is a competitive market, but we are experienced operating in competitive markets, and an operator doesn't have to be the number one market leader to run a strong, profitable business. With a total addressable market opportunity of $2.5 billion, a 5% market share is roughly a $125 million top-line business. That's strong. That's an excellent Segue to Alberta.
Just last week, the Alberta Provincial Legislature passed Bill 48, which will establish a framework for the licensing and regulation of online gaming operators and suppliers in a very similar way as Ontario. The bill is now pending Royal Assent, and this is ceremonial. The process to confirm the bill into law, and that is expected. Part of our rationale in focusing towards Ontario was that it would be a strong anchor for future expansion in Canada and wider North America, so we're thrilled to see Alberta adopting a framework that should be quite similar to Ontario's. Subject to enabling legislation and regulatory approval, High Roller will be seeking a license in Alberta. Now, moving across the north over to Europe, I'd like to focus your attention to Finland, a market where our team has tremendous experience, and it currently comprises 60% of our net gaming revenue.
Finland is in the process of moving from a monopoly-operated market to an open license, competitive regulated market profile. Given our experience, it's an excellent upside opportunity for High Roller, and we will pursue licensure as soon as it is available. Focusing on these three markets really plays to our strengths as an organization. The markets are comprised of educated consumers. They're all moving to a regulated profile after having large unregulated markets, and the markets feature similar user behavior and product interests, and they also rank amongst the highest in terms of customer engagement and customer value in the world. Interestingly, casino-led brands like High Roller that operate in sports-first markets have a track record of success.
Casino-led brands typically target a different type of consumer than sports-led brands, and our relationship with Spike Up, with its tremendous experience in online casino customer acquisition, will put us in pole position to excel. Now, passing it back over to Ben to cover the affiliate portion of our business, Casino Room. Ben.
Thank you, Seth. In Q1, our affiliate brand, Casino Room, contributed nearly $1.6 million in revenue. We will continue to maintain an affiliate-only model for Casino Room in emerging and non-core markets, as this property allows for the generation of revenue in markets that our casino brands may not operate in directly. This expands our reach while minimizing overhead and regulatory exposure, and also complements our core strategy while providing optionalities for the future.
Now, at this stage, I'd like to reintroduce you to our brand, High Roller. We're making some fairly significant changes, and we hope you find it as compelling as we do. We're excited. In general, online gambling companies are somewhat commoditized now. There are a lot of them, but High Roller sets itself apart from the rest in a few ways. First, our VIP branding is absolutely incredible, and we expect in time for the High Roller brand to be recognized as one of the highest-end brands in the market, catering both to the upmarket consumer and the casual consumer base. Alongside High Roller, we have the super fun, super faithful Fruit Top brand, and we can run a dual-brand strategy, which gives us interesting options in the market. Secondly, we're a total pure play in the capital markets.
There aren't many online casino brands out there that are publicly listed, and that makes us very interesting. We're founded and operated by a team that, very simply put, has been there before. It's made up of super sharp industry veterans that really know the ins and outs of the space and how to operate. Many of us have also acted as early-stage investors in the gambling market, and this connectivity and visibility across the market gives us an interesting, unique advantage relative to introducing new and innovative product before anyone else, among many other advantages. Given the early stage of this business, team is so, so important, and this, for me, is one of the many, many reasons I was drawn to High Roller and why I'm so excited. Our relationship with Spike Up really is a game changer.
Spike Up Media is one of the most experienced lead generation and customer acquisition companies in the space, and we have the distinct benefit of leveraging that experience and their proprietary technology to drive significant return on ad spend. For us, they're really a bit of a secret sauce. Spike Up has driven more than $600 million in player deposits and spent over $150 million on marketing to get there during their 15 years of existence. We have the benefit of leveraging their in-house creative team, their influencer network, and their proprietary technology in the interest of driving lower cost per acquisition and higher return than industry standard. Lastly, I really want to highlight this incredible team, starting with our board of directors. They cover off strong experience in public market governance, and they have subject matter expertise in core areas of our operation.
Plus, our Chairman, Michael Kobari, and Brandon Eckouse are directors at Spike Up Media, the leading iGaming marketing company that I just mentioned. Daniel Bransky is a prolific entrepreneur in the gaming industry with nearly two decades of experience as a founder and an operator. Kristen Britt is currently the Vice President of People and Culture at Amaxi, which is a subsidiary of Aristocrat Gaming, and she previously held leadership roles at both Hard Rock Digital and Churchill Downs. Eonis Martinson is a strategic advisor at Mojang Studios. You may know them as the creators of Minecraft, where he previously held the role of CEO. He's also the co-founder of Happy Socks and MobileBet.com, and Eonis previously served on the boards of publicly listed companies Finnair and Excel Media traded on Nasdaq. Rounding out our impressive board is David Wheel.
David is the former vice chairman of Nasdaq and former president of Prudential Financial. David is the founder, chairman, and CEO of the investment banking firm Wheel Capital. He previously served on the boards of publicly listed companies PavMed, BioSig Technologies, and Helium. In addition to High Roller, he currently serves on the boards of Scopus, BioPharma, Inc and Emeritus. We'd also like to highlight two key advisors to our business, first being Jeff Smith, who brings 25 years of digital marketing experience to High Roller. He has built marketing agencies, he's built platforms, and he's built brands that have reached hundreds of millions of people. It'll be very interesting for us in his advisory capacity as we continue to scale. Robin Reed, who I previously mentioned, brings over 20 years of experience in iGaming to High Roller.
Robin has held leadership roles in both public and private companies over the tenure of his impressive career. Notably, Robin was inducted into the iGaming Hall of Fame in 2019 for his accomplishments, which is exciting. Last but not least, our key executive leadership team is led by Ben Clemes, who brings two decades of experience in the iGaming industry and regulated markets to the company. Prior to High Roller, among other leadership roles, Ben was the co-founder of the publicly traded Gaming Innovation Group and served as the managing director of the platform unit. On behalf of the entire High Roller Technologies team, I want to thank you for taking the time to join our call today, and we'll now open the floor for some Q&A.
Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press Star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the Star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from Richard Cedrone with RPC Consultants. Please proceed with your question.
Yes, thank you. I have a couple of questions, if you don't mind. How do you see the total expansion for High Roller outside the markets already mentioned, the future expansion?
Hi Richard, nice to meet you, and thanks for the question. Great one. Yeah, outside of the markets that we've mentioned on the call, we're excited about the future market expansion. Between the connections we have in the industry with regards to knowing about markets that are moving, especially towards a regulated sort of future, in addition to the partnership that we have with Spike Up Media, who has been sending traffic to multiple markets, thousands of players, hundreds of casinos, and multiple jurisdictions across the world over the years, we have a lot of data insight into these markets as well, which really gives us the advantage of being able to make strong strategic decisions ahead of the market entry with regards to the player values and the opportunity that High Roller would have in those markets. Does that answer your question?
Yes, it does. Then second, are you going to add sports to this? Another great question. Yes, I mean, we're primarily a casino-first-led brand. With the technology that we have in place and the relationships that we have, we can build on Sportsbook. It's quite an easy addition to add a secondary revenue stream. Again, we're primarily a casino brand. As we move into these regulated markets and we see the advantage of adding sports as a secondary offering, we will be sure to do so. We're excited about the fact. It's a great additional product in many of the markets that we're looking to go into, Ontario in particular. Sportsbook is a great acquisition channel that we'll be excited to add in the future when it becomes relevant for us. Great. I just had one last question. On the call, you mentioned the organizational operation agreement plan. What has been the impact on that so far?
Yeah, so in the Q4 annual report, we announced sort of the strategic initiative that we have for the optimization. We're already seeing the fruits of that labor coming through end of Q1 into Q2. We are excited about how the strategic review is going and the optimization, the strategic focus that we have now as an organization. We are really excited about moving into Ontario, the future regulation of both Finland and Alberta. We could not actually be more excited about the future and the future perspective for High Roller Technologies.
Great. Thank you so much for your answers. I'm all set.
Thank you. Thank you, Richard.
As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press Star 1 on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Steve Schneifer with Stu Bridge Investments. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, guys. Maybe I missed it on the Q4 call. I thought the premise going into the roadshow for the IPO was raising capital. You guys have your models all refined, all the games refined. You know your marketing. You put in X dollars of marketing spend, and it was supposed to leverage into consequential revenue and obviously income. What's gone wrong in the last couple of months? I mean, it seems like you're already strategically aligned that new plan. Things are changing. You're losing more money. What happened to that premise?
Yeah, great question, Steve. We have the organization in place. We have the marketing channel set up. Over Q1, we had too far of a spread of the marketing reach. We concentrated on sort of five different markets. We are waiting to really go heavily into the regulated markets, which are now in progress. We have more insight into Finland regulating, going through the regulatory process 2026, and also with the progress process going into Ontario. We are strategically focused on the entry in those markets, getting into Ontario in Q2, and also really exploiting the partnerships that we have with Spike Up Media, incredibly impressive in these regulated market space. Also, that shift into fully regulated revenue, more protectionism going forward on less risk of market closures and things like that.
Looking at your capital, obviously, as you're taking a loss and everything takes time to realign, then you've got to go and concern. Do you expect your current capital to be able to carry you through this, or are you going to have to do another capital raise to get you through the year?
No, we expect our capital to get us through this and then get us into Ontario and into the further regulated markets. We do not foresee a capital raise any time soon. We have greater cash flow expected for H2, so we feel comfortable with our position.
Okay. Thank you.
You're welcome.
There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the floor back over to Ben Clemes for closing comments.
Thank you. Thank you, Maria. Thank you, everybody, for joining today. Again, really good to have you here, and we're incredibly excited about the future. We're excited about the future prospects with going into Ontario in H2. Incredibly excited about the organizational restructure and the optimization to be able to go into those markets, localization, and really exploiting the partnerships that we have with Spike Up Media and also with regards to localization into these markets. It's a really bright future, and thank you for your time. If there's no questions, then I wish everybody a good afternoon and good evening.
This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.