Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Joseph Lubin, and I'm the Chairman of the Board of Directors of SharpLink, Inc. I'm very happy to welcome you to SharpLink's 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I'm pleased that you could join us today. The rules of conduct that will apply to this meeting are available on the web portal. To ensure an orderly meeting, we ask that all participants in the meeting abide by these rules. I will act as Chair of this meeting. Before I call the meeting to order, I would like to introduce you to Joseph Chalom, our Chief Executive Officer, and Robert DeLucia, our Chief Financial Officer. In addition to myself and Mr. Chalom, the following Directors of the company are in attendance, Leslie Bernhard, Obie McKenzie, and Robert Gutkowski. Mr. Chalom will act as Secretary of the meeting.
Thank you, Mr. Lubin. Also joining the meeting are Faith L. Charles and Alexandra Elizabeth Ursino of Thompson Hine LLP, our outside corporate counsel.
The meeting will now officially come to order. We propose to proceed with the formal business of the meeting as set forth in our notice of annual meeting and proxy statement. It is now 5:01 Eastern Daylight Time, and I declare that the polls are open on the proposals being voted on here today. If you have already voted by mailing in your proxy, by telephone or online, it is not necessary to vote again. Additionally, only those beneficial holders who followed the instructions present on the proxy statement will be able to vote through the website. Will the Secretary please report at this time with respect to the mailing of the notice of the meeting and the proxy materials for the meeting, as well as the list of stockholders?
I have at this meeting a complete list of stockholders of record of the company's common stock on March 6, 2026, the record date for this meeting. I also have with me an affidavit certifying that commencing on March 17, 2026, our proxy materials were deposited in the United States Mail to all stockholders of record at the close of business on March 6, 2026.
The Board of Directors has authorized Mr. DeLucia to act as the Inspector of Election for this Annual Meeting. Mr. DeLucia has taken and subscribed to the customary oath of office to execute his duties with strict impartiality, which will be filed with the records of this Meeting. His function is to decide upon the qualifications of voters, accept their votes, and when balloting on all matters is completed, to tally the final votes. Mr. Chalom will now report at this time with respect to the existence of a quorum.
I have been informed by the Inspector of Election that proxies have been received for 109,754,580 of the 107,161,623 shares of common stock outstanding and entitled to vote on the record date, which represents approximately 55.66% of the total number of outstanding shares. This constitutes a quorum for the meeting today, and we may now carry out the official business of the meeting. All stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting have the ability to do so online. If you are a stockholder entitled to vote and have not yet voted, or if you want to change your previously cast vote, please do so via the Vote Now button on the meeting website. Please remember that if you have already voted by mailing in your proxy or by submitting voting instructions online, it is not necessary to vote again.
Additionally, please remember that only those beneficial holders who follow the instructions present on the proxy statement will be able to vote through the website. We will now proceed with the formal business of this meeting. There are three proposals to be considered by the stockholders at this meeting. The first item of business today is to elect Joseph Lubin, Joseph Chalom, Leslie Bernhard, Obie McKenzie, and Robert Gutkowski to serve as Directors until the next annual meeting of stockholders or until their successors have been duly elected and qualified. We refer to this proposal as the Election of Directors. The second item of business today is to ratify the appointment of KPMG LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2026. We will refer to this proposal as the Ratification of Independent Auditors.
The third and final proposal is to approve, on an advisory non-binding basis, the compensation of the company's named executive officers. We will refer to this proposal as Say on Pay. I will now describe the voting procedure. We will ask stockholders to vote on each of the proposals. Voting is by proxy and written ballot. You do not need to vote in person if you have already submitted your signed proxy or have submitted your signed proxy at this time. If there's anyone in attendance who wants to vote now, stockholders may cast their vote electronically as described in the proxy statement and in the rules of conduct. This is the last call to submit your ballot. Additionally, in order to vote, beneficial holders must have followed the instructions that were contained in the proxy statement. Each share of the company's common stock is entitled to one vote.
It is now 5:06 P.M. Eastern Time, and I declare that the polls are closed on all of the proposals and the voting has been completed. I will now ask Mr. DeLucia to share the preliminary results of the voting.
The report of the Inspector of Election covering the proposals presented at this meeting is as follows. A plurality of votes cast for the election of directors were received for each of the directors standing for election, and all five nominees have been elected. A majority of the shares present or represented by proxy and entitled to vote at today's Annual Meeting voted for the ratification of the appointment of KPMG as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ended December 31st, 2026. A majority of shares present or represented by proxy and entitled to vote today voted for the approval, on an advisory, non-binding basis, the compensation of our Named Executive Officers as discussed in our proxy statement.
We expect to report our preliminary voting results or, if available to us on a timely basis, our final voting results on a current report on Form 8-K to be filed with the SEC within four business days after the date of this meeting.
This concludes today's meeting. We would like to thank each of you for attending this meeting of stockholders.
This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining and have a pleasant day.