High Roller Technologies, Inc. (ROLR) Earnings Call Transcript

Good afternoon, and welcome to the High Roller Technologies Business Update and Second Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] Joining us today are Seth Young, Chief Executive Officer; and Adam Felman, Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, today's call includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements. Investors are directed to the company's SEC filings, including the sections captioned Risk Factors for additional information. The company undertakes no duty to update forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Today's call may also include discussion of non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in today's press release. With that, I'll turn the call over to Seth Young. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and thank you to everybody joining us today. The second quarter was a period of sustained execution. On our Q1 call, we described the strategic foundation for our planned entry into U.S. prediction markets. Q2 was about doing the work with coordinated execution across product, technology, compliance and operations to advance the Roller platform towards launch. In Q2, we achieved an important regulatory milestone as we were approved as a member of the National Futures Association and registered as a guaranteed introducing broker under our arrangement with the crypto.com.cn. That completed a key regulatory step required for our planned commercial launch and moved us closer to bringing the Roller platform to market. In Q2, we also acquired ROLR.com and brought our new brand to life with a free-to-trade prediction challenge carrying a $25 million headline prize. The free-to-trade platform allowed us to begin engaging a U.S. consumer base, gain marketing approvals on key customer acquisition platforms and obtain data to sharpen our customer acquisition efforts at the point of the money launch. We continued the product and technology integration with Crypto.com and lean further into our applied AI department, developing products both for internal use and for our emerging consumer value proposition. We were added to the Russell Microcap Index, enhancing our visibility amongst the investment community. We finalized our definitive collaboration agreement with Crypto.com, and we finalized our strategic marketing agreements with Lines.com, Forever Network and Leverage Game Media to expand audience reach and drive customer acquisition. The remaining path to launch is clearly defined and progressing, and our conviction around prediction markets only continues to increase. Third-party estimates continue to illustrate the potential scale of this category. In late July, Macquarie estimated that annual contract trading volume could reach approximately $1.5 trillion by 2030, which is roughly 50% above estimates published only a few months prior. And they noted that non-sports markets are growing faster than sports, the majority of contract trading volume by the end of the decade. And these are third-party estimates and they're not company forecasts. The direction is consistent. Consumer participation, product breadth and institutional attention are all gaining momentum, and those same estimates assume a $50 billion TAM by 2030. Our roots in regulated real money online gaming and operating consumer platforms under regulatory supervision is the core of what our team has done for years. We're built for this. Prediction markets are a distinct product with their own requirements, but the operating disciplines they demand are ones this organization already knows well. In that sense, we're extending proven capabilities into a new category, which is one of the many reasons we're confident we'll execute the success. I've been working towards launch a bit, so I want to spend a few minutes on what this actually involves because bringing a regulated financial product from concept to live trading is demanding, it's detailed work, and it largely happens behind the scenes and on a timeline that isn't always visible from the outside looking in. It's worth noting that the cadence of our public announcements has not reflected the pace of work that has been occurring and continues to occur in real time. Working towards launch is a coordination across every department in the company and across all of our third-party partners and vendors. This is an effort that's well in hand, and it has been well in hand for months, but it's also a very sizable effort. The first work stream is regulatory and compliance implementation. Receiving NFA approval was an important milestone, but the registration is the beginning of an ongoing regulatory obligation, not the end of the process. The second work stream is end-to-end technology integration. Under our collaboration agreement, High Roller is responsible for the customer-facing platform, including the mobile applications. And bringing the platform and all of its components from 0 to launch is a complex and arduous process. Third work stream is product and consumer experience. Our goal is to make event contracts understandable and engaging without sacrificing the disclosures and controls appropriate for a regulated financial product. The breadth of this category creates both opportunity and complexity. We have a tremendous amount of excitement about this work stream in particular, and product area that we feel in time will be in a leadership position. Our immediate short-term goal now is launching to market with the goal of then iterating upon the product consistently. The fourth work stream is operational readiness. The commercial platform requires more than software. The good news is that with very little exception, our operating team is in place with operating procedures that are largely identical to those that we're already familiar with. So this is really more about the translation of those procedures to the context of the prediction markets product. The fifth work stream is brand, community, prelaunch learning. Our free-to-trade challenge gave consumers a first look at the Roller brand and gave us an opportunity to observe how traders discover markets, engage with competition, respond to content and respond to ad copy and creative. We're not presenting the challenge as a substitute for the regulated products, but it's a prelaunch engagement and learning environment that helps us test messaging and build awareness and begin establishing our community. The sixth work stream is go-to-market activation. We intend to compete for customers from the outset. Our partnerships with Lines.com, Forever Network and Leverage Game Media are built to reach audiences already engaged with sports, finance, culture and entertainment, among other things. These relationships are in addition to our marketing engine via Stike Up Media, we'll be managing our performance marketing spend for direct consumer acquisition. Our approach at launch is deliberate. We intend to bring the product to market, put it in front of real consumers and iterate rapidly from there using live data and customer feedback to sharpen the experience and deepen engagement in the period immediately following launch. We'll scale customer acquisition investment to step up that progress leaning in as the product and the funnel demonstrate the engagement and economics that we expect. This is about building a durable, competitive product efficiently, capturing early learning while directing capital towards the channels and features that prove out. The seventh work stream is applied AI. We have a number of products in development that we're highly confident will resonate with the prediction market consumer. We're very excited to share more information about these at the right time. It's a very exciting work stream for us. The eighth work stream is launch sequencing. We'll ensure that the required pieces meet our standards and those of our partners and the regulators before we go live. Now I mentioned before that we have a target launch date. We remain on track for that timing. It is imperative that we deliver a stable, compliant and high-quality customer experience. We'll manage our prediction markets rollout deliberately, monitor performance closely and expand based on operating data and customer feedback as we build on this foundation for long-term scale. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Adam to review the second quarter financial results. Adam?

Thank you, Seth, and good afternoon, everyone. The second quarter reflects the business in deliberate transition. Our reported results include the effects of a purposeful reduction in certain legacy activities alongside the investments required to prepare Roller for entry into the U.S. prediction markets vertical. For the second quarter ended June 30, 2026, net revenues were $2.8 million compared to $5.8 million for the second quarter of 2025, a decrease of $3 million or 52%. The decrease primarily reflects our exit from certain online casino markets, a more focused marketing strategy and our increasing emphasis on the prediction market opportunity. Total operating expenses were $5.3 million compared with $6.9 million in the prior year period, a decrease of $1.6 million or 26%. Direct operating costs declined substantially and advertising and promotional expense were also lower year-over-year. These reductions were partially offset by higher general and administrative costs as we invested in registry, professional and other launch-related capabilities. Loss from operations was $2.5 million compared with a loss from operations of $1.1 million in the second quarter of 2025. Although total operating expenses declined, the year-over-year reduction in legacy revenue and our ramping up of investment into our planned prediction market entry resulted in a larger operating loss. Net loss from continuing operations was $2.3 million or $0.22 per common share compared with a net loss to continuing operations of $1.2 million or $0.14 per common share in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $1.8 million compared with a negative adjusted EBITDA of $0.2 million for the second quarter of 2025. For the first 6 months of 2026, net cash used in operating activities was $5.9 million compared with $4.4 million in the prior year period. The increase primarily reflects the implementation of our revised strategy and our entry into a new market. Net cash used in investing activities was $1.9 million for the first 6 months of 2026 compared with $0.3 million in the prior year period. Approximately $1.6 million of the year-over-year increase was attributable to investment associated with our planned entry into prediction markets, including capitalized software development and licensing-related expenditures. Turning to the balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalents, excluding restricted cash, were $80 million at June 30, 2026, compared with $2.1 million at December 31, 2025. Stockholders' equity was $29.6 million compared with $9.6 million at year-end 2025. The strengthening of balance sheet primarily reflects the capital raise during the first quarter, partially offset by operating and investment spending during the first half. We continue to monitor liquidity and capital deployment closely. Our current priorities are completing the Roller technology integration, finalizing the implementation of compliance and operating requirements, preparing the product and customer support organization and funding measured go-to-market activity. Our capital allocation priority remains the disciplined completion and launch of Roller U.S. prediction Markets platform. We intend to stage spending against the milestones and operating data rather than build a cost structure in advance of demonstrated need. With that, I'll turn the call back to Seth.

Thank you, Adam. High Roller is entering the next stage of its transformation. We began this year with a very clear strategic thesis, a foundational relationship with Crypto.com and a conviction that prediction markets could become a defining opportunity for this company. Since then, we've executed our collaboration agreement, unveiled the ROLR.com brand, built a strategic marketing ecosystem, expanded our applied AI capabilities, launched the free-to-trade challenge, received NFA membership approval and guaranteed introducing broker registration and advanced the technology and operating work required for commercial launch. Prediction markets are our central growth priority, and we have a tremendous amount of conviction around the scale and timing of this opportunity. We're equally committed to building responsibly. The platforms that earn consumer trust, operate reliably and adapt to the evolving regulatory framework will be the ones positioned to create durable value. We look forward to providing further updates as we complete final launch work streams and subsequently announce our commercial launch. Thank you for attending today's call, and thank you for your continued interest and support in High Roller. At this time, we'll be happy to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Brian Kinstlinger with Alliance Global Partners.

Can you talk about the free-to-trade challenge? Maybe how many users did you have? What was engagement like? And what are the lessons learned from this exercise, particularly as you looked at the player data?

Brian, glad to see your name in the queue. Happy to take the question and tangentially appreciate you putting up coverage on the company with a great price target in mind you. Yes, the pre-trade campaign was a great opportunity for us to roll out the brand, unveil our new logos, start engaging prospective traders for our real money product launch in the future. And what we learned was really what our consumers were responding to in terms of ad copy and creative, which effectively helps reduce breakage upon a real money launch when we really go and spend a heavier amount of capital on customer acquisition, trader acquisition. So, we really learned a lot about trading probabilities, what our prospective consumers may engage with. Ultimately, it helped us build a great interest list and the start of a great community as we trend towards that commercial launch. We haven't released specific numbers, but I can tell you that we've been pleased internally with the results of the campaign.

I have a couple more. You mentioned a number of steps that need to be taken, some you've already accomplished. What are the most time-consuming critical -- and critical pieces Roller needs to accomplish between now and launch? And is the biggest one getting yourself ready to meet compliance? Is that what I heard?

You heard quite a bit that we put out there about what it takes to take a regulated financial product effectively from concept to launch. Remembering that we're still, in many ways, built for this as a regulated online casino business moving to the prediction market space. Historically, we haven't owned and operated our technology or built our own tech. So, I'd say we have some really interesting news coming out about this. The lift has largely been product and technology and managing the third-party dependencies and integrations that we have with our vendors and partners. It's just a very heavy lift. It's tedious and difficult. The great news is that we have amazing teams on it, great people on it, and everybody is working hand in hand. We're really confident in our ability to hit our target launch date, and we're very excited. Right now, we really want to get launch get to market. It's a very exciting time.

Yes. And then how do you think about operating expenses in the second half of the year? You've cut a bunch. Obviously, you'll have promotion and marketing, although I won't ask you to break that out because I doubt you will this early. But -- and then I also saw capitalized software. So first of all, what do operating expenses kind of look like, do you think in the second half of the year, if you can share that? And then do we expect another slug of capitalized software in the second half as you prepare for launch?