thank you for standing by. I am Yaeli, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the OPAP S. A. Conference Call and Live Webcast Question and Answer Session to discuss the Second Quarter twenty twenty five Financial Results. Please note a video presentation has been distributed and is also available on the OPAP Investor Relations website. All participants will be in listen only mode and the conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Jan Carras, Chairman and CEO of Apapa SE. Mr. Carras, you may now proceed. Thank you, Gale. Good evening or good morning to everyone. I hope you all had an amazing summer and we are very glad to have you with us here today to share with you the strong set of Q2 twenty twenty five results. Hopefully, you had a chance to review and enjoyed the recorded video we have prepared for you and Shirt earlier today. In a nutshell, we are pleased with our 6.5% growth rate in the first half of the year and we certainly remain confident for the rest of the year. I particularly wanted to highlight the strategic investment in Stoiximan in the second quarter, targeting to create sustainable value for our shareholders, while at the same time distributing €0.5 per share as an interim dividend. I guess it's the best to jump straight in the Q and A to make our discussion more interactive. Geli, over to you. Thank you, Mr. Carras. The first question is from the line of Darajuato Stamatis with Eurobank Equities. Please go ahead. Yes. Hello, Darren. Thank you very much for taking my questions. Hope you can hear me well. Actually, questions from my side, if I may, and perhaps we can take them one at a time. So firstly, on the dividend policy, on the interim dividend, how should we interpret the cut versus last year? You talk in your presentation about, in essence, preserving firepower for upcoming investment needs. But I mean, just to put it plainly, if 25% profits end up higher year on year, should we expect the full year dividend to be higher as well? So that's the first question. Thank you. Okay. I will take this one. Good afternoon from Pavel Mukha. Yes, indeed, it's somewhat lower, the interim dividend than what we could have distributed based on our half year profitability. But still, we opted for a more prudent distribution taking into consideration the acquisition of the last 15% stake in Stoiximan, which is a strategic investment of around €200,000,000 and also taking into account prospective Hellenic Water lease license, which is coming. So that's the reason essentially by slightly lower interim dividend. But for the total $20.25 dividend per share, our dividend policy has not changed and indeed remains intact. Pavel, sorry, just to clarify. So you mean that the in essence, the bulk of profits will be distributed to shareholders. Is this what you're referring to? Yes, yes, exactly. So we remain committed to distribute the bulk of our net profits with a minimum of EUR 1 dividend per share. Okay, got it. Thank you. The second question, because you mentioned the acquisition of the Sticheman non controlling interests. Just from strategic viewpoint, I'm basically wondering what the rationale is for continuing to operate OPAP Online for nonexclusive games operating separately from Stakeyman. So in essence having two platforms, especially in sports betting, if you could share some thoughts on that, please. Thank you. Thank you for the question. I can comment. We certainly see a lot of reasons why to continue the dual brand strategy that we follow for several years. And I believe the results confirm that being the right strategy. We are working with two different licenses. We have two teams dedicated and we have two different propositions to our customers. And while we are very happy with the market leadership of Sticheman, the contribution of OPAP's own sports betting and casino vertical is certainly not negligible and showing exciting growth rates as we have shared with you with the presentation. So we believe the Geo brand strategy is the right one and we certainly want to continue to pursue it further on. Okay. Got it. And the last question has to do with Joker, which was I mean, has been the star performer really for the last few months. In your presentation, you talk about the long streak of jackpot rollovers on a second year running really. And you mentioned the revamp of the product late in late twenty twenty three. Just wondering, I mean, should we think about the too many back to back streaks of 2025 bars and partial exceptional, let me say, put it this way? Or is it like a new trend in your view? Thank you. Well, it's a game of chance in the first place. But if that answers your question, certainly the concentration of high jackpots has exceed our expectations in its statistical occurrence. But as a game of change, it's a bit difficult to predict how it will evolve going forward. As we have said, we have intentionally changed the structure of the game where the buildup of jackpots should be more likely than it was before, fostering a cycle in which increasing price amounts fuel greater participation and excitement. So essentially, the purpose of the change we have done and the ambition we had is being confirmed and we are very happy. What we will would say, we will certainly need way much more time to be able to comment on any usual patterns of the new era if I said. Got it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Cortes Iacobos with Bereo Securities. Please go ahead. Yes, good afternoon gentlemen. My first question has to do with Hellenic Lotteries. You've announced along with the first half twenty twenty five results announcement that you passed in the second phase of international tender for the concession of Greek state lotteries. However, there was press reports today that indicate that the other competitor, the other interested party, Breitster Global Solutions Corporation, did not pass in the Phase B. Do you could you comment on the progress of for the Hellenic Lotteries license? And if you can confirm if you have any information if Brightstar is or not on the second phase of the international tender? And the second thing has to do it's quite impressive, the growth rates you've recorded in the online. I can say that in the first half twenty twenty five, you have an online, as you know, a 22% growth year over year and in high lottery, 30 growth year over year. Should I understand this is a growing market. Should we expect this to continue at these rates, double digit growth rates? And if you gain or not market share in the specific categories, please? Thank you. Thank Thank you very much for your questions. Let me start with the Helaneco three's question. Indeed, it has been confirmed to us that we are moving to Phase B or we are progressing to Phase B. When it comes to the other contender, the only thing we may refer to is anything that has been published officially by Superfund. And to our understanding so far Superfund has not commented or communicated in their channels anything when it comes to the other contender, the bright stars. So at this moment, we can only speculate and I understand what articles you refer to, but that's not an official communication from Superfund. And it's only Superfund that can provide any unofficial information on that front. So I would like to abstain from any speculations about the progress or not of the other contest contender. But certainly, again confirm we are progressing to the second round and it's something that has been confirmed to us by Superfund. Sorry, that was the first question. Second, did I cover your view, I hope, with the first one, so I can Yes. Progress to the Yes, please. Progressing to the to the second question about the growth rate. So obviously, that's a little bit of a crystal ball thinking here as to what trends we will foresee going forward. We certainly believe this is this that online is a growing segment. The non exclusives in our case sports betting and casino present certainly continue to present a great opportunity when it comes to growth. The same goes for online lottery, because digitalization generally is the name of the game. So overall, I would say, we can expect positive trends to continue. What exactly will be the trends and how much the trend so far will continue or will accelerate or will slow down? I think the answer will differ per vertical. And also very importantly, and that comes back to the previous question of the dual brand strategy, it's also different being the market leader and defending its position, versus being the challenger, which is the case so far OPAP non exclusive proposition when it comes to growth. Growing from a single digit market share, double digit in a double digit rate is certainly easier than being the market leader with dominant position achieving the same. But we believe for both of our brands, for positive continuation and combination of the good momentum judging from the feedback from customers we have so far and activity positive trends in activities we have shared in our presentation. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Bonton Russell with Edison Group. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, Jan. Good afternoon, Pavel. A couple of questions. First of all, on VLTs, you had very good growth in the quarter, 7% or so. You've been talking about a number of these changes in presentations over the last few quarters in terms of cabinets, more games, etcetera. So what really kicked in second quarter to get the growth so high? Thanks. It is indeed the result of our commercial initiatives, especially the machines upgrades, as you correctly noted. If you had a chance to see the difference before and after, you will probably understand why it certainly is a significant contributor to customers' activity as well as in our ability to attract new customers. The difference in customer experience is really significant. And it is something also that is supported by various promotions and loyalty schemes that we are putting in place in engaging players. So I wouldn't necessarily highlight any specific action. It's a complex ecosystem of various elements that are influencing the performance of this vertical. But we are very happy to see that this year, we are seeing the growth that we are seeing because VLTs are certainly a gaming vertical where we still have seen and we continue to see opportunities to explore. Okay. That's great. Thank you. And second, on the instance and passives, again, you've had very good growth in the quarter. And I think that's the first positive growth you've had in two years or so. And the presentation refers to you've expanded the family of tickets in scratch, etcetera. So I just really wanted to confirm that it was solely that led to the improvement? Or what was out what else was happening within that revenue stream? Well, honestly, VLTs are a complex topic, then the scratch and passives even more. So to give you a little bit glimpse in the kitchen, last few years, we are putting an incredible effort and I would even say disproportional efforts compared to the other gaming verticals to try everything possible to revamp boost and grow the scratch and passives category. For both of them, we believe there continues to be opportunities that we want to be exploring in many different areas and a lot of things have been tried. And the impact on customers' interest is a little bit mysterious. Sometimes we have customer researches indicating that they want something that then later doesn't work and the other way around. So it's really interesting and a bit mysterious category for us. Now when it comes to this year, referring to what I just said, it's certainly a result of continuation of the efforts across all the many different fronts of success, promotions, product, presentation in the point of sales, incentivizing the sales channels, etcetera, etcetera that we in the three sixty execution continue to focus on. If there is something to highlight that I believe impacted significantly this year, then it's really the new family that we have significantly impacted of the how does it go? So now I lost the English word. The annuity games, in other words, the change to win a money that you are receiving every month. So, annuity games kick in. There was lesser interest in the previous year. This year, they seem to resonate well with the customers and they like it. And this very new family of Scratch product became actually the star of our portfolio and has the highest and biggest share compared to all the other families, long time superstar of Lucky Cats. So I hope that longer answer gave you some additional insights. It's really a complex category where a lot of focus is needed. That's great. Thanks for the insight. The next question is from the line of Nagarasov Maxim with Citi. Please go ahead. Yes, good afternoon. Thank you for the presentation. A couple of questions on my side. The first is about the outlook for the second half of the year considering a very high base of last year. So how do you see the situation developing? And would you expect to have a positive growth despite the base and maybe how the trends have been shaping up so far in July and August? And also more of a traditional questions, if there are any updates on the main concession that expires in 02/1930? So what's the current situation there? Thank you. Thank you very much for your question. We are very glad obviously about the performance so far at six point five percent year over year. And we are optimistic going forward. So having said that, we continue to expect the normalization of our GGR growth rate versus in H2 versus H1 because of those tougher comparisons in the second half of the year. While also we need to keep in mind that H1 was positively influenced by the tailwinds from the favorable Joker jackpot that we have discussed before. But in any case, we remain very confident expecting solid full year performance. So that's on outlook. Now when it comes to the main licenses there I don't have any use for you at this moment. As we said many times, we are of course interested in extending our rights on our exclusive games licenses beyond 02/1930. We have publicly referred to this. However, relevant discussions have not started yet. It is still too early or maybe not too early, but still early for this. And should there be any development, we will as always inform you promptly and immediately. Thank you. Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Rodrigo George with Wood and Co. Please go ahead. Yes, hello. Thanks for the presentation. Leaning on to the previous question about the outlook. I've got a question on the outlook for the for your operating expenses. How you see that evolving in the second half? And how should we actually think about it for next year as well? If I'm not mistaken, you did two sponsorships in as well agreements with two major football teams here in Greece have actually expired. So I was thinking that maybe that should would have an impact on your OpEx on the positive side, I mean. Thank you. Okay. So OpEx indeed is growing up year on year It will continue to grow in the second half of year versus last year. It's driven quite a lot by two main categories really. First one is the payroll costs, where it has a number of reasons. Those results and the growth in GGR doesn't come just by doing nothing obviously. We are innovating a lot. There are many innovative agendas for which need we need to attract new talent in the company, which is not cheap. So it's it's quite an expensive positions and increasing the headcount. And also, we need to remain competitive in the market. Greek economy is doing very well. Everybody is hiring. There is a lot of competition. So obviously the salaries has to be at competitive level. And so that's on the payroll. Also IT costs are growing because we are doing a lot of digital transformation activities both in online, but also in retail. That's why we have so good GGR growth not only in online, but also in retail. So also IT costs are increasing and that can be expected in the second year. Indeed there were some renewal of sponsorship assets higher costs. And it's very competitive market with the competition. It's quite tough competition for all these sponsorship assets and that drives the cost up. Nevertheless, our outlook remains the same not only on the GGR side as Jan just commented, but also on EBITDA. And so overall, we reiterate our outlook that our margin should still keep in the mid-30s despite of the increase of operating expenses. So it shouldn't have any impact on overall margin and profitability. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Burikharan with JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Hi. Thank you for taking my question. I have a quick follow-up on the question on margin. So just based on your full year guidance of 35% ish margin, I'm just wondering if it's right to think there would be a pickup in H2 margin given that H1 was a bit below the 35% range. Is that the right way to think about it? Yes, kind of. But really I think what you should bear in mind that it will be in mid-30s around 35%. Yes, that's pretty safe assumption for any Mobilinq I would say. Okay. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Carras for any closing comments. Thank you. Thank you very much, Gali, and thank you very much to all of you for being with us today. It's been a pleasure as always. Our Investor Relations team will be ready to address and happy to address any additional questions you still might have and explore your inquiries in more detail. We will be looking forward to talk to you again in November upon the Q3 results announcement. Thank you very much for being with us today and have a great rest of the day. Goodbye. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling and have a good afternoon.