DoubleDown Interactive (DDI) Q2 2026 earnings call transcript

Good afternoon, and welcome to DoubleDown Interactive's earnings conference call for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026. My name is Liz, and I will be your operator this afternoon. Prior to this call, DoubleDown issued its financial results for the second quarter of 2026 in a press release, a copy of which is available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www. doubledowninteractive. com. You can find the link to the Investor Relations section at the top of the homepage. Joining us on today's call are DoubleDown's CEO, Mr. In-Kook Kim, and its CFO, Mr. Joe Sigrist. Following their remarks, we will open the call for questions. Before we begin, Joe Giafone, the company's investor relations advisor, will make a brief introductory statement.

Mr. Giafone?

Thank you, Liz. Before management begins their formal remarks, we need to remind everyone that some of management's comments today will be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. And we hereby claim the protection of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements about future events and include expectations and projections, not present or historical facts, and can be identified by the use of words such as may, might, will, expect, assume, believe, intend, estimate, continue, should, anticipate, or other such similar terms.

Forward-looking statements include and are not limited to those regarding the company's future plans, mergers and acquisition strategy, strategic and financial objectives, expected performance, and financial outlook. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from what the company expects. Therefore, you should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on them. We refer you to DoubleDown's annual report on Form 20F filed with the SEC on March 31, 2026, and other SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact future operating results and financial condition. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this call. The company does not undertake and expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.

During today's call, management will discuss non-IFRS financial measures, which management believes to be useful in evaluating the company's operating performance. These measures should not be considered superior to in isolation or as a substitute for the financial results prepared in accordance with IFRS. Full reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable IFRS measure is available in the earnings release issued this afternoon. In addition, on April 29, 2026, DoubleDown issued a press release acknowledging the receipt of a non-binding expression of interest from W Games, its controlling shareholder, to acquire all the outstanding DoubleDown common shares, including ADRs not currently owned by them, at a price of $11.25 per ADS in cash. As noted in that press release, the company has formed a special committee to evaluate and negotiate with the controlling shareholder and determine the next steps that would be in the best interest of the company and its unaffiliated shareholders.

As a result of this ongoing process, the company has no additional updates or further comments to discuss on today's call. I would like to remind everyone that today's call is being recorded and will be made available for replay via a link in the Investor Relations section of DoubleDown's website. Thank you for your patience with that, and it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to DoubleDown CEO, Ake Kim. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Joe. Good afternoon, everyone. We are delighted to be with you today to discuss DoubleDown Interactive's second quarter 2026 results. Key highlights include delivering revenue consistency and resiliency as we've queued on our growth and geographical diversification strategies marked by solid contributions across both social casino and iGaming, Delivering a record contribution of over 50% of our total social casino revenue from direct-to-consumer payer activity and delivering another quarter of strong profitability and significant free cash flow generation. These results further reinforce our confidence in our business model as we drive operational excellence across our portfolio. Let's start with the financial results. This afternoon, we reported second quarter consolidated revenue of $94.3 million, up approximately 11% year-over-year. This top-line growth helped drive second quarter adjusted EBITDA of $39.3 million, marking 17% year-over-year growth.

In Q2, we extended our track record of driving a high conversion of revenue to profit and cash flow. Net cash flow from operations was $24.6 million in the quarter, up 25% from the same period one year ago. As a result, we generated a total of $71 million in net cash flow from operations for the first half of 2026.

Our social casino segment remains the primary engine of DoubleDown's profit and cash flow generation. In the second quarter, social casino revenue grew 11.5% year-over-year to $77.3 million, driven by the contribution from wow gains, as well as the strong performance of DoubleDown's traditional social casino business. A key highlight this quarter is the continued growth of our direct-to-consumer, or DTC, component, a major contributor to our strong growth in profitability. In the second quarter, DTC accounted for 52% of total social casino revenue compared to just over 15% in second quarter of 2025 and 44% in the first quarter of 2026. At the same time, industry analysts at Eilers and Credit recently forecast that the global social casino market declined over 5% in 2026.

That said, our focus continues to be on outperforming the overall market through precise execution of our product development initiatives around Player and Pay retention. Optimization of marketing and live ops activities to maximize payer conversion and purchasing activity and continued maximization of the direct-to-consumer opportunity.

Turning to our iGaming business, SuperNation's Q2 2026 revenue was $17 million, The Died Gaming Casino title Las Vegas again contributed to the strong SuperNation results in the quarter During the second quarter the SuperNation team did an excellent job in managing around the recently introduced higher UK gambling tax rate through a combination of product changes marketing adjustments and expense controls This allowed our iGaming business to effectively mitigate much of the impact of tax increase. Our second quarter results highlight how present targeted investments are uncovering growth opportunities, which is enabling DoubleDown to extend our long-term record, our strong profitability, and cash flow generation. We are successfully integrating previous acquisitions while optimizing our core DoubleDown business. M&A remains a strategic priority as we continue to evaluate opportunities in online gaming and mobile entertainment that meet our criteria to enhance long-term shareholder value.

Now I turn the call over to our CFO, Joe Sigrid, to walk us through the financials before providing my closing remarks. Joe?

Thank you, IK, and good afternoon, everyone. To review, revenues for the second quarter of 2026 were $94.3 million. This compares to total company revenues of $84.8 million in the second quarter of 2025 and $94.1 million in Our social casino segment grew 11.5% from the second quarter of 2025 to $77.3 million, reflecting the inclusion of revenue from WoW Games, which we acquired in July of last year.

iGaming revenues grew by $1.5 million, or 10% year-over-year, to $17 million. Regarding our overall social casino KPIs, we previously mentioned that the metrics from WOW Games are somewhat different from those of DoubleDown Casino. Specifically, WOW Games experiences a higher payer conversion rate and lower average monthly revenue per payer. With this in mind, overall social casino KPI highlights for the second quarter include the payer conversion rate, which is the percentage of players who pay within the social casino apps, increased to 9.4% in Q2 2026 compared to 7.0% in Q2 2025. The average revenue per daily active user, or ARPDAO, of $1.42 up from $1.33 in Q2 2025, and an average monthly revenue per payer at $218 in Q2 2026, down from $286 in the prior year period.

In the second quarter of 2026, operating expenses were $57.8 million compared to $52.4 million in the second quarter of 2025. The increase primarily reflects the inclusion of WoW Games expenses. Sales and marketing expenses for the second quarter of 2026 were $13.9 million compared to $13.1 million in the second quarter of 2025, which again did not include WoW Games.

Conversely, sales and marketing expenses in the second quarter were down from Q1 to 2026, primarily due to a reduction in player acquisition spending at SuperNation in light of the revised iGaming tax rate in the UK. Okay. Profit excluding non-controlling interest for the second quarter of 2026 increased 50% to $32.9 million or earnings per fully diluted common share of $13.27 or $0.66 per ADS in the second quarter of 2026, Compared to profit for the interim period of $21.8 million or earnings per fully diluted common share of $8.82 or $0.44 per ADS in Q2 2025. The increase primarily reflects higher revenue, the lower cost of revenue attributable to a higher proportion of DTC revenue, and a higher unrealized gain on foreign currency, partially offset by higher overall operating expenses, primarily due to the inclusion of wild games, and increased costs associated with revenue growth from SuperNation.

Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2026 rose to $39.3 million compared to $33.5 million for the second quarter of 2025 and $38.2 million for Q1 2026. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 41.6% for Q2 2026, as compared to 39.5% in Q2 2025 and 40.6% in Q1 2026. Net cash flows provided by operating activities in Q2 2026 were $24.6 million compared to $19.7 million in Q2 2025 due to higher profit and lower income tax pay.

And as IK mentioned, net cash flows provided by operations were $71 million for the first half of 2026. Inclusive of Q2 2026's meaningful cash generation, at quarter's end, we had $553.8 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments with a net cash position of approximately $521.3 million or approximately $10.52 per ADS.

Now I'll turn the call back to IK for closing remarks.

Thank you, Joe. DoubleDown Interactive, powered by our core social casino and iGaming businesses, delivered another quarter of strong profitability and cash flow. Building on our solid first half of 2026, we remain committed to innovation and discipline high ROI investments and to drive BTC revenues, which collectively optimize social casino margin.

Finally, our strong balance sheet and cash position provides us the financial flexibility to pursue strategic growth opportunities, as well as additional value-building initiatives and transactions for our shareholders. We are now happy to take your questions.

Liz? If you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced.

Yeah, sure, Jack. That's fine. I mean, essentially Q2 was down very slightly, essentially flat from Q1. And we certainly, in Q1, as IK earlier expressed, had to, as we started Q2, deal with the significant increase in the tax rate starting on April 1 in the UK. And so we made certain product adjustments and marking adjustments. As I think I mentioned, we spent significantly less in player acquisition investment in Q2 as we wanted to see how, you know, the various competitive, larger competitors played out as they also dealt with the UK tax change. And so all that put together, you know, kind of moderated our, certainly moderated our sequential growth in revenue. But at the same time, you know, we're quite pleased with, you know, the impact on player retention and, you know, how we remained, I think, you know, very cost conscious during the quarter, you know, recognizing the increase in the tax rate.

So that, as I think was earlier mentioned, we were able to mitigate, at least on the expense side and certainly on the profit side, the impact of the tax increase.

Yeah, I mean, Q2 generally is when we have tax payments due, so it really is, I guess you could call it seasonality. I mean, we've seen this over the last few years that from a cash flow generation standpoint because of tax payment timing, Q2 tends to be kind of a low watermark when it comes to quarterly cash flow.

Thanks, Jack.

Yeah, Erin, no, it's really important to understand that we're trying to balance with, you know, a significant change, essentially increasing the cost of doing business in the UK, trying to balance, you know, revenue growth with, you know, profit and with, you know, returns on, you know, the business that we, you know, purchased a few years ago. And so, you know, as we look, you know, over the last, well, now it's been, what, four and a half months since the tax increase occurred, and since we're able to observe what, again, some of our larger iGaming competitors are doing in the market, you know, we feel like, you know, we've struck a good balance, you know, between revenue and profit.

And, you know, we don't want to lose sight of, you know, the fact that, you know, we are going to still invest in acquiring players, but we're also going to, you know, make sure that we, you know, appropriately, you know, spend the money to get the returns that we need relative to that investment. and make the right product adjustments, whether it be RTP, bonus rates, those kinds of things, to also kind of balance the revenue and profit equation.

And just any general thoughts on how you think about marketing in the second half of the year would be helpful.

Yeah, I mean, you know, if you look at our marketing spend over the last few quarters, it's really been, you know, fairly constant. And, you know, we're as a company, and, you know, we see that being true for the rest of the year, at least. And we are looking, again, to kind of balance what we need to invest on our iGaming side versus on the social casino side. And, you know, recognizing that, you know, we have to invest, you know, to acquire new players in both businesses.

And, you know, a lot of what we, as I mentioned in the past, what we do is make real, literally, you know, real-time adjustments based on the, you know, the ROIs that we're seeing from various markets with various agencies, et cetera, et cetera. But I do think that our more recent run rate is pretty much where we're going to be for the rest of the year.

Our next question comes from Josh Nichols with B. Riley.

Hi, Josh. Let me take the question. Our 50% DTC share is already an industry benchmark, but we see more room for further growth. Our consistent strategy is to mitigate, migrate, actually, migrate valued users step-by-step to our own platform while maintaining a healthy balance across mobile app stores by combining strong We are not just reducing fees but deepening user trust So we have been proactively investing in our DTC capabilities, particularly in owned channels, direct CRM, and payment infrastructure, which allow us to communicate and transact with valued players more efficiently outside of traditional platform constraints. We are not just reducing fees, but diffening users' trust. I expect this focus on DTC integration to drive steady incremental growth and sustain our leadership in the market.

Hope to yourself.

Yeah, I mean, without quantifying it directly, I mean, listen, we're really quite happy with the first half of the year on the social casino side. And where, you know, both on the traditional DoubleDown side as well as on the Wow side, you know, we've pretty much been able to more than hold our own relative to what is a declining market, I'll say. And so, yeah, I think, you know, obviously the market is contracting based on, you know, both what Ian Kay say, but also what some of our competitors have already publicly reported. But, you know, we have been able to do incrementally better, at least so far in the first half of the year.

Yeah, as Joe mentioned up front, we just have nothing to report regarding the work of the special committee on the DUG proposal. The special committee is working diligently, and we certainly look forward to hearing from them when progress has been made. And, you know, certainly we're committed, obviously, with the special committee to communicate any and all progress, you know, when it's appropriate.

Yeah, thanks, Josh.

I'm sorry, Dave. Do you mean on the iGaming side or social casino?

The social casino side. Yeah, I mean, you know, we've been spending within a certain fairly narrow range on the social casino side for, I think, quite some time. I think I mentioned on the last call that towards the end of Q1, we started to see ROAS, our ROI on acquiring new players, getting better. And so we leaned into it a bit. That mitigated a bit as we got into Q2, and so we pulled back a bit. I don't think there's a huge variation from quarter to quarter in social casino, at least from our perspective, in how we view what we do in acquiring new players. Because as I said, it's all based on near real-time calculation of returns, right?

For three, seven, 21-day returns on acquiring new players, and that informs our spending. You know, I would say that I think in general, we've prided ourselves on being quite disciplined in that. I won't compare us to competitors, but I will say that we've always been, I think, very judicious as it relates to acquiring new players, and we'll continue to be that way.

Yeah, I mean, to be honest, I mean, it's a good question, right? To be honest, we've, and IK had mentioned this, right? You know, our growth in DTC, which has been quite dramatic, frankly, is not on the back of just giving more benefits. And, you know, we're very – have always been very sensitive to, you know, not wanting to overly inflate our economy or, you know, be too generous in an inappropriate way relative to the offers that we give. And that includes in the incentives that we give for direct-to-consumer. A lot of what we've done is, we think, in order to get this kind of growth that we've seen is to implement DTC really well and to reduce or even near eliminate the friction of the alternative payment path, if you will.

And, yes, there is some additional benefit to the payer, but it's nothing that we think has, to directly answer your question, really negatively impacted our revenue.

Thanks, Dave. Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for joining us today. You may now disconnect.