This article first appeared on GuruFocus .
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Revenue:Flat at $67.8 million; up 7.1% excluding virtual queuing product.
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Cash EBITDA:$7.6 million, up almost 50% period over period.
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Gross Margin:77.8% versus 78.3% in prior period.
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Underlying Admin Costs:Down 6.1% following cost reorganization.
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Net Cash:$7.3 million at period end (gross cash $33.2 million; borrowings $25.9 million).
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Adjusted Net Cash (excl. pass-through):$0.5 million net debt versus $20.3 million net cash prior period.
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Cash Generated from Operations:$4.9 million versus $7.7 million prior period, driven by working capital timing.
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Repeatable Revenue:Approximately 85% of total revenue.
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Virtual Queuing Revenue:Down 50% period over period due to two major contract changes.
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Ticketing Revenue:Up 8.3% period over period.
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Distribution Revenue:Relatively flat period over period.
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Maintenance and Support Revenue:Up 15.3%.
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Recurring License Fees:Up 56%.
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One-Time Licenses:Up approximately 123%, driven by Middle East venue go-lives.
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Exceptional Charges:Approximately $1.3 million, primarily restructuring and acquisition/integration costs.
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Finance Expense:Up 34% due to higher facility drawdown.
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Headcount:Approximately 617 at end of June, down from 655 in December 2025 and 680 in December 2024.
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New Venues Won:17 in H1, with material increase in multi-product adoption.
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Share Cancellations:Approximately 18.9% of shares in issue canceled since April 2025.
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Guidance:Maintained at $146 million revenue and approximately $20 million EBITDA.
Release Date: September 15, 2026
For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript .
Positive Points
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Cash EBITDA increased nearly 50% to $7.6 million, driven by cost efficiency measures.
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Revenue excluding virtual queuing grew 7.1%, with ticketing revenue up 8.3% and distribution flat.
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Underlying admin costs decreased 6.1% following restructuring, with headcount reduced from 680 to 617.
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New payments platform (accessoPay) signed 13 customers, with $50 million in processing volume and line of sight to $300 million.
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Multi-product pipeline doubled, with 17 new venues won in H1 and increased cross-sell adoption.
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Intelligence platform (Dexibit) integrated rapidly, with five conversions and a substantial pipeline.
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Refinanced revolving credit facility for four years on improved terms, extending maturity to August 2030.
Negative Points
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Revenue remained flat at $67.8 million, with virtual queuing revenue down 50% due to contract changes.
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Full-year guidance implies H2 revenue decline of 9% and cash EBITDA margin contraction from 21% to 16%.
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Middle East project milestones slipped, with $0.5 million revenue pushed from 2026 to 2027.
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AI uncertainty lengthening customer decision cycles, potentially delaying sales closures.
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Net cash decreased to $7.3 million from $20.3 million, with adjusted net debt of $0.5 million.
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IP theft incident exposed security gaps in non-production systems, requiring corrective actions.
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Cross-sell conversion remains low relative to opportunity, with standalone product sales historically limiting synergies.
Q & A Highlights
Q: On the two near-term opportunities, including a full ecosystem deployment can you give more color on geography, sales cycle length, and what they currently use? And what does successful accessoPay take-up look like in 2027 in gross profit terms? Any update on the Merlin ticketing renewal? A: CEO Lee Cowie said the full ecosystem deal is in North America, with a 6-to-12-month sales cycle. The prospect currently uses a range of systems, some of which accesso provides, but the majority it does not. It is a large US player and is "imminently due for signature." On accessoPay, the 13 signed customers represent roughly $50 million in total processing volume, with margins of 40-100 basis points, and accesso sees line of sight to that becoming about $300 million next year, with a total addressable market in the low billions. On Merlin, Cowie said the relationship remains "healthy and positive," with teams embedded and regular, constructive conversations ongoing.
Q: Does the verbally agreed full ecosystem deal include payments? A: CEO Lee Cowie confirmed payments is "very much on the table" with that customer, describing payments as a key component of the ecosystem and the element that unifies it.
Q: How are you thinking about AI plug-ins and the bear case that AI could disintermediate platforms and aggregators? What is the opportunity, how do the economics work, and could an accesso plug-in be more B2C and make it easier to work with other leisure providers? A: CEO Lee Cowie said accesso expects fragmentation of purchasing channels, from box office to desktop to mobile to OTAs, and now into agentic commerce and LLM-based purchasing. Accesso has beta AI apps running in platforms like ChatGPT and strong distribution through Ingresso, and is working on a confidential partnership with a division of a large payments provider to support full-breadth agentic commerce across any AI platform. On economics, Cowie said accesso is largely channel-agnostic a purchase through its system is the same price wherever it happens. He added that a fully in-app purchase journey is already possible in beta and could be enabled in the not-too-distant future, though venues will decide whether to offer it.
Q: Can you break down the ticketing growth number how much came from revised pricing versus new wins, and what contribution should we expect from new wins going forward? A: CFO Matthew Boyle said the 8.3% ticketing uplift (8.6% at segment level) was driven mostly by revised pricing at a major customer plus relatively flat or robust attendances, with new venues the other component. He expects the majority of current-period growth from revised pricing, but going forward growth should come from new logos and cross-sell, with a positive trajectory into 2027.
Q: Are your growth assumptions based on more footfall and spend per customer, or mostly new logos and cross-sell, with footfall growth as upside? A: CFO Matthew Boyle said it is a mix. Because revenue is transactionally led, ticket price inflation naturally lifts revenue even with flat attendances, plus some yield management uplift. Growth above that comes from new wins and cross-sell, so he expects growth of inflation plus an extra increment.
Q: Where is cross-sell conversion relative to the opportunity, and how material is it to growth? A: CFO Matthew Boyle said cross-sell is "not huge" at the moment, which is where the opportunity lies. Products were historically sold as standalone solutions with separate teams, price points, contracts and interfaces. A unified payments layer and unified intelligence layer are helping solve that. He expects growth to be roughly a 50/50 split between cross-sell and new logos, possibly weighted slightly toward cross-sell.
Q: On the Middle East, are you comfortable with key contract milestone timelines, or is there risk of slippage into next year? A: CFO Matthew Boyle said expected Saudi revenue for the rest of the year has already been reduced from $1.8 million to $1.3 million, with two venues pushing into 2027. The remaining $1.3 million is baked into the $146 million guidance and spread fairly evenly from September to December. He said further slippage is possible given Saudi dynamics, but accesso is comfortable with the $1.3 million at present, and risk reduces as months progress.
Q: How worried are you about the IP theft incident, and what have you found? A: CEO Lee Cowie said analysis is largely concluded and accesso is "not overly concerned." The incident did not impact production systems or sensitive data, and the value of what was taken is negligible. He said the corrective path is clear and underway, and the incident reinforces the importance of sophisticated, well-secured vendors as cybersecurity threats grow.
Q: On product simplification and cross-sell to what extent is pre-integration of products and improved usability on the roadmap, and how important is it to driving cross-sell? A: CEO Lee Cowie said most data flows up into the Intelligence platform, so strategic integration is largely handled, aided by Dexibit's 100-plus integrations. The remaining operational stitch is at the transaction layer, such as recognizing annual pass entitlements with F&B vendors, which is largely already in place. Payments was centralized as a group-wide function years ago, so plugging in new payment capabilities is a low lift. Some work remains to normalize UI and admin experience, but it does not block selling the ecosystem.
Q: Can you help with the H1/H2 split guidance implies negative 9% H2 sales and a cash EBITDA margin falling from 21% in H2 2025 to 16%? A: CFO Matthew Boyle said the full-year guidance shortfall versus 2025 is entirely H2-weighted and driven by the queuing contracts one major contract change and the loss of another predominantly impacting July through October. The January 2026 overhead reduction is a flat benefit across the 12 months, but the H2 revenue shortfall is more significant than the cost savings offsetting it.
Q: How is AI lengthening customer decision cycles, and is the tough macro backdrop with venue cost pressures hindering decisions or creating opportunity? A: CEO Lee Cowie said AI press coverage is giving venues pause for thought, and most customers lack in-house technology capability, so conversations have
For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript .
