MGM RESORTS INTERNATIONAL Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Good afternoon, welcome to the MGM Resorts International second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining the call from the company today are Bill Hornbuckle, Chief Executive Officer and President, Ayesha Molino, Chief Operating Officer, Jonathan Halkyard, Chief Financial Officer, Gary Fritz, Chief Commercial Officer and President of MGM Digital, Kenneth Feng, Chief Executive Officer of MGM China Holdings, and Howard Wang, Vice President, Investor Relations. Participants are in listen-only mode. After the company's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. In fairness to all participants, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Please note, this conference is being recorded. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Howard Wang. Please go ahead. Thanks. Welcome to the MGM Resorts International second quarter 2026 earnings call.

This call is being broadcast live on the internet at investors.mgmresorts.com, we have also furnished our press release on Form 8-K to the SEC. On this call, we will make forward-looking statements under the Safe Harbor provisions of the Federal Securities Law. Actual results may differ materially from these contemplated in these statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements is contained in today's press release and in our periodic filings with the SEC. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or otherwise. During the call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures when talking about our performance.

You can find the reconciliation to GAAP financial measures in our press release and investor presentation, which are available on our website. Finally, this presentation is being recorded. I will now turn it over to Bill Hornbuckle.

Thank you, Howard, thanks to everyone for joining today's call. Before we review the second quarter results, I want to provide a brief update on the status of the offer we received from People Incorporated. Since reviewing the offer, our board of directors has formed a special committee composed of independent directors with no affiliation or association with Barry Diller, People Incorporated, or the proposed transaction. This committee continues to evaluate the proposed transaction and consultation with independent outside advisors. I'm confident our board will pursue the course of action that's in the best interest of the company and our shareholders. I don't have anything more to share at this time, Jonathan and I are not able to answer any questions during the Q&A on this topic.

Now turning to our results, we are pleased to report that the solid fundamentals and business momentum we saw at the start of the year carried forward into the second quarter. The company delivered record second-quarter consolidated net revenue, driven by a second consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth from our Las Vegas Strip resorts, all-time best regional operations same-store quarterly revenue, and a 20% year-over-year revenue growth at MGM Digital. Revenue for Las Vegas was bolstered by a solid underlying base of group and convention business at MGM Resorts and aided by strong attendance at events around town, ranging from BTS to UFC to a deep playoff run into the Stanley Cup by our very own Vegas Golden Knights.

Our group and convention business picked up where it left off in Q1, delivering a 20% room mix in Q2 and keeping us on pace for this market segment to represent a 20% of the room mix for the full year. We drove demand from a diverse customer mix that included technology and hospitality corporate groups, as well as top B2B trade shows and professional association meetings, leading to the highest second-quarter convention ADR and catering and banquet revenue in our history. Our all-inclusive experience in Las Vegas has also sustained solid momentum since launch four months ago. At the end of the quarter, nearly half of the guests booked this offer were first-time visitors to MGM. The initiative has supported occupancies and forward bookings at Luxor and Excalibur, and importantly, turned the value narrative into a positive story.

We are constantly creating new experiences for our customers that leverage and highlight the MGM Resorts Las Vegas Strip portfolio. One example is the Players Era Basketball Tournament taking place across two weeks this November at Michelob Ultra Arena in Mandalay Bay and the T-Mobile Arena. 24 top collegiate basketball programs from multiple conferences, including four of the last five national championship-winning programs, will play in a bracket-style tournament with all games televised on ESPN family of networks. To deliver a world-class experience for teams and for fans, Las Vegas stands unmatched, and MGM is proud to offer the ultimate stage. From the all-inclusive experiences to the Players Era Tournament, this spectrum of experiences we have created aligns with prevailing consumer trends, bridging the more deliberate spending patterns of value-conscious guests with a broadening demand for our premium live experiences.

Las Vegas has become the world stage for premier hospitality and entertainment, and MGM is helping to lead the way. We are elevating our commitment to luxury by retouching and reimagining every element of the customer experience, including the convention and public areas within the Bellagio. Room remodels for Aria and The Cosmopolitan are also on the horizon, building upon our already upgraded suites, villas, and high-end gaming areas. We will strategically invest our growth capital into designing creative and inspiring concepts that expand the very definition of luxury, and we're excited to share more details on this vision in the near future. Our regional operations continued their solid performance in the second quarter, resulting in an all-time best revenue quarter on a same-store basis.

We continue to invest targeted capital throughout our regional portfolio, which between now and the end of the year, will include enhancing our premium lounge offerings at both Beau Rivage and Borgata, as well as a room remodel beginning at Borgata. We continue to see benefits from the recent upgrades and improvements in high-limit gaming areas, which drove record 2-quarter revenues at Borgata and an all-time record quarterly revenue at the Borgata. Both were major contributors to all-time same-store record quarterly casino revenues and slot win in the regionals this quarter. At MGM China, we continued to outperform the market in the second quarter while maintaining solid market share of 16.4%, a sequential increase of a full percentage point. While the World Cup temporarily impacted June volumes in Macau, this was a transitory event rather than a secular shift.

Our confidence is reinforced by the immediate and encouraging rebound in volumes observed post-tournament throughout the month of July. At our BetMGM North America ventures, Adam and Gary Deutsch reported second quarter results yesterday. Our second quarter performance keeps us well-positioned to meet our full-year guidance. Our business continues to grow. Remember, over two-thirds of net revenue comes from iGaming, which continues to drive overall growth. In our sports business, despite the unrestrained spending and legally burdened predictive market participants, we are still growing. We are also excited about our recent launch in Alberta, where early performance indicates reflect tangible benefits of our omni-channel presence. I'd note that of the first 8,500 deposits we recorded in Alberta, almost 1,000 had prior relationships with the MGM. MGM Digital reported double-digit revenue growth again this quarter and continues to make progress towards profitability in our underlying businesses.

We successfully launched our in-house sportsbook in Sweden ahead of the World Cup, which drove record-high player activity. We have seen great traction with our products, which have led to phenomenal growth in both BetMGM-branded services internationally. In Brazil, the environment continues to be dynamic and fluid. We remain bullish on the long-term opportunity. Turning to Osaka, our construction continues to reach milestones on a timely basis as we advance towards the 2030 opening. The underground work is progressing nicely, with over 60% of foundation piles completed. Above ground, the property's main structure is taking shape with ongoing concrete placement and structural steel fabrication. We remain on time and on budget as the only licensee in Japan for what we consider the greatest greenfield opportunity in the world.

In closing, MGM Resorts delivered a strong first half of the year, which should come as no surprise considering the enterprise achieved record-breaking 2Q results on our NPS scores. Again, I want to thank every one of our team members for their tremendous daily efforts that drove the record net promoter scores. We're excited as we look forward to the second half of the year as our business is positioned for continued positive momentum, driven by a solid base of group and convention business at MGM Resorts, particularly led by the tech sector. This is further complemented by an expanded sports and entertainment events calendar taking place citywide that represents an increased number of events compared to that of the third quarter last year. I'll now pass it over to Jonathan to provide some additional details on our performance before we open it up for questions.

Thanks, Bill. I also want to express my appreciation to the entire MGM team for their continued focus, hard work, and daily commitment to operational excellence. In Las Vegas, we grew both net revenue and segment adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter on a year-over-year basis. This year, EBITDA is up $25 million at our Strip resorts, and the main driver was a recovery at the MGM Grand, which was the beneficiary of the newly remodeled room inventory and a hold benefit. As we look to the third quarter, while the booking window remains short, we continue to see solid group and convention calendars alongside growth in the city's event calendar. The regional operations second quarter results reflected all-time record quarterly revenues on a same-store basis.

In fact, several of our properties delivered record revenue results during the quarter, including Empire City, which grew GGR in June despite new competition in the state. Results for the quarter reflect less than one month of operations from Northfield Park due to the transaction closing in late April. On a same-store basis, slot handle and slot win increased 4% and 3% respectively. At MGM China, volumes and earnings were solid in April and May. While we saw a dip in volumes coinciding with the World Cup activity in June, trends have since rebounded. Our capital investment program, highlighted by the recent suite conversions and renovated premium gaming areas, continues to yield strong results.

Over the past year, we successfully debuted the ultra-luxury Alpha Villas at MGM Macau, expanded our premium mass offerings with 50,000 sq ft of high-end gaming space, and recently unveiled newly renovated suites at MGM Cotai this past April. Looking ahead, we have commenced design work on approximately 100 suites at MGM Macau as part of our ongoing commitment to staying ahead of the evolving consumer tastes and preferences. Our BetMGM North America venture continues generating steady growth as we continue leaning into our areas of strength and focus on efficient operations. We have embedded call options around new state iGaming regulation and currently are more optimistic than we've been in a while, as we see increased legislative activity in states like Virginia, Maryland, and Indiana.

Our best-in-class iGaming segment grew 8% in the second quarter. Over the course of the first half of 2026, handle per active grew 7%, while NGR per active grew 9%. Our online sports strategy continued its focus on player management and disciplined acquisition, resulting in growth of handle per active and NGR per active of 18% and 17%, respectively, during the first half of 2026. MGM Digital drove healthy growth in net revenues of 20% in the second quarter and reported segment adjusted EBITDA losses of $31 million. We continue to build brand awareness while focusing on disciplined growth. 2027 is setting up for favorable operating leverage in the LeoVegas and BetMGM branded businesses that will finance growth in Brazil, where we're seeing encouraging data points in first-time deposits, active players, and NGR.

As we continue calibrating in Brazil, we're expecting full year EBITDA losses at MGM Digital to be less than last year. In Japan, we're expecting our funding commitment for the second half of the year to be approximately $125 million-$175 million. To date, we have spent approximately $600 million, we remain on track to deploy approximately $1 billion in each of 2027 and 2028, which we'll then have fully completed our capital commitments. The project remains on time and on budget for a fall 2030 opening. During the quarter, we bought back about 4.3 million shares for $164 million, over the last five years, we've decreased our share count by nearly 50%. I'll turn it back to Bill.

Thanks, Jonathan. Before taking questions, it's worth emphasizing that Las Vegas is stabilizing and growing, as evidenced by this quarter's improvements in both revenue and EBITDA. The continued role of premier sports entertainment events has only reinforced our focus on deploying capital towards our luxury offerings to drive medium to long-term growth. Our regional operations continue to deliver robust results marked by record-breaking performances and an exceptional guest response to our targeted capital investments. Macau has bounced back nicely in July while maintaining mid-teen share throughout the temporary disruption caused by the World Cup, digital continues to grow. MGM Osaka forges ahead with its 2030 opening, which has me, despite my many years in this company and this industry, pleased to say our future has never looked brighter. With that, operator, we'll open it up for some questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. As a reminder, in all fairness, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Our first question today comes from Dan Politzer with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead. Hey, good afternoon, everyone, thanks for the questions.

I wanted to first start with Las Vegas and the health in the underlying market there. It does seem like, Bill, based on your comments, that it's getting better, maybe if you could walk us through the second quarter and the cadence and how it progressed, maybe give us a glimpse into July as we really start to pay some of those easier comparisons. Then obviously tie in with any of the recent initiatives, how those are maybe helping out. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks, Dan Politzer, for the question.

Will do. Ayesha, you can help me pile on top here. Look, I think the second quarter as we reflect back, April and May were strong. May was exceptionally strong, driven by events and other activity. In April, we had our $10 million baccarat tournament, which was extremely successful. June was more challenged. I think as the summer heat picked up and we got into the real throes of summer. July, on the other hand, has been good. I think we've seen ups and downs in summer, and frankly, I think we'll continue to see so as we think about the third quarter and beyond. Again, healthy group business helped the quarter. Great events, which we continue to see throughout the course of the year.

Overall, I think the packages helped at Excalibur, Luxor stabilized occupancies and somewhat ADRs. So, as we think about three and four, we like what we see in the third quarter. We got some work to do in the fourth quarter.

Thanks. I just think I covered it.

Okay. I thought it was a good response, so I'm happy.

Good. I think just turning more broadly to the value of the stock, right?

I think, Jonathan, you mentioned MGM has bought back about 50% of its shares in the past five years. I think the average price is probably around $40 or so. The stock's sitting here today at $46. How do you think about the current value of your stock here and the attractiveness given some of the longer-term value drivers that you've talked about, such as Osaka?

Yeah, I think your math is about right in terms of what the price has been over the past several years in our share repurchases. We bought back fewer shares in this past quarter, only about $164 million worth at about, I'd say, about $37 a share or thereabout. Of course, we think that that's been a good use of capital. As it relates to the current value of the stock, we've gone through this on a number of prior quarters in terms of the sum of the parts valuation and in our view, given the current trends really hasn't changed from that.

Understood. Thanks so much. The next question is from Barry Jonas with Truist Securities.

Please go ahead. Hey, guys.

Thanks for taking my questions. Wanted to dig in a little more on Strip trends, record group and convention bookings in the quarter. RevPAR is still down a little. Anything you can call out, whether that is specific properties or is it still sort of a kind of lower-end leisure driving that softness? I guess related to that, do you see a path to return to growth in RevPAR sometime this year? Thank you. This is Ayesha.

I want to highlight again what Bill noted in his script and his previous comment. We have seen growth in overall Las Vegas revenue as well as EBITDAR. We are pleased with what we are seeing there. In terms of RevPAR, I note that it is a non-cash metric. Overall, I think we continue to see really strong strength in the luxury segment. As we have noted, the lower end of the segment, particularly Luxor and Excalibur, those do remain challenged. We have been deploying offers such as the all-inclusive. We have seen positive reaction to that. Overall, I think we are seeing real health in the group segment. We are seeing real health in the luxury segment. We are seeing a sort of a continued but relatively stabilized trend at the lower end.

Got it. That is helpful. I guess maybe one on regionals. We have seen what the Sphere has done in Vegas. Curious how much of an impact you think a Sphere can do for National Harbor when it opens. Thank you. Hi, Barry. Bill.

They are projecting 2.5 million visitors, which seems about right. I think it is about a 6,500-seat facility when it is all said and done. I know they are finalizing plans. I do not want to get ahead of them. That is the visitation that is being contemplated, which is significant. Whether those are new customers, I think many of them will be for us, and they will come from farther away just to see it. We have seen that obviously in Las Vegas. We expect to capture our fair share of that and then some, given that it is literally on our doorstep. I think they will use much of our parking facility, which places them in the midst of our casino environment. We are pretty excited by all of it.

Thank you so much. The next question is from Shaun Kelley with Bank of America.

Please go ahead. Hi, good afternoon, everyone.

Thanks for taking my question. I want to start with a CapEx-related question. A couple of times, both in the prepared remarks and throughout, a mention about investing further in the luxury side of the portfolio. Just curious for Jonathan or Bill, whoever wants to take it, does this stay within your sort of normal growth capital bounds? Are there any sort of larger projects or larger ideas that you might have that may push kind of around those levels that you've been sticking to in the last couple of years? Just how should we think about sort of those comments and sort of what you're thinking about really 2027 and beyond?

I think, Shaun, a great way to think about it is generally, yes, although particularly here at Bellagio, we're thinking about more villas potentially because we only have eight to draw from, eight or nine, whatever it is. I think it's eight. We're thinking about more villas. Our convention and meeting space, as I mentioned in my prepared comments, needs some work. We have seen tremendous success with activation of Lakeside with CARBONE Riviera, and so we're going to look to continue on that theme. I think you could think about it, at least for today, in the context of where we are. If we add to that, we understand what the consequence to that, but we'd only add to that if we thought it was going to pay real dividend.

Shaun, this is Jonathan. One of the ways I also think about it, and I think this is probably pretty useful in terms of modeling, is that we can do quite a lot of work and improvement within our existing footprint in that level of CapEx that we've been spending the last three or four years. To the extent that we expand the footprint, we add capacity, we add square footage to our portfolio here in Las Vegas, then it would likely be additive to that base level of CapEx. As an example, we did, as you know, a very large room renovation to the MGM Grand. We're contemplating one later this year beginning at Aria. Both of those projects have been and will be done within that basic level of CapEx that we've spent the last few years.

If we did something beyond that to add capacity, it would likely be above.

Shaun, maybe just as a more global thesis, Las Vegas is our home. Las Vegas is the epicenter of gaming in many respects. It's not going anywhere, and I don't think anything immediately is going to come even close to competing with it. We believe in its not only midterm, but long-term future. We want to continue to invest aggressively where it makes sense. Luxury experiences, not necessarily items, are down that lane.

Perfect. Thank you both. Then just maybe a quick one on just the MGM Digital on sort of the international piece, non-BetMGM. Just help us think through the inflection in that business. There was a little bit there saying obviously losses equal to or a little less than last year for this year. Is there a bigger sort of J-curve or inflection in 2027? It sounded like we were maybe headed in that direction, you said something about funding, helping to start self-fund maybe some of those investments in Brazil. If you could just elaborate on that a little bit.

Sure. It's Gary. Well spotted. I think that's right. The way you should think about MGM Digital, we basically have the European LeoVegas operated portfolio, LeoVegas branded business, and the BetMGM branded business in Europe. That business is setting up, as Jonathan remarked, in 2027 for significant operating leverage, and likely substantial levels of profitability. We can use that to, at our discretion to finance the remaining growth investments in the portfolio, which are largely dominated by Brazil, in terms of what we have line of sight on. We do think there will be the ability to self-fund, in part, the ongoing investments in Brazil and a few other geographies around the world.

The exact nature of how much will be self-funded completely, we're working out through the budgeting process that we're in for 2027, but we do anticipate some degree of self-financing from the core LeoVegas business.

Thank you so much. The next question is from David Katz with Jefferies.

Please go ahead. Good afternoon.

Thank you for taking my question. I wanted to just go back to the all-inclusive offerings. I think the term you may have used is supported in reference to Luxor and Excalibur. I'd love just a little more color on whether we would classify that as upward momentum and all of this in the context of some of the prior questions around some of the lower half or lower quartile properties within the portfolio and how they're doing. Thank you. Yeah, I'll kick it off and turn it over to Aisha.

We've booked well over 30,000 room nights on it. It absolutely has helped us stabilize occupancy. Again, I think I commented earlier, the narrative around Las Vegas not providing value and everyone getting beat up on that, we know it's helped. We've followed it closely through social media and otherwise. It's a great value, at the end of the day, is the bottom line. Aisha, I don't know if you want any more color, but Just a couple of other notes.

A couple of things that have been interesting to us. What we've seen is a lot of interest and demand from the customers, particularly on the weekends. They've actually been purchasing the package at slightly higher rates, which has been accretive. From that perspective, we've also been really happy with the margin profile that we've been realizing from that package. All in all, in terms of the gross room nights booked, plus the change in narrative, plus the margin, we think it's been healthy.

Excellent. As my follow-up, with respect to Park MGM, I think you also indicated a strategy there toward locals. I'd love a little more color about that, which is just interesting.

Yeah, sure. We think that property in particular has appeal to locals for a couple of reasons. First, there's the obvious proximity to T-Mobile, as well as Dolby within its footprint, and the non-smoking aspect of it is unique in our portfolio. We also do know that for that property in particular, much of our high-end play is locals play. From that perspective, we've just been taking a look at how to expand its appeal to our local demographic, particularly over the summer. We've been doing a host of different things, including looking at F&B offers for locals, as well as parking offers for locals, even up to and including locals free play offers. It's really just a focused attempt at demand generation within that demographic.

Appreciate that. Thank you very much.

The next question is from John DeCree with CBRE. Please go ahead. Hi, everyone.

Thank you for taking my question. Bill, Jonathan, Ayesha, I wanted to ask about your view on kind of the thesis that customers are staying closer to home, and that might be one of the reasons we're seeing some strength in the regionals relative to leisure in Las Vegas and record revenue quarter on same store basis and seeing a little bit of stability in the leisure business in Vegas. How much do you kind of subscribe to that consumer theory, and do you look at this as a zero-sum equation or as Vegas starts to recover, do you think the kind of trajectory in the regional is sustainable, so can consumers kind of do both Vegas and regionals as you look across the database?

Ayesha can speak maybe to the database transfer. I would say this. Las Vegas is still down on international travel, while we're picking up some additional seats, particularly as you look at a place like Canada, we're off considerably. It needs to continue to focus on that. Obviously, particularly in the summer, Southern California is a major drive market. Our drive-in traffic hits over 50%, generally, of how people get here, principally driven again by that market. Since we don't have a regional casino in California, as much as we'd love one, I think it's somewhat limited. I don't know, Ayesha, if you have a specific view.

Look, if I take a look at visitor volume year-over-year to Las Vegas, there are puts and takes month by month, but overall, there isn't a significant departure in overall trend line. I do note that, and we're happy about this, our regionals are healthy, and we're seeing consistent visitation among our highest frequency regional visitors, and we're seeing consistent play among the top demographics there. I don't know that I'd say there's a one-to-one trade-off. I don't really think of it that way. I think that as the overall macroeconomic environment continues to stabilize, particularly in Southern California. As Bill noted with international travel, I think we have every reason to be optimistic about Vegas.

That's helpful. I appreciate that color. Thank you. Maybe a quick follow-up on convention group outlook for 2027. I apologize if I missed it. Did you provide any thoughts on bookings or kind of ADR pace for 2027? Obviously, it's been a great year so far, but how does kind of forward years look?

Yeah, I think for 2027, we like our on-the-books position right now. We've still got plenty of runway left for this year and into next year, even for in the year for the year. We think we're headed into 2027 in a strong position from a group perspective.

Great. Thank you so much.

The next question is from Steven Wieczynski with Stifel. Please go ahead. Hey, guys.

Good afternoon. I want to first ask about Macau. It seems like the promotional environment over there continues to be pretty intense. Just wondering maybe, from your perspective, what you guys are seeing over there right now, and then how aggressive or non-aggressive you guys have been in terms of having to or trying to protect your market share.

Kenny, over to you. Okay.

Thank you. This is Kenny from Macau. Macau has always been a competitive market and will continue to be. MGM, like past five, six years, has demonstrated a consistent and a deep understanding of all customers. We deliver the appropriate offerings catered to premium demand. I want to see, here it's not purely a promotion reinvestment. What we are competing is a package. It's our products, our services, our innovation, and then our promotion. It's really a package. For example, during the quarter, we have completed some meaningful CapEx projects, including our suites conversions and as well as our premium gaming space at the Cotai. These projects have been well-received by our premium customers. Moving on, we will continue to renovate nearly 100 suites at MGM Macau.

Our strategy is really to focus on optimizing the yield of every table, every slot, every square foot of the casino floor. That's our strategy. It's not purely a reinvestment, it's a package. You can look at for the past three, since pandemic, every quarter, we have always in the guided range of our operating margins at MGM China level, mid-20s to high-20s. We are confident, we feel comfortable that we can sustain such margin going forward. This level is sustainable. Okay.

Thanks for that, Kenny. Second question, Bill, going back to Vegas, I want to ask the bundling question maybe a little bit differently. I guess what I'm wondering here is, as you guys have kind of rolled out that bundling promotion, so to speak, have you seen that translate into growth in your database? Just trying to figure out if you're starting to see new folks come into the market, or these are more existing players.

No, great question. Half of the participants in this package are brand new, which if you think about Las Vegas in general right now, I think we're under 15% of first-time visitors in total in terms of visitation. So it is drawing a new customer base, presumably younger, I don't think I know that yet, but we're going to try to do some data on that. Yeah, it's 50%, which is frankly startling and importantly, promising.

Okay, great. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

The next question is from Brandt Montour with Barclays. Please go ahead. Hi, everyone.

Thanks for the questions. First in Vegas, Jonathan, you mentioned hold as being a benefit in the second quarter. Looking back at the last three quarters, it just seems like you guys have had a really nice run of hold. The question is there anything structural or sort of any changes that you've made to mix or anything as we try and figure out where we should be modeling that business on a sort of neutral basis?

Nick, this is Bill. I don't know if I'd change the model or the percentages of the games. I will tell you, we skew. There are half a dozen customers, maybe a dozen customers that we have consistently catered to, and they have enjoyed their services and their time here and they swing hard and they swing heavy, and that can go either way. Obviously, this past quarter has been to our advantage, I wouldn't change the formula yet, I would say that.

Okay, that's helpful. One more on Macau. When you made that comment, Bill, about volumes recovering sharply in July, I was hoping you could clarify if that was an MGM comment or an industry comment or both, so that we can kind of get a sense for. The second follow-up question would be, did promo kind of drive that recovery in July? How we can think about EBITDA flow through from that sort of first quarter?

Yeah, I would say, I think we've returned to our normal pace, Kenny. I think it's both, meaning both the market and we have recovered in the context of where we were in June. Kenny. Yeah, I think I want to see, Bill, we are seeing pent-up demand from World Cup period.

Actually, both the visitations and even the business volumes have strongly picked up since even the second week of July, when there were still a few matches remaining before the end of the World Cup. The weekly performance has improved week-over-week. We believe Macau gaming revenue last week, the entire market had recovered nearly to Q1 levels. At MGM, both property visitations and the normalized GGR have already exceeded Q1 levels. With the events and concerts in town in this month and next month, we are confident to see a busy summer in Macau that can draw popularity and visitations.

Perfect. Thanks, everyone. The next question is from Chad Beynon with Macquarie.

Please go ahead. Afternoon, thanks for taking my question.

Bill, wanted to ask a strategic question on regionals. I think it is quite clear that you guys are focusing on market-leading properties with, hopefully, over $100 million of EBITDA. Obviously, one of your companies with some regional assets is going through their HSR process now, and then after the close, Churchill Downs announced that there might be some more regional properties on the market. Can you just update us if there would be markets that help with the hub and spoke and the long-term value for your shareholders? Thanks. Yeah, Chad, look, I wouldn't say no, never, for sure.

While there is always a couple of properties out there that might fit well into the portfolio, and we've kept an eye on that, there is nothing imminent to the contrary.

Okay, great. Then drilling in just a little bit more on the result in Vegas, you had a very low hold comparable in Q2 2025. You mentioned that you were on the right side of that this quarter. Are you willing to provide what the hold adjusted number would be for the quarter and what the positive impact for Vegas was?

We don't really like to put a point estimate on that because there are a number of things that drive what the hold percentage ultimately is. It's in the tens of millions this quarter. It was meaningful, but we stopped a couple of years ago presenting any kind of hold adjusted number.

Okay. Thanks, Jonathan. Appreciate it.

The next question is from Stephen Grambling with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Hey, thanks.

Just on the digital side, we had the update from BetMGM earlier this week. As you continue to learn from the digital on the international side, how do you think about whether BetMGM U.S. is being maximized in its current form as a JV? Are there any limitations to evaluating either various ownership structures at this point, whether it's an embedded ROFO or other legal components when we think about the JV as the right setup from here?

Look, I would say this about the JV, which we continue to say, we've enjoyed our relationship and our partnership. Obviously, we're the brand, they're the technology. There's always things to learn. I think Gary can speak more specifically to that because he oversees these businesses on a daily basis. The JV is in good shape. While you never say never to anything, there's nothing contemplated.

Again, there's no limitations to various structures at this point. It's just a question of what you feel is best and price.

Fair. Fair enough. I'll jump back in the queue.

Thank you. Thanks. The next question is from Ben Chaiken with Mizuho.

Please go ahead. Hey, thanks for taking my question.

Recognizing you don't want to comment on hold and some of the other items, I was hoping you could maybe in broad strokes give an assessment of how you're thinking about the underlying business in Vegas in 2Q from an EBITDA perspective, but more importantly, the trajectory of the business in Vegas as you see it today, understanding that things have improved in July. Thanks. Yeah, look, I think you've heard throughout our comments, our luxury business remains strong.

The top end of our marketplace, the very top end, is very strong and continues to be. We still all have, and it's not just us, it's the city of Las Vegas, for value customers are continuing to push. We collectively are down 3.5 million visitors from our all-time peak, I think back in 2020, help me here, 2019 or 2018, whatever it was. As we think about that, we're going to continue to push ways to do that. We've always been able to get ourselves and keep ourselves in the 90% occupancy range, and we're going to continue to push on that. If you think about what we said about this quarter, it's a good example. Our convention and catering business, all-time high.

That speaks to corporate America, the desire of the destination. The other thing that speaks to here, the marketplace has changed. We are a big event marketplace now. When something meaningful happens, whether it was just the recent UFC fight with Conor or again, believe it or not, BTS, the market responds to it and responds with a great deal of interest and velocity. We're going to continue to drive it through both the city and independently with events like I mentioned, our Players Era basketball tournament and other things that we all want to create, because live is what's happening right now, and it's not lost on us or anybody else for that matter.

The Sphere has been a big help for the community, with other competitors who have helped bring in live entertainment, and we're going to continue to do the same.

Okay, maybe you may not want to answer this, just to put a finer point on it. I guess net of some of the different moving parts in Vegas, do you think you're growing underlying EBITDA today? Thanks. We're growing revenue for sure.

Up against some challenges on EBITDA, absolutely in the long haul, yes, we are.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question and answer session.

I would like to turn the conference back over to Bill Hornbuckle for any closing remarks.

Thank you, operator. Again, I thank everyone's participation. Look, Vegas remains stable and consistent. Same with Macau. We love where our regional businesses are coming from and our digital programming, particularly on the international piece of Gary's business, is showing some promising return. With all that said, we thank you for joining us and have a great night.

Conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation.