Dave & Buster's Entertainment Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
June 15, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Negative Sentiment: Dave & Buster’s reported Q1 FY2026 comparable sales down 5.4%, missing both internal and external expectations as weak consumer sentiment, gas prices, geopolitics, and weather weighed on traffic. Management said April was especially soft, though Q2 comps have improved modestly to about down 4% quarter to date.
  • Positive Sentiment: The company said its back-to-basics initiatives are starting to work, especially in food and beverage, where same-store sales rose roughly 5% and positive F&B comps extended to nine straight months. The Eat & Play combo and return to a historically proven menu are driving better guest attach rates and higher spend.
  • Positive Sentiment: Management highlighted a major games refresh, including 10 new games already launched and at least five more planned for the rest of 2026. Several of the new titles are already ranking among top revenue generators, and leadership said the new content is helping bring the brand back into consideration.
  • Positive Sentiment: The company reiterated a commitment to over $100 million in FY2026 free cash flow despite the sales softness, helped by tighter capex discipline and stronger operating cash conversion. Q1 free cash flow was $25 million, an $84 million improvement year over year, and net capex is targeted at no more than $200 million for the year.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Dave & Buster’s is leaning more heavily into remodels, IP partnerships, and special events like the World Cup to drive traffic and repeat visits. Management also signaled a more cautious stance on new-unit growth, saying future capital will be allocated more selectively toward the highest-return opportunities.
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Earnings Conference Call
Dave & Buster's Entertainment Q1 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Hello, and welcome to the Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, just press star one again. We will now turn the conference over to Cory Hatton, VP of Entertainment, Finance, Investor Relations, and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Cory Hatton
Cory Hatton
VP of Entertainment, Finance, Investor Relations, and Treasurer at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Thank you, operator. Welcome to everyone on the line. Joining me in the room on today's call are Tarun Lal, our Chief Executive Officer, and Darin Harper, our Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared remarks, we will be happy to answer any questions. This call is being recorded on behalf of Dave & Buster's Entertainment Incorporated and is copyrighted. Before we begin the discussion on our company's first quarter 2026 results, I would like to call your attention to the fact that in our prepared remarks and responses to questions, certain items may be discussed which are not entirely based on historical fact. Any of these items should be considered forward-looking statements relating to future events within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated.

Cory Hatton
Cory Hatton
VP of Entertainment, Finance, Investor Relations, and Treasurer at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Information on these risks and uncertainties have been published in our filings with the SEC, which are available on our website. In addition, our remarks today will include references to financial measures that are not defined under generally accepted accounting principles. Investors should review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP measure contained in our earnings release this afternoon. With that, let me turn the call over to our CEO, Tarun.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Thank you, Cory. Good evening, everyone. I first want to speak directly to our Q1 results, which came in below both our own expectations and the expectations we set with you last quarter. We started the quarter well in February. The spring break calendar shift between March and April played out largely as expected. The macro backdrop, elevated gas prices, geopolitical uncertainty, and a meaningful softness in consumer sentiment, they all were a real headwind in April. That said, we are not here to make excuses. We have a resilient business model and expect to be able to navigate these obstacles. Our same-store sales growth declined 5.4% in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. We found that our dollar-per-day messaging did not resonate as strongly as we hoped, and since then, we have pivoted to more compelling promotions, which are resonating with customers.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

We've also made significant progress in establishing partnerships with IP providers and expect to have exciting entertainment announcements for you in the coming months. We are making significant progress but want to remind you that we are in the early innings and look forward to providing updates as soon as possible. We have seen improvement quarter to date in the second quarter, despite unfavorable weather, with comps down approximately 4%. We remain confident in our ability to continue improving in the back half of the quarter. We are extremely excited about our summer offerings, including our new games rollout and the World Cup watch activation, which kicked off last Thursday. After nearly a year fully immersed in this business, I remain extremely confident in our ability to dramatically improve operating results.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Over the past several years, we have drifted from the core elements that historically drove our success: investment in games, F&B, marketing, and operational excellence. We are systematically restoring each of these pillars now. We've also significantly strengthened our leadership team. In just the last month, we've added top-caliber executives, a Chief Marketing Officer in Jeremy Tucker, who joins us from AutoNation, Planet Fitness, Walt Disney, and Spin Master, a Chief Technology and Digital Officer in Kevin Fish, who joins us from Wingstop, and a Chief Legal Officer in Rachel Morgan, who joins us from Nexstar. We're equally focused on field operations and culture because we know exceptional execution and guest experience drive traffic and sales. With that in mind, I'm delighted to share that we'll be announcing a new COO by next week.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Now, we have the right strategy, the right team, and the right business model to create meaningful value for our guests and our shareholders. Our priorities this year remain clear. Turn same-store sales sustainably positive and generate meaningful free cash flow. This management team is highly confident we will generate positive comparable store sales growth in the remainder of the year, driving revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth and more than $100 million in free cash flow for the full year. Let me now provide an update on each pillar of our back-to-basics strategy. First, on marketing, we are rebuilding our strategy around discipline, a simplified promotional calendar, data-driven media mix modeling, and an optimized balance between TV and digital. Getting the right message to the right audience at the right time is one of our biggest opportunities to improve traffic, sales, and EBITDA.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Our priority is rebuilding brand consideration through culturally relevant promotions and attractively priced offerings. We are still in the early innings of our marketing optimization. We've conducted a number of tests in the first quarter which have shown success and which we expect to roll out nationally this year. On the flip side, we also tested a number of items, such as our dollar per day messaging and certain changes to our media spend, mix, and target audience that had less success but have provided us with valuable lessons and learnings for the future. On the owned media side, we've seen a lot of success with bold activations that generate meaningful earned media and put us into cultural conversations. For example, in May, we announced that we would place tickets to the World Cup finals inside our Human Crane, and the response has been extraordinary.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

These shareable moments drive organic awareness. Beyond that, we are activating our loyalty program to drive personalized messaging and increase visit frequency. We're building a scalable special events engine that turn events into cultural moments and convert event guests into repeat walk-in visitors. Overall, we are very excited about the evolution of our marketing leadership and look forward to continued progress with Jeremy now at the helm as CMO. Second, our food and beverage business that has seen an early win from our back to basics strategy. Comparable food and beverage sales grew approximately 5% in Q1, driven by our return to the historically proven menu last October and by our strong Eat & Play Combo execution. Before these changes, the share of gaming guests who also bought food had declined significantly as our menu drifted post-COVID. We've reversed that trend decisively in 2025, which has continued in 2026.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Our ongoing success in food and beverage has resulted in nine straight months of positive F&B same-store sales. We have additionally exciting LTOs launching in the coming months, which we expect to be highly accretive. Main Event rolled out a new menu last month. We continue to test food-focused promotions, which have shown signs of success, and we expect to drive continued growth in the back half of the year. Third, our games offering. This management team strongly believes we need to reinvest in new games after a six-year pullback. New relevant games and attractions are essential to driving both new and repeat visitation and same-store sales growth. Just a few weeks ago, we rolled out 10 new games, the most since 2017.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Coupled with initial game investments in 2025, this reverses a prolonged period of underinvestment. We expect to roll out at least five additional new games in the balance of 2026. This is a direct response to an abundance of customer feedback, citing a lack of newness on our traditional game floors, and we have moved with significant urgency to address it. We also know from our inaugural State of Fun Report that nearly half of the Americans say their lives lack fun, and more than half would prioritize fun if affordable options existed. Our strategy is simple: give people exciting, affordable reasons to reconnect in the real world. The new lineup spans high-energy competition, immersive gameplay, and hands-on skill challenges. Highlights include Hot Wheels Ultimate Speedway, ICEE Slush Rush, John Wick: Continental Pursuit, Odin's Hammer Strike, and Perfect Pump.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Plus, of course, The Mandalorian & Grogu and Stranger Things IP, alongside guest-tested original concepts. Many of these games are already pacing amongst the top revenue generators in their first weeks, which is validation of our continued midway investment. This is only phase one. We have a lot more in the pipeline, including several exciting IP partnerships that I look forward to sharing soon. We're equally excited about leveraging our watch offerings on massive 40-ft screens and 30+ TV per location to drive visitation during the World Cup this summer. The World Cup, which kicked off on June 11th, is a major catalyst for our business. We have launched a full 360-degree activation, two new soccer-inspired arcade games, World Soccer and Kick N' Win, plus exclusive tournament-themed food and drinks, including sliders inspired by the host countries.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

As I mentioned, we put tickets to major World Cup matches inside our Human Cranes, including U.S.A. group stages game, and all the way through the finals. We have also launched our Hat Trick Watch Experience, a ticketed watch party for kickoff and championship matches with all-you-can-eat wings and fries and unlimited gameplay all day, starting at just $24.99. It has attracted significant crowds for the opening games, cheering on the Mexico 2-0 victory. This builds on the playbook we deployed during the Super Bowl and creates a repeatable high-engagement format. Major watch occasions that we will continue to enhance and make more pragmatic. Combined with our summer season spurs, the World Cup activation positions us to capture significant incremental traffic during an already strong summer season. This revitalized product offering represents a meaningful step to forward in quality, variety, and cultural relevance.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

We are combining world-class IP with innovative original concepts in a way that drives per capita spend and repeat visitation. For FY 2026, our ambition is to continue evolving our play experience and position Dave & Buster's as the fun capital of America. Fourth, operations. We are investing in and energizing the field through training that empowers teams to deliver exceptional guest experiences. A collaborative culture, supported by our shared service center, is reducing turnover and creating an environment where our people and brand can thrive. As we discussed at the start of the year, our FY 2026 obsession metric is speed of service, a one-minute greet and four minutes drinks, backed by coaching and performance management. We are sending a clear signal. Our success is tied directly to execution and to the guest experience. Finally, our revamped remodel program continues to progress.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

We are confident we have identified the right layout to drive traffic, improve productivity, and deliver strong ROIs at a reasonable cost. We recently opened six remodels and plan to open two more over the next few months. Early results from this new remodel prototype have been very encouraging, driving a strong 7% comp uplift consistent with the far more expensive remodels of full year 2024 and full year 2025. As a reminder, the new cohort of remodels cost approximately half of what the legacy remodels cost, while still contributing a similar sales lift. In fact, these remodels were positive in same-store sales in the first quarter and year-to-date, providing us further confidence that we are executing on the optimal prototype. This renewed remodel strategy highlights the power and importance of continuing to invest in our core business as a key traffic and comp driver for our brands.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Taking a step back, after COVID, this company moved away from the core and often simple elements that made it successful. Marketing and promotions, the F&B offerings, the annual investment in games and entertainment, operational excellence, and store refreshes that preserved what customers love about D&B all changed significantly. We are now actively going back to basics, restoring those elements piece by piece, and it is working. Armed with direct and candid feedback from the guest, we know that games innovation and value are of utmost importance, and we are urgently addressing these issues. We know Q1 was disappointing. What I hope you take from tonight is that we understand why and that we are taking the right actions and that the underlying business is already responding. We have made meaningful progress over the past years and expect that progress to convert into financial results more quickly from here.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Before I pass the call over to Darin, I want to be clear that we are highly focused on strict capital expenditure discipline, minimum ROI thresholds, and generating significant free cash flow. Net CapEx for full year 2026 remains targeted at no more than $200 million, down from approximately $270 million in full year 2025. We are committed to very strict ROI thresholds and eliminating inefficient use of capital. We dynamically evaluate our capital investments plans, including our new store plans, and will make adjustments as we weigh the best returns for each dollar of capital. We continue to plan to open 11 total new stores in full year 2026. If and as we make material adjustments to the same, we will communicate them to you. Very importantly, we continue to expect to deliver over $100 million in free cash flow this year.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

To talk about this more and review our financial results for the quarter, let me hand the call over to Darin Harper.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Thank you, Tarun, and good afternoon, everyone. As Tarun touched on in his comments, there are several areas where we have made solid progress over the past several months that I'll provide highlights on here shortly. Before that, as a reminder, on a weather-adjusted basis, Q4 FY 2025 comparable store sales were down 1.5% with sequential improvements throughout the quarter. February, our first period of Q1 FY 2026, continued this improvement in trend. However, given broader macroeconomic challenges that intensified in March and April during our highest seasonal time of the year due to spring breaks, our Q1 FY 2026 comparable store sales decreased 5.4% versus the prior year. As Tarun mentioned, despite some unfavorable weather, our comps quarter to date in Q2 have improved to down approximately 4%.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Despite this consumer headwind, there are several areas of the business we have seen improvements, which coupled with our strong unit economics and cash flow generation, led to an overall $84 million improvement in free cash flow in Q1 FY 2026 as compared to Q1 FY 2025. This in turn allowed us to reduce our outstanding debt, all while still continuing to invest in new stores, remodels, and a fresh set of high-quality games. During the quarter, we've continued our trend of F&B same-store sales growth with an increase of over 5%. Special events grew approximately 3%, and our remodeled locations continue to outperform the balance of the system nearly 700 basis points, led by our most recent and significantly more cost-effective remodel prototype.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

During the first quarter, we generated total revenue of $559 million, net income of $6 million or $0.16 per diluted share, adjusted net income of $8 million or $0.22 per diluted share, and adjusted EBITDA of $123 million, resulting in an adjusted EBITDA margin of 22%. As Tarun mentioned, we expect to generate positive comp sales in the remainder of FY 2026, leading to EBITDA growth and a steady improvement of our margin profile. As a reminder, reconciliations of all non-GAAP financial measures can be found in today's press release. We believe we can meaningfully improve our margins over time by continuing improvements in our cost management. We have put significant additional effort into further improving our internal processes and controls around costs and remain steadfast in identifying material cost savings across all aspects of the business.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

As you know, we have reworked our D&B store remodel strategy to bring down costs by half versus the store remodels of FY 2024 and FY 2025. I am pleased to report that we have recently completed six of these new remodel prototypes with an additional two scheduled to open in the coming months. As a reminder, despite costing half of our prior remodels, our new cohort generates the same nearly 700 basis points of outperformance versus the rest of the system. As Tarun mentioned, we are positive in both the first quarter and year to date in this new cohort. We are very encouraged by their initial performance and particularly robust return profile due to the efficiencies we have found on our costs. We believe this new prototype will maximize the impactful elements of our successful store remodels while eliminating previously ineffective spend.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

We expect to remodel another 10-20 locations in FY 2027. Our new store development continues to deliver strong returns, and we have a solid pipeline of upcoming store openings. In the first quarter, we opened one new domestic store, and already in the second quarter, we have opened three additional domestic stores. We continue to anticipate opening 11 new stores in FY 2026. Looking beyond FY 2026, we continue to identify optimal sites but will remain extremely judicious in maximizing return on every dollar of capital spending. We see merit in potentially redirecting new store capital to further invest in our core through remodels, deleveraging, and other forms of returning capital to shareholders. As Tarun mentioned, we will communicate material adjustments to our capital strategy to you.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

On the international front, we opened our fifth international franchise location during Q1, which is in Australia, and our sixth international franchise location opened in Q2, which is in Delhi, India. We expect at least one more international opening in the balance of the year in Mexico City, Mexico. As a reminder, we have secured agreements for over 30 additional international franchise stores in the coming years, and we see international franchising as a driver of highly efficient growth, increasing our customer base around the world with minimal investment and risk. We have a sizable opportunity internationally and see strong upside from this asset-light growth model. We generated $25 million in free cash flow during the first quarter, which as previously noted, is an $84 million improvement to the negative free cash flow in Q1 FY 2025 of $59 million.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

As a result of this free cash flow generation, we ended the quarter with $20 million in cash and $499 million in total liquidity, combined with the availability under our $650 million revolving credit facility, net of $20 million in outstanding letters of credit. We remain committed to generating meaningful free cash flow while continuing to invest in new store growth, new games, and our revamped remodel program. In the first quarter, we invested approximately $71 million in CapEx on a net basis when factoring in payments from landlords. We continue to make progress converting our strong operating cash flow to free cash flow through more strict management on capital spending by eliminating inefficient capital spend. As Tarun mentioned, this year we continue to expect this net CapEx figure to be no greater than $200 million.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

For FY 2026, our entire team is squarely focused on driving savings to expand EBITDA margins while tightly managing capital spending to generate significant free cash flow. Given our plans, management is highly confident in its ability to generate comp store sales growth for the balance of the year. Coupled with our capital expenditure discipline, we continue to expect to generate more than $100 million in free cash flow during FY 2026, which we believe position us well to continue investing in the business. Our financial foundation is strong, underpinned by high returns, strong unit economics, disciplined cost management, and clear potential to generate meaningful cash flow. This was demonstrated by our generation of $25 million in free cash flow in Q1, despite over $70 million in net CapEx investment and a 5.4% comparable store sales decline.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Leadership and the board remain focused on driving same store sales growth and significant cash flow generation. With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator

Thank you. Again, if you would like to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, simply press star one again. We do ask for today's session that you please restrict yourself to one question and one follow-up. Your first question comes from the line of Andy Barish of Jefferies. Your line is open.

Andy Barish
Andy Barish
Analyst at Jefferies

Hey, guys. Good afternoon. Wondering on the second half sort of inflection on same store sales. Are you assuming anything changes sort of in the external environment? Given that that's been a challenge you noted today on the call.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

I think that we have more confidence in our internal strategy and execution than be really dependent on the external environment, Andy. We can't say anything about the external environment. Of course, we are highly optimistic that things will improve in terms of consumer sentiments. I think what really gives us a sense of confidence is the fact that a lot of things that we have put into motion are now becoming reality from a guest perspective, from new games, to new watch experiences, to new IP partnerships. I think that's what is giving us confidence as we get into the second half of the year.

Andy Barish
Andy Barish
Analyst at Jefferies

Got you. A follow-up. Are we still, I guess, seeing sort of incremental investment in labor and the value initiatives that's kind of weighing on margins, or is that starting to be lapped from the year now that you've been there, Tarun?

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Andy, I'll take this. Overall, we feel like we've managed our margins well in terms of the key elements that are impacting the value equation with cost of sales and labor. From what we've been able to do from a cost improvement standpoint on cost of sales, as well as what we've seen from margin improvements on our new menu enhancements as well as driving more attach. We've really been able to elevate that offering and manage our margins well. Again, on the labor side, we continue to be as effective as we can with our scheduling at key peak times, where we're really delivering on that guest experience, particularly coupled with our F&B offering.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Yeah, look, we don't anticipate any material changes to those items as we go out through the balance of the year, and believe we've got the structure in place to deliver on the growth that we need.

Andy Barish
Andy Barish
Analyst at Jefferies

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Sharon Zackfia of William Blair. Your line is open.

Sharon Zackfia
Sharon Zackfia
Analyst at William Blair

Hi. Thanks for taking the question. I guess, first on World Cup. I wanted to ask if you're doing anything there with special events as well, and kind of what your insight is onto what that demand generation could be. And then as you think about that guest that might be coming in, that could be lapsed or even new to Dave & Buster's, what is the plan that you have to kind of create more durability with that revenue stream following the World Cup?

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

That's a great question, and that's exactly our objective, that once you get this special events guest in, how do you build a durable business by getting them back again and again? First of all, it's a big part of our business. It's growing. Of course, events such as World Cup does kind of help promote that part of the business even more. With regards to what's really driven this is that we have invested in an incredible organization. We've got an outstanding leader who leads our special events business. We call him RJ, Robert Jenkins. He's got a team of people in the field who are speaking to corporates and different institutions at all times. They're leveraging a massive database that we have in making calls.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

This is the kind of business that requires massive amount of getting into details, a lot of hard work, making a lot of cold calls. I think in terms of the durability of the business, that's where I believe, and I strongly believe, that the investments we are making into new games and the investments we are making into food and beverage and experiences matter so much because when these guests come in and they see the difference as far as the arcade area is concerned, they see how exciting the new menu is. They see the value promotions we have, that brings them back.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Sharon, I would add here with regard to the World Cup, we did launch a full 360 activation. We have a couple new soccer-inspired games, tournament-themed food and drinks. We had a ticketed event on Thursday, some Human Crane. We're really leveraging Human Crane to offer some free tickets to the World Cup. Some influencer-driven watch content. Yeah. I think we're pleased with how we've executed that and to your point and leveraging what Tarun said, once we get those people in, they get to taste our food, get to experience our 40-ft wall. We really hope they now, it becomes part of the consideration set for them.

Sharon Zackfia
Sharon Zackfia
Analyst at William Blair

That's helpful. Then in April, when you saw kind of a shift in the business, is there anything to call out in terms of trends by household income and anything that you've been able to come up with subsequently that might kind of attract that customer back?

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Consistent with what we have seen here recently. Certainly, that lower-end consumer is where we've seen most of that pressure. The higher-end middle consumer is consistently trading, but we're seeing more of that pressure on the low end. That's part of really what we've been trying to focus on with our value offers. How we have really focused on revamping our rate cards with our games, how we've offered half-price games. What we've done with the Eat & Play combos, we're really trying to highlight that value component so that those lower-end consumers can still have an occasion at Dave & Buster's that is economical for them. We're very focused on that. Not trying to over-discount the business and cannibalize ourselves as well. We're really pleased with what we've seen, particularly on the Eat & Play combo side.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

We're really starting to promote the ability to have an entrée for $4.99. You come in, buy any denomination of Power Card, you can attach food and beverage to it. We're really starting to see some really nice attach that we've never seen before. Those are elements that we think could be really helpful in targeting this lower-end consumer.

Sharon Zackfia
Sharon Zackfia
Analyst at William Blair

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Strelzik of BMO. Your line is open.

Andrew Strelzik
Andrew Strelzik
Analyst at BMO

Hey, thanks for taking the question. My first one, I was hoping maybe you could be a little bit more specific about what you're learning around the marketing messaging, the customer targeting, maybe why some of the stuff you tried recently didn't work, and how that's framing your approach going forward.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Yeah, Andrew, that's a great question. Let me kind of first take a step back and share with you what our guests have been saying to us. They've been saying that, "Listen, you've got to elevate your product." By that I mean that you need to elevate your games, you need to elevate your food and beverage. With both of them, we've responded by investing in a ton of games. That's only happened in the last, almost like what I would say 30 days. We've talked about food and beverage. That investment has gone really well. That happened in October of last year, and we have seen a significant increase in our attach and growth in our F&B business. I think that's kind of the first thing that the guests told us.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

The second thing the guests have told us is that, from a value perspective, consumers are craving for value today, right? They have been for some time. If you look at the competitive marketplace, there's a lot of ask, a lot of offerings around value. Again, we have promoted our half-price games. It went off really well. We've talked about Dollar Day. That didn't really hit the bullseye. Our new version of EPC has tested tremendously well, and we plan to launch that in the next 30 days. In terms of learning, as far as media is concerned, what we've learned is that you can't swing in one direction.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

What we did at some stage, we spent all the money on television, and then we swung the other way around and we invested all the money on digital. Our consumers consume media in different ways, and therefore we need to have a very data-based media planning and investment, and that's where we had gone wrong in the past. In the month of February or March we have invested in an MMM, the media modeling, and that's really now helping us learn faster on what kind of target audience should you go after, what channels, how much money should we be investing in linear TV, how much money should we be investing in CTV, and so on and so forth. Basis that learning, we have now deployed our media a lot more effectively.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

I think finally, in terms of messaging, we are now working in a very structured, disciplined approach of there being a primary message, and then there being a secondary message. We invest a lot more money, of course, on the primary messaging. If you think about a current calendar construct, our primary messaging is 10 new games. We want every guest in the U.S. to know that there are 10 new games with exciting IP partnerships that are on Dave & Buster's Arcade. Our secondary messaging is that, hey, the World Cup soccer event is on, and if you want to watch it on massive screens and enjoy exceptional food and beverage and enjoy playing during breaks, come to Dave & Buster's. That's our kind of secondary message.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

We now are becoming more and more disciplined, one, in creating messages based on what consumers are saying they want, and secondly, using real data to define what media channels to invest behind.

Andrew Strelzik
Andrew Strelzik
Analyst at BMO

Got it. Okay. That's very helpful. Maybe my follow-up, I guess based on your comments, you seem maybe a little bit more open to potentially shifting dollars between the new store CapEx and the internal investments. You had talked about taking a disciplined approach previously, maybe this sounded a little bit more like it's in the consideration set, even though no formal decision's been made. How are you evaluating that decision at this point? Is it more about the site selection you're able to find or internal performance, something else? Just a little more color around that would be great. Thanks.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Okay. Fundamentally, at the highest level, Andrew, our belief is that our number one priority is to drive same-store sales growth in our core stores. Our core business is definitely priority. If there's requirement of CapEx, as far as remodel is concerned, that would be definitely a priority for us. As far as new unit growth is concerned, it's not something that we are kind of turning our backs on. What we are now very clear is that we must be very responsible with our capital. Only when we have supreme confidence in a new site, are we going to go put capital behind it. That we are going to be a little bit more risk-averse as far as new CapEx deployment on new stores are concerned.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

In summary, our core priority, our key focus is going to be our core business. We will continue to build new stores, but only when we have supreme confidence in the returns that we are going to get from that CapEx investment. Darin, anything you wish to add there?

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

No, I think you covered it well. I think interpret it less as we haven't lost confidence in new store growth. In fact, we continue to get really great returns there. We do want to reallocate capital to our core business. That, in turn, allows us to be even more discriminating on what sites to open. More to come there. We feel like this reallocation of capital is going to be really meaningful for us.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Andrew, once again, I just want to reiterate that between Darin and I, the one number that we are very fixated on is the $200 million of CapEx. That's a finite amount of money that we have, and we need to just decide where to allocate that money.

Andrew Strelzik
Andrew Strelzik
Analyst at BMO

Very clear. Thank you very much.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Thank you, Andrew.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Eric Wold of Texas Capital. Your line is open.

Eric Wold
Eric Wold
Analyst at Texas Capital

Thanks. Good afternoon. A couple of questions. I guess first, sort of clarify the comment around your expectation for positive same-store sales for the balance of fiscal 2026. Is that starting today, or does that kind of include the quarter to date decline of 4% in that you would expect a reversal in the remainder of the quarter to get back to positive comps for Q2?

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Yeah, Eric, I think the best way to look at that is starting today through the balance of the year, is how we're looking at it from a same-store sales growth perspective. Hopefully that clears that up a little bit.

Eric Wold
Eric Wold
Analyst at Texas Capital

Yes, that's great. Thanks, Darin. Then my second question is on the games and the installation of the kind of the 10 new games to date and the, I guess, five more for the remainder of the year. When you install a new game and market a new game, and kind of promote that and hopefully drive traffic for that new game introduction, are you seeing a lift in game play outside of the new games as people come in there and kind of are on the midway and trying everything? Or is it more of a focus, or is the game play more focused on the new games, you're not really seeing a broader lift?

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Yeah, I could take this. Tarun can add any color to it. The best way to look at it is how these games complement the overall entertainment experience. From the perspective of these new 10-15 games that we're rolling out this year, that's 10%+ of our game room floor. We really look at it as it's refreshing our game room floor. It's keeping it relevant. It's giving us that new relevant news to talk about, to message to our guests, and to drive visitation. It's less about, hey, can we get incremental spend while they're in our stores. That can happen, and certain games investments will do that. Human Crane is a great example. Based on the type of experience it is, there's incrementality to that.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

It's more about traffic driving relevancy, messaging, getting lapsed customers in, getting repeat visitation, than it is about driving more growth when they're there. That being said, more to come. As Tarun has mentioned, some proprietary type of entertainment that we're working on, we believe that can unlock more check growth. Lastly, I guess what I'll say is, as we've coupled with these new games, as we continue to find the right way to optimize the dwell time of the guest when they're in the box, we have also found that that leads to more F&B sales, which is incremental to our check growth. That's broadly the right way to think about it.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Yeah, absolutely. I completely concur, Darin. Eric, just to add, I think that if you just look at the current consumer sentiment, one of the positive highlights for us is that we haven't lost ticket. It's not that consumers are spending less. Consumers are actually spending more time on our games floor, and that's what's also helping us actually drive our F&B revenue. I think the key challenge for us remains how do we market these games more effectively to consumers so that we drive footfalls? That's kind of our primary area of focus, that how do we drive awareness? What's the best use of media? I think that the earlier question, I think from Andrew on this, which is a great question, and it's a very competitive marketplace out there. There are lots of messages going out from different companies.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

I think we remain singularly focused on finding the most effective way to communicate with our consumers that, hey, there are 10 new games. They're really exciting. They're very different to what we had on the games floor. Our belief is that, hey, this message will land with consumers, but as we continue to invest and bring new games, this will all kind of have a compounding impact on the brand image of Dave & Buster's as a place to go to. It's a brand that will suddenly be back in consideration, be back in conversation, be back in culture.

Eric Wold
Eric Wold
Analyst at Texas Capital

Perfect. Thank you both.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Brian Vaccaro of Raymond James. Your line is open.

Brian Vaccaro
Brian Vaccaro
Analyst at Raymond James

Good afternoon. I had a question on the adjusted free cash flow guidance. Can you help us just bridge that guide? You're maintaining it over $100 million despite the weaker than expected first half. Just could you walk us through the moving pieces that allows you to maintain that guide?

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Sure. Hey, Brian. I think what it demonstrates is despite same-store sales performance, we've got a lot of other levers in order to drive free cash flow. Really the simplest way of looking at it is our operating cash flow less gross CapEx adjusted for sale leaseback proceeds. Again, as demonstrated by our ability here in Q1, despite comps down 5.4% and $70+ million in net CapEx, we're still able to generate $25 million in free cash flow. We're able to do it through how we're managing our capital spend, how we're managing working capital, how we're managing other costs in the business, and that's what gives us the confidence to be able to reiterate that guide.

Brian Vaccaro
Brian Vaccaro
Analyst at Raymond James

Okay. I know, Darin, on the last call, you spoke about adding some resources, I think a senior resource is how you put it—

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Correct

Brian Vaccaro
Brian Vaccaro
Analyst at Raymond James

to look at cost savings, et cetera. Are there additional cost savings that you've identified? Can you give some color on that if that's the case, versus the prior call that could be helping that free cash flow outlook?

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Really excited about a number of areas that we're focused on right now, and it's really across the P&L from cost of sales optimization. Not lessening the product for the guest, but being smarter and more efficient with our spend. How we're looking at our utility costs, insurance costs, et cetera. There are a number of areas that we've identified some very significant cost opportunities. Without quantifying or getting into any more detail, that's another great area that we're leaning into to be able to deliver on the $100 million free cash flow guide.

Brian Vaccaro
Brian Vaccaro
Analyst at Raymond James

Thank you. A quick follow-up just on the capital allocation and new unit growth conversation. We ran some quick math on your non-comp stores, and we arrive at a non-comp AUV in sort of the mid to high $7 million range. Can you confirm that that's about right? If so, what's the average cash investment on those units? Or maybe you could help us sort of sketch out the cash on cash ROI that you've seen on the current non-comp base at these AUVs. Thanks very much.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Yeah, sure. Look, you're in the right ballpark with the AUVs. Keep in mind, a lot or a good chunk of this latest cohort are some of our smaller prototype locations that we underwrote at those volumes. We have continued to deliver strong circa 30%+ cash on cash re-returns, even at those volumes. Still good returns for us that we remain confident in. On that topic as well, I guess just maybe to put a finer point on the discussion that we had. We are in a redeployment of capital. I would anticipate that we will have about half the number of new units in FY 2027, and probably FY 2028 for now. You're looking at circa five new units. Just wanted to sort of firm up sort of how to think about that. Hopefully that answered all your questions there, Brian.

Brian Vaccaro
Brian Vaccaro
Analyst at Raymond James

Yeah, very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Hickey of StoneX. Your line is open.

Michael Hickey
Analyst at StoneX

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking our questions. We've kind of hit on this one, just given your track record here over the last year and quarter to date on same-store sales, it's just sort of perplexing that you're so highly confident that as of today, going to inflect positive on comp sales here, especially when macro is a factor. It was a factor that took down April and took down your first quarter, you won't give a view on it. Just curious if there's any specific evidence you can point to as to why your confidence given that backdrop. The second question, over the last year, it's pretty clear that not having a refresh on your games was a problem. So far, over the last year, you've only refreshed about 8% of your arcades.

Michael Hickey
Analyst at StoneX

When you think about capital allocation and resetting your business, especially on the entertainment side, which I think you're about eight quarters in a row of down year-over-year of growth, why haven't you been more aggressive in terms of refreshing that area of your business, which is clearly a concern that you've already illustrated to us? Thanks, guys.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Michael, great questions. I will kind of address both. I think our confidence and optimism comes from the fact that there are a lot of things that we have set in motion in terms of improving our execution, whether it's marketing operations or investment in games that are all now kind of coming together. That's kind of one. The second piece is really that we have kind of partnered with some very exciting IPs that we can't kind of announce just now, but we will announce in the months to come. That again, gives us tremendous confidence that we will be a brand that will be in conversation. Once brands get into culture, into conversations, you see that business and traffic kind of follows. That kind of gives us optimism about the future.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

I think your second question on why have we not invested earlier and why are we slow. I think it's a very fair question. One of the learnings I've had is that if you just go to buy any games from any of the suppliers, you could get a very similar game that you currently have already in your arcade, just skinned differently. Therefore, there's actually a significant lead time in developing proprietary games, especially those that come with IPs. Because, again, IP and partnerships take time to formalize. We do want to invest in new games. We have the capital to invest in new games. We're just being thoughtful in what kind of games do we add to the arcade, so that consumers have diverse experiences versus the same experience that they get from the existing games.

Operator

Thank you. Your last question comes from the line of Dennis Geiger of UBS. Your line is open.

Dennis Geiger
Dennis Geiger
Analyst at UBS

Thanks, guys. I have one more question on the entertainment part of the business. I know you mentioned that the lack of newness as kind of what you've observed, and I think that you've said the customer is saying is maybe the biggest headwind. Anything else you would highlight that you're seeing or you're hearing from the customer as it relates to the entertainment softness in the business? Anything additional on value proposition? I know you talked about that some. Anything maybe with, and this has probably been a question that's come up over the years, but the quality of games on mobile phones having some impact? Just anything else on entertainment besides the newness factor or the lack of newness factor that you've observed or that you're hearing from your guests. Thank you.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Yeah, Dennis, great question. Both Darin and I will try and kind of respond to this question. I think the biggest competitor really is the couch at our home because you're right, it's the mobile phone, it's all the games that you can play at home. Therefore, it's so important to introduce games that are truly distinctive, that you can only experience at a Dave & Buster's. That's exactly why there's a lead time involved in kind of introducing, kind of launching them. We brought in an exceptional talent about six months back, in a gentleman called Putnam Shin. Putnam comes from, again, Walt Disney, and he's kind of been involved with several other companies, innovating in the area of games.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Since Putnam has come in, he has really kind of transformed our internal thinking around what experiences guests should have when they come to Dave & Buster's. We are, in a very methodical and disciplined way, kind of investing valuable capital behind it. One of the things I'm very conscious and careful about is not making some of our past mistakes, where we have not put enough thought into the quality and not really gone into the whys of an investment and just kind of rushed in. Once again, we are committed to investing in different kind of experiences, different new games. We're just kind of being mindful of what would really drive consumer guest satisfaction and what would drive traffic. Dennis, I hope that helps.

Dennis Geiger
Dennis Geiger
Analyst at UBS

It does. Appreciate that. Thank you.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Yeah, I would just add one thing. Yeah, certainly value has been one of the key feedback from the guests on that entertainment side. That is where we have been hyper-focused on a number of things with promotion testing, these passes that we've been testing, how our rate card is set up for the consumer, what the kiosk flow is like, our half-price games, et cetera. Our team has done a lot of great things there. We've addressed a lot of those in a really nice way. Based on these changes that we've made while still capturing the same fun card load, we've increased the number of games guests are playing 20% year-over-year. Dwell time is up nearly that same amount.

Darin Harper
Darin Harper
CFO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

We've done a lot of really nice things and have some additional things in place we're rolling out later this summer that are going to further address some of those value concerns from our consumers.

Dennis Geiger
Dennis Geiger
Analyst at UBS

Great. Thanks, Darin.

Operator

That concludes our Q&A session. I'll now turn the call back over to CEO Tarun Lal for closing remarks.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining us this evening. Dave & Buster's is an iconic brand at an obvious inflection point. We're executing a clear, differentiated strategy built on innovation, operational rigor, and an unwavering focus on the guest experience. Across brand marketing, F&B quality, in-store execution, and next generation game content, we're raising the bar, and early results are validating our thesis. We want to remind you that we are still in the early stages of this transformation, and we are encouraged by the momentum we are building. We're deeply engaged with our guests and our operators, listening closely to their direct feedback and using it to inform every decision we make.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

That connection gives us confidence that the initiatives we have in play, from our evolving product offering and the Eat & Play Combo to our sharpened approach to value, are all resonating. We will continue to drive meaningful results. We are already seeing it in the data. Metrics on new games, guest satisfaction scores, and value perception scores are all trending in the right direction. We're going to accelerate our revamped, remodeled program and further optimize our media spend to sharpen our approach to both new and repeat customer acquisition. We're also cultivating exciting IP partnerships that we look forward to announcing in the coming months. We are very enthusiastic about what they will mean for the brand. There's significant improvements still to come. We look forward to sharing with you the positive results we are confident these initiatives will produce. Our strategic framework is simple and disciplined.

Tarun Lal
Tarun Lal
CEO at Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc

Building lasting brand equity, drive top-line growth with urgency, deliver a world-class guest experience at every touch point, protect and expand industry-leading unit economics, and underpin it all with the right talent, culture, and technology. The financial model is straightforward. Same-store sales growth drives EBITDA expansion. EBITDA expansion drives long-term shareholder value. We are building momentum. We are still in the early innings of unlocking this platform's full potential. We have a major catalyst ahead with our currently live and comprehensive World Cup 360-degree activation, which is an exciting step along our clear and achievable path to sustained same-store sales growth, expanding free cash flow, and durable value creation for shareholders. I want to thank our teams across the country. They are the ones making this all happen. I look forward to updating you on our continued progress. Have a wonderful evening. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

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