Dave & Buster's Entertainment Inc Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Jeff Farmer - Gordon Haskett Capital Corp - Analyst : Great, thanks. Thank you, and welcome to Tarun. Good to have you on board. I might have missed this, but in the release, you noted that 3Q same-store sales to date are consistent with what you saw exiting Q2. The call did cut out, but did you guys mention those numbers more specifically, what those same-store sales trends look like?

Question: Jeff Farmer - Gordon Haskett Capital Corp - Analyst : Okay. I only bring it up because you mentioned July was sort of a little bit of a low watermark with the calendar shift. So I didn't know if things have gotten a little bit better. So I'll move on from that. Again, in the prepared remarks, you did call out value perception as one of the challenges that Dave & Buster's is facing. Can you just elaborate on that, and what you think some of the opportunities are with value perception? Thank you.

Question: Jeff Farmer - Gordon Haskett Capital Corp - Analyst : Okay. Thank you. LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 15, 2025 / 9:00PM, PLAY.OQ - Q2 2025 Dave & Buster's Entertainment Inc Earnings Call

Question: Andrew Strelzik - BMO Capital Markets (US) - Analyst : Hey, thanks for taking the questions. My first one, Tarun, maybe if you take a step back, you mentioned in some of the prepared remarks some of the prior turnarounds that you led in your prior roles. And I guess I was wondering if you could maybe compare or contrast what you're seeing at Dave & Buster's with that prior experience. And I guess I'm wondering, in particular, it's such a different type of brand, different type of concept than in your prior roles. So I guess where do you see the similarities that you can draw on and maybe some of the differences that might take a little bit more learning?

Question: Andrew Strelzik - BMO Capital Markets (US) - Analyst : Okay. That's helpful context. And then maybe I wanted to dig in a little on your comments about the poor CapEx discipline and I'm curious about some of the ways you plan to evolve that. But in particular, I'd love to hear your thoughts on new store growth and continuing to open double-digit new stores at a time when you are trying to affect a lot of change and the comps have been under pressure. And I know the 40% returns, we've heard that number a lot over time. I think the investment community probably has a hard time with that number just given the performance over the last several years. So just would love to get your perspective on the CapEx evolution here and the new store growth. Thank you.

Question: Andrew Strelzik - BMO Capital Markets (US) - Analyst : Great. Thank you. LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 15, 2025 / 9:00PM, PLAY.OQ - Q2 2025 Dave & Buster's Entertainment Inc Earnings Call

Question: Jake Bartlett - Truist Securities - Analyst : Great, thank you so much for taking the question and Welcome, Tarun. I look forward to hearing from you over the next number of years. My question is on the strategic game pricing. We had done a check and just found a pretty big change in the pricing over the last -- I'm not sure how much time exactly, but at least the last few months and then even more recently, where the pricing has gone to one tier essentially part of the prior plan had been multiple tiers. And it seems like there's one level of kind of pricing across the system now. And it also seems like the average price per ticket is significantly lower than it had been under the prior plan. So the question is, one, what kind of impact is that having on the results kind of near term, and

Question: Eric Wold - TCBI Securities, Inc - Analyst : Thanks, good afternoon. I just want to dig in a little bit on the kind of the same-store sales trends in the quarter. I know you kind of gave us the down 2.2% in the first five weeks. I know in the last call, you talked about some optimism around the Memorial Day holiday and kind of what you're seeing in June with some positive days in June. Maybe a little kind of what you saw kind of as you went into July, other than the calendar shift and maybe some comparisons with an earlier school start versus last year. Was there any shift in terms of spending habits or kind of the way the consumer is reacting that you kind of was different from what you were seeing in the last call, kind of really shift in terms of the way the consumer is spending once you were in the store? I know you don't break out attendance versus spend. But kind of once they were in there, were you seeing any kind of shift in terms of their habits once they're in the locations?

Question: Brian Mullan - Piper Sandler & Co. - Analyst : Hey, thank you. I wanted to come back to the marketing conversation. I don't want to belabor it, but just ask in maybe a different way. Tarun, I'm wondering if you could give your assessment, does this business need to significantly increase the dollar amount of marketing investments in order to really drive traffic back to the stores? I understand you're going back on TV, you're changing the messaging. Those are good things. But was there enough spend even prior to when the brand went off TV?

Question: Brian Vaccaro - Raymond James & Associates, Inc. - Analyst : Hi, thanks and good evening and congratulations on your new role, Tarun. I just wanted to follow up on the pricing changes that you mentioned earlier. I know it can be tough to quantify, but I guess, can you level set what level of check versus traffic growth we're seeing reflected in the down 3% comp this quarter? LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 15, 2025 / 9:00PM, PLAY.OQ - Q2 2025 Dave & Buster's Entertainment Inc Earnings Call Maybe how that compares? Is there a meaningful change in check that we should be mindful of? And also as we think about the second half, how average check could trend given some of these changes that you've made?

Question: Mike Hickey - Benchmark StoneX Company - Analyst : Hey guys. (inaudible) welcome aboard here. Just a quick one on your strategic plan. We appreciate that you feel it was sound and it was just missed execution. And when you look back on the plan, I think one of the bigger takeaways for investors at the time was that you're targeting $1 billion in adjusted EBITDA. And if I heard you correctly, it looks like your comp plan is tied to $675 million in adjusted EBITDA, which is a pretty big disconnect from the original strategic plan. Could you just explain that, and if the $675 million is the new target? Thanks.

Question: Dennis Geiger - UBS Equities - Analyst : Great, thanks and Tarun, welcome. I'm curious if you could spend a few more minutes maybe just talking about how you think about maybe the brand-specific missteps, but more so the macro currently and the competitive environment and kind of really just looking ahead and thinking about the macro and how you think about the competitive environment broadly, perhaps relative to your plans? I'm sure the focus LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 15, 2025 / 9:00PM, PLAY.OQ - Q2 2025 Dave & Buster's Entertainment Inc Earnings Call is to play your game and execute against the plans that you've outlined. But just how you think about those two dynamics within that context? Thank you.