I was at an Investor event this week where Founder CEO Mike Verveka presented an overview of the business and answered Investor questions. As usual he was humble and transparent. There were a few takeaways that have added to my conviction and with a 5 year view, I believe Jumbo is now one of my least risky and most reliable holdings.

1. Mike explained the UK and Canada businesses in Stride, Starvale and Gatherwell are performing OK but because they help other lotteries, rather than running them themselves, the growth is likely to be single rather than double digit going forward.
2. He is off to the U.S. next week for follow up work on a possible acquisition (he also mentioned this at the AGM in Oct). And he is looking for a B2C business where Jumbo is more in control of the player experience and marketing, which they are really good at. In turn we should be expecting double digit EPS growth from this, if he can do a deal that is a fair price.
3. The balance sheet is very strong and they could survive the Armageddon outcome of losing the TLC contract in 2030 to sell Powerball tickets etc. While he says this is an incredibly low probability and they would be a much smaller company if it happened, they would still survive and be profitable. Marketing and people are their two biggest costs and these can be scaled up or down fairly quickly.
4. The SaaS business continues to do well, with recent additions including RSPCA.
5. He is very comfortable with the succession planning work thats been done. While he has no plans to go anywhere, he believes Jumbo will be a much bigger business in 10 years time and there are 4 Managers under him that are all capable and a couple that have been with him for 20 years.
6. The buybacks at the current price, are "a very easy capital allocation decision".

I will be adding to my holding IRL and on SM given these developments...

I attended the Jumbo AGM yesterday and was very, very happy with what I saw and heard. Putting aside the short term noise about jackpots right now and what that might do to short term earnings, the culture and approach from Mike and his team was first class.

Unlike some other founder led businesses in the news of late, Mike seems to be very humble and very aligned with his team and shareholders. The staff and customer engagement and satisfaction numbers are excellent. He has allowed the governance of the company to improve significantly in the last few years, with an upgraded Board plus a better and more aligned remuneration structure.

While they are still looking to expand globally with earnings accretive acquisitions on the table, he turned down a recent opportunity as the price wasn't right.

It was also a shareholder friendly AGM, with all questions asked and answered in the room and online, with Directors speaking to their elections and staying around after the meeting to chat with shareholders.

Like all businesses there are people and market risks however unlike most, Jumbo seems to have the management, staff, customers and shareholders all rowing in the same direction at present.