Dave & Buster's Entertainment Q2 FY27 earnings call PLAY

Darin Harper, the new CEO, highlighted the strengthening of the executive leadership team with recent appointments including Amanda Busby as COO, Jeremy Tucker as CMO, Kevin Fish as CTO, Rachel Morgan as Chief Legal Administrative Officer, and Aldo Rosales promoted to Chief Strategy and Revenue Management Officer. This team is focused on elevating operations, driving sustainable revenue growth, accelerating digital innovation, and maintaining strong governance to support long-term success and shareholder value.

Under new CMO Jeremy Tucker, the company is optimizing media to capture consumer demand more effectively through better targeting, discoverability, media flighting, and messaging. The strategy shifts from disconnected tentpole campaigns to focusing on seasonal and cultural moments, simplifying value messages, and ensuring strong recall at the point of consideration. This renewed focus aims to capitalize on existing demand for out-of-home occasions.

The company launched 10 new games and attractions in FY26, including Mandalorian and Grogu, John Wick, and Hot Wheels Speedway, with more bespoke offerings planned for the coming months. Research indicates over 70% of guests are incentivized by new games. The focus is on enhancing relevancy, offering clear value through rate card and game pricing changes, and developing a plan around in-culture collectibles to drive traffic and check, addressing past under-investment in the Midway.

Food and beverage comparable sales grew 7.6% in Q2, marking five consecutive quarters of positive growth, driven by a return to a proven menu and better execution of eat-and-play combos. The company plans to strategically take inflationary price increases and leverage its differentiated platform for sports watching. Activations around popular watch occasions, such as the World Cup, have shown double-digit sales growth, indicating significant opportunity for this part of the business.

New COO Amanda Busby is focused on raising operational standards through field leadership, training, and accountability. Key areas of improvement include speed of service and game uptime, which are critical for repeat visitation given the occasion-based nature of the business. The goal is to build a culture and tools that ensure a high-quality guest experience, recognizing that guest experience cannot exceed the team member experience.

Six Dave & Buster's remodels were completed in FY26, with two more planned for the second half. These remodels continue to outperform non-remodel locations, and the new prototype is materially more cost-effective. The company invested $127.6 million in net capex year-to-date and remains on pace to spend under $200 million for FY26, scrutinizing every project against minimum return thresholds and prioritizing high-return initiatives.

The company has identified $15 million in cost savings to be realized over the next 12 months, primarily from G&A, IT efficiency (e.g., sunsetting unused systems), and insurance policy optimization. Management is targeting at least doubling this amount, focusing on areas that do not impact the customer experience. These efforts leverage buying power and streamline processes, particularly post-Main Event acquisition.