This translated into 25% revenue growth from the prior-year period and a 6% increase from Q1 '19.
Lottery reached the record levels with the same-store sales up over 30%, including double-digit gains across games and regions.
You can see these in the over 70% increase in EBITDA and 44% EBITDA margin for the first quarter.
The 32% same-store sales increase was fueled by 52% growth in Italy and 28% in North America and the rest of the world.
Even without the benefit of stronger multi-jurisdiction jackpot activity, same-store sales for North America and the rest of the world were up over 20%.
Compared to 2019, global same-store sales were up 24%.
Global same-store sales are trending up over 20% for the Q2-to-date period compared to the second quarter of 2019.
The recovery for our global gaming segment is progressing well in the U.S., which accounts for about 70% of the segment revenue.
We also had good unit sales in the quarter, fueled by a 40% increase in the U.S. and Canada units, including double-digit growth in replacement, which were not far from Q1 '19 levels.
All these should result in IGT having 20%, 30% share of the North American iGaming market.
Today, our presence in the U.S. sports betting markets powers 16 states representing over 40 sportsbooks.
There are 17 states where legislation is spending this year and four more where legislation has been passed but sports betting is not yet operational.
These trends brought a performance of over $1 billion in revenue and $450 million in adjusted EBITDA.
We achieved roughly one-third of this year's over 200 million OPtiMa savings target during Q1, mainly through product simplification and margin improvement efforts.
Continued healthy cash conversion and capex discipline drove over 200 million in free cash flow, which is high for a first-quarter performance.
Interesting to note, we return to profitability and net income level this quarter, generating $0.38 per share.
Revenue increase over 40% to 749 million.
Global same-store sales rose over 30% on broad-based growth across instant tickets, drawer-based games, multi-state jackpots, and iLottery.
In fact, the comparison to Q1 2019 in terms of the top line is showing an astounding 20 percent-plus growth.
Part of the same-store sales growth includes roughly 20 million in revenue from higher multi-state jackpot activity and outside of same-store sales, lottery service revenue includes approximately 60 million in performance-driven incentive accruals from our U.S. lottery management agreements.
There's 80 million in total in Q1, benefits flow through almost entirely to profit.
Product sales, which are naturally lumpy and represent about 5% of annual lottery revenue, were down 10 million on large software license sales in the prior year, partly offset by an increase in instant ticket printing revenue.
The margin leverage from lotteries largely fixed cost structure is particularly evident this quarter as our revenue growth translated into incremental margins of over 80%.
And we also had the benefit of the 80 million in Q1 revenue items indicated before.
Operating income more than doubled from the prior-year period to 337 million with adjusted EBITDA growing 74% to 447 million.
Turning to global gaming, the revenue of 266 million was down 14% over the prior year.
Compared to the fourth quarter, KPIs are improving and the contribution from digital and betting continues to accelerate with revenue growing over 80% from the prior year.
Over 75% of our U.S. casino installed base was active and service revenues close to prior levels due to higher productivity on the active machines.
We sold just over 4,400 units globally in the quarter, up 20% over the prior year, and up 2% sequentially.
Cash from operations was 251 million despite the concentration of interest payments in the first quarter.
Free cash flow was 204 million, and you can see the direct impact on net debt and leverage, which was down at full-term versus yearend 2020.
First, in late March, we successfully refinance approximately 1 billion notes due in 2022 with a combination of new notes and bank debt and extended maturity date to 2026.
As you can see, these two changes meaningfully reduce our net near-term debt maturities and will allow us to save, going forward, about 60 million in annual interest cost with the full run rate of savings starting to materialize in Q3 this year.
We are on track to structurally reduce our cost structure by more than 200 million this year with each segment contributing according to plan.
Quarter to date, global lottery same-store sales growth is over 20%, so our second-quarter revenue should be higher on a year-over-year basis, though we do not expect the $80 million in Q1 lottery revenue benefits related to jackpot activity and LMA contract incentive to recur.

Summary:
This translated into 25% revenue growth from the prior-year period and a 6% increase from Q1 '19.
Interesting to note, we return to profitability and net income level this quarter, generating $0.38 per share.