Evoke Holds Revenue Flat as £46M Duty Rise Cuts Into Half-Year Profit

Evoke, the London-listed owner of William Hill, 888 and Mr Green, reported flat first-half revenue of £887.5 million on August 12, 2026, as a £46 million year-on-year jump in gaming duties cut adjusted earnings by nearly a tenth five days before shareholders vote on the company’s agreed sale to Bally’s Intralot.

Adjusted EBITDA for the six months ended June 30, 2026 came in at £150.2 million, down 9.5% from £165.9 million a year earlier, according to the company’s interim results filing. Reported EBITDA fell 12% to £124.8 million, and the group posted a statutory loss after tax of £70.2 million, broadly unchanged from a restated £70.1 million loss in the prior-year period. On an adjusted basis, the group swung to a £1.9 million profit after tax from nil a year earlier.

The results are the first full reporting period to land since the UK’s higher remote gaming duty took effect on April 1, 2026. The duty line in Evoke’s income statement rose to £233.4 million from £187.0 million a year earlier, with the increases concentrated in UK online, Romania and Italy. The company said it offset more than half of the gross duty increase through lower but more targeted marketing spend, improved promotional efficiency and operating cost cuts.

William Hill Carries UK&I Online as 888 Is Managed for Profit

Group revenue of £887.5 million was level with the £887.8 million reported a year earlier, and up 2% on a like-for-like basis once the roughly 270 fewer betting shops in the estate are stripped out.

UK&I Online was the standout. Revenue there rose 3.5% to £348.1 million, with gaming revenue up 6.7% on double-digit growth at William Hill, while 888 revenue declined as Evoke kept its deliberate focus on profitability over lower-return volume. The division’s adjusted EBITDA jumped 28.3% to £77.0 million, despite the new UK duty rates applying from April 1, 2026.

International revenue fell 1.9% to £293.8 million. Italy grew 21% and Denmark 13%, but both were offset by weaker trading in Spain, Romania and the rest-of-world markets, and divisional adjusted EBITDA dropped 20.9% to £67.6 million on the higher duties and a mix shift toward higher-tax markets. Retail revenue declined 2.6% to £245.6 million on the smaller estate, though like-for-like revenue rose 4% and retail adjusted EBITDA grew 5.4% to £31.2 million. Evoke closed roughly 200 shops in May 2026 and ended the half with 1,024 locations, down from 1,302 a year earlier.

Marketing spend was cut 18.5% to £115.8 million, taking the marketing-to-revenue ratio from 16.0% to 13.0%.

Leverage Climbs to 5.6X

Net debt rose to £1,899.4 million at June 30, 2026, from £1,862.7 million at the end of 2025, pushing net leverage from 5.2x to 5.6x last-twelve-month adjusted EBITDA of £340.4 million. The group drew a further £38 million on its revolving credit facility during the half, leaving £157 million drawn of the £200 million facility, and repaid the final £10.5 million of legacy William Hill unsecured notes that matured in May 2026.

Cash excluding customer balances stood at £105.6 million, with total liquidity of roughly £150 million. Underlying free cash flow was £85 million. No interim dividend was declared; the board’s standing policy is to suspend payouts until leverage falls to 3x or below.

Five Days Out From the Intralot Vote

The results land in the middle of the transaction that will decide Evoke’s future. On June 5, 2026 the board agreed a recommended all-share acquisition by Bally’s Intralot, the Athens-listed group formed from the October 2025 combination of Intralot and Bally’s International Interactive business. Under the terms, Evoke shareholders receive 0.537 new Intralot shares for each Evoke share, an exchange ratio the offer announcement valued at 52 pence per share, with a partial cash alternative. Intralot’s first approach in January 2026 came at 32 pence per share.

The deal emerged from the strategic review Evoke launched after the UK government’s November 2025 duty announcement. Gaming.net covered the agreement when it was struck: A Decade After William Hill Tried to Buy 888, Bally’s Is Buying Them Both.

Evoke shareholders vote on the scheme at a court meeting and general meeting scheduled for August 17, 2026. The transaction also needs Intralot shareholder approval, antitrust and foreign-investment clearances across several European jurisdictions, and gaming regulatory approvals in the UK, Italy, Germany, Gibraltar, Malta and three US states, among others. Completion is expected in the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027. Citing the pending deal, the board is giving no forward financial guidance.

What the Filing’s Own Numbers Constrain

The interim report spells out the balance-sheet math behind the board’s recommendation. Evoke carries roughly £1.8 billion of borrowings against the £340.4 million of last-twelve-month adjusted EBITDA, with two debt tranches totalling about £769 million maturing in July 2028 and the revolving credit facility’s earliest maturity in January 2028. The company’s reverse stress test found that EBITDA would have to fall a further 18%, even with mitigations, before liquidity hit its minimum threshold within the going-concern period to September 30, 2027.

The directors nonetheless flagged two material uncertainties. If the Intralot deal does not complete, there is a material uncertainty over whether Evoke can reach the profitability and cash generation needed to refinance the July 2028 debt ahead of January 2028. If it does complete, the current directors note they have no visibility over how Intralot intends to operate the group under its ownership.

The duty pressure is not finished either. Evoke’s filing states the UK changes, including a new online betting duty at a higher rate from April 2027, are estimated at £125 million to £135 million per annum before mitigations, roughly triple the £46 million headwind absorbed in this half.

Intralot’s transaction financing is designed to address part of that wall: a new five-year second-lien facility would repay the two July 2028 tranches, automatically extending the revolving facility to 2029, and holders of the 2030 and 2031 senior secured notes have agreed to waive change-of-control provisions. The debt stack is the inherited residue of the largely debt-funded 2022 William Hill acquisition, whose £46.6 million of non-cash intangible amortisation in this half remains a core driver of the statutory loss. Whether that stack is refinanced on Evoke’s own or folded into the enlarged group is what the August 17, 2026 vote decides.