evoke warns against further UK tax rises in Q3 results
The William Hill owner, now agreeing to a Bally's Intralot takeover, reported a 7% revenue decline and cited 270 shop closures as evidence of the cost of higher gaming duties.
evoke PLC has used its third-quarter results to press the UK government not to raise gambling taxes further, as the business works through a takeover by Bally's Intralot.
Group revenue came in at £406m for the quarter, down 7% against the same period last year. On a like-for-like basis stripping out currency effects, the decline was 2%, according to the company's figures reported by SBC News.
The comparison is complicated by the shrinking of evoke's retail footprint. The firm now operates around 270 fewer William Hill betting shops than it did a year earlier, and excluded that impact from the headline numbers. Roughly 200 of those closures were decided on 31 March, the day before Remote Gaming Duty rose from 21% to 40%, following what the company described as a thorough internal review.
evoke also pointed to softer trading in the early weeks of the football season, saying favourable results for bettors knocked one to two percentage points off year-on-year revenue growth.
Chief executive Per Widerström said the underlying business remained resilient and continued to prioritise profitability and cash generation in the face of steep increases in gaming duties, particularly in the UK. He linked the shop closures directly to the tax environment, saying the loss of 270 outlets over the past year illustrated the real cost to jobs and livelihoods from higher industry taxation.
"We urge the UK Government to carefully consider any further increases ahead of its forthcoming Autumn Budget," Widerström said.
Attention now turns to next week's Autumn Budget and its treatment of Machine Games Duty, which applies to evoke's remaining roughly 1,000 betting shops. The sector had braced for the duty on Category B gaming machines to double from 20% to 40%, but reports this week suggest a smaller rise to 25% instead.
Some commentary has framed that lower figure as a reprieve for operators, though industry voices have pushed back on that framing. Grainne Hurst, chief executive of the Betting and Gaming Council, warned that any further tax rise would carry consequences, noting that evoke and other major UK bookmakers have already shown the practical fallout from previous increases.
Separately, evoke confirmed its sale to Greece-headquartered Bally's Intralot remains on track. Under the agreed terms, shareholders will receive 52p per share, valuing the company at £243.1m.
Widerström said the business remained focused on disciplined execution and operational efficiency as it works towards completing the deal, which he expects to close in late in the fourth quarter of 2026 or early in the first quarter of 2027.
Once finalised, evoke is set to delist from the London Stock Exchange, with its assets folded into Athens-listed Bally's Intralot.