William Hill owner agrees £243m takeover by Greek casino and lottery firm | Mergers and acquisitions
William Hill and the owner of the 888 online casino brand have agreed to the £243 million takeover of Greek casino and lottery operator Bally’s Intralot.
Evoke is locked in talks with Athens-listed Bally’s Intralot. extensive international operations Including the USA for the last two months.
The deal comes four years after heavily indebted Evoke, formerly known as 888 Holdings, paid £2.2bn to buy William Hill’s network of 1,400 high street bookmakers. Since then, Evoke’s shares have fallen 90%.
The government’s announcement in November of a significant increase in remote gaming tax from 21% to 40% had triggered a material change in the UK operating environment that would “create a meaningful disruption to the competitive environment”, the companies said.
Shares in London-listed Evoke rose more than 12.5% in early trading as investors welcomed the takeover deal.
“Intralot continues to believe that the United Kingdom is a highly attractive geography and that the current market shift presents a significant opportunity for consolidation,” the company said in a statement Friday.
Headquartered in Gibraltar, Evoke has net debt of around £1.8bn and a market capitalization of just over £180m.
Evoke CEO Per Widerström previously said changes to gambling tax would cost the business up to £135 million a year.
In December, the company appointed Morgan Stanley and Rothschild to review strategic options to “maximize shareholder value.”
Mark Summerfield, chairman of Evoke, said: “Following the announcement of the strategic review in December, we have remained laser-focused on how we can best maximize value for our shareholders in light of significant reshuffles in the UK and the constraints imposed by the Evoke Group’s current capital structure.”
He said the deal represented “the most attractive and achievable outcome for Evoke shareholders.”
Last month Evoke said it would close around 200 William Hill betting shops from May, blaming cost pressures including government tax rises.
Bally’s chairman Soo Kim said Intralot was confident the deal “will deliver significant benefits to both Intralot and Evoke shareholders.”
Intralot provides technology to 12 state lotteries in the United States and operates in Europe, South America, North Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Evoke also had a number of management issues that negatively affected the business: In 2023, it fired its CEO and suspended VIP client accounts in the Middle East, amid an internal investigation into failure to follow anti-money laundering processes.
This comes after the company agreed to pay a £9.4 million fine in 2022; This was the third-highest fine in the history of British gambling regulation for failures that left customers suffering huge losses during the Covid outbreak.
