William Hill owner agrees £243m takeover by Greek casino and lottery firm

The owner of William Hill and the 888 online casino brand has agreed a £243m takeover by the Greek casino and lottery operator Bally’s Intralot.Evoke had been locked in talks for the past two months with the Athens-listed Bally’s Intralot, which has extensive international operations, including in the US.The deal comes four years after the 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 share price has fallen by 90%.The companies said the government’s announcement in November of a significant increase in remote gaming duty, from 21% to 40%, triggered a “material shift in the UK operating environment” that would “create meaningful dislocation across the competitive landscape”.That rise came into effect in April, while a duty on online sports bets will increase from 15% to 25%, with the exception of horse racing, from April 2027.The all-stock deal values Evoke at 52p a share, a 77% premium to the company’s average 29.4p share price across the quarter to 17 April, the last business day before the takeover talks with Bally’s Intralot became public.Shares in the London-listed Evoke soared by 15% on Friday as investors welcomed the takeover deal.The company said: “Intralot continues to believe that the UK is a highly attractive geography and the current market dislocation presents a significant opportunity for consolidation.”Evoke, which is headquartered in Gibraltar, has net debt of about £1.8bn and a market value of just over £180m.The chief executive, Per Widerström, has previously said the changes in gambling tax would cost the business up to £135m a year.In December the company appointed Morgan Stanley and Rothschild to conduct a review of strategic options. Mark Summerfield, the chair of Evoke, said: “We have been resolutely focused on how best to maximise value for our shareholders in light of the significant UK duty changes and the constraints posed by the Evoke Group’s existing capital structure.”He said the deal represented the most attractive and deliverable outcome for Evoke shareholders.The Shaked family, which co-founded 888 in 1997 and remains Evoke’s largest shareholder with a 19.2% stake, backed the merger.“When I founded Evoke 30 years ago, I envisioned building a company that would stand among the world’s leading gaming businesses,” Avi Shaked said. “As committed minority shareholders in the combined group, we look forward to remaining part of this business for many years to come.”Last month, Evoke said it would close about 200 William Hill betting shops from May, blaming cost pressures including the government’s tax rises.Soo Kim, the chair of Bally’s, said Intralot was confident the deal would deliver substantial benefits for Intralot and Evoke shareholders.Intralot provides technology for 12 state lotteries in the US and has operations in Europe, South America, north Africa, south-east Asia, Australia and New Zealand.Evoke has also had a series of management issues that have weighed on the business: in 2023, it removed its chief executive and suspended VIP customer accounts in the Middle East amid an internal investigation into a failure to follow anti-money-laundering processes.That came after the company agreed to pay a £9.4m fine in 2022, then the third highest in the history of British gambling regulation, over failings that led to customers amassing huge losses during the Covid pandemic.