Evoke blames tax rises for 270 shop closures as revenue falls 7%

Evoke, the owner of William Hill, 888 and Mr Green, reported a 7% fall in third-quarter group revenue to £406m for the three months to 30 September 2026 and called on the UK government not to raise gambling taxes again in the autumn budget on 28 October. The company said its takeover by Bally's Intralot was on track, with completion expected late in Q4 2026 or early in Q1 2027.

At constant exchange rates, revenue was down 2% once the approximately 270 betting shops shut during the past year are stripped out. According to Evoke, early-season football results that went the way of punters trimmed one to two percentage points from growth, so revenue was broadly flat on an underlying basis. No profit, earnings or cash figures appeared in the update.

Chief executive Per Widerström said the business continued to show resilience on an underlying basis and reflected its emphasis on profitability and cash generation following substantial increases in gaming duties, particularly in the UK. He said the closure of 270 shops over the past year showed the effect on jobs and livelihoods from higher industry taxation, and urged the government to consider carefully any further increases before the budget.

Betting shop taxes, by contrast, stayed where they were. Duties on online gaming and betting went up in last year's budget, yet machine games duty and the duty on bets placed in shops were left unchanged. Part of the reason Evoke gives for shutting shops is to help counter the larger online tax bill.

Last November's budget is where the closures originate. Duty on remote gaming, which covers online games of chance, went from 21% to 40% on 1 April 2026. A 25% rate for remote betting begins on 1 April 2027, while remote wagers on UK horse racing stay at 15%. Once the changes are fully in place, Evoke put the yearly addition to its duty costs at about £125 million to £135 million, and it expected to counter roughly half of that with supplier savings, reduced marketing spend, store closures and cuts to operating costs.

Ahead of that budget, Evoke had cautioned that it could shut as many as 200 William Hill shops, or as few as 120, with up to 1,500 jobs in the balance. In March staff were told that about 200 UK shops, close to 15% of the retail estate, would be permanently closed from May, and that figure was later revised upward. With its 2025 results, Evoke confirmed roughly 270 closures and reported pre-tax losses of £549.1 million, more than double the £220.9 million of 2024. The company has given no figure for jobs at risk, though the closures are expected to cost hundreds of jobs.

The fallout reaches well beyond Evoke. Britain's six biggest gambling operators, through their bosses, reported last week that over 600 betting shops have closed since the 2025 budget, with 10,250 online and retail roles eliminated or placed at risk of redundancy. Those executives urged the chancellor to make no change to machine games duty at the 28 October budget and to hold the April 2027 betting duty increase until the impact of earlier rises could be evaluated.

Evoke started examining its strategic options, a sale included, in December, only weeks after the tax rises led it to pull its medium-term outlook. A June all-share agreement followed: each Evoke share would be exchanged for 0.537 new Bally's Intralot shares, a price of 52 pence per share that put the company's value at approximately £243.1 million.

Debt has been central to how the company got here. When Evoke bought William Hill's non-US business from Caesars Entertainment in 2022 for roughly £2 billion, it ended last year carrying about £1.86 billion of debt. To finance the deal and refinance that debt, Bally's Intralot has arranged about £889 million from TPG Credit, Oaktree and OHA. Both companies' shareholders have backed the deal, and most regulatory approvals are in hand.

Widerström said the company remained focused on disciplined execution and operational efficiency as it progressed towards completion of the acquisition. Evoke declined to comment further on the announcement.