evoke acquires Winner.ro to make Romania ‘fifth core market’

A new acquisition has been announced by evoke over New Gambling Solutions S.R.L (NGS) and its subsidiary – Romanian operator Winner.ro.

The international gambling conglomerate, also owner of brands like William Hill, 888 and Mr Green, will syphon its current Romanian operations and a debt-free cash consideration of  €10m into NGS, for a 51% return share in the Romanian company. There will be an option to increase that ownership to 100% on the acquisitio’s third year anniversary. 

After the dust settles around the acquisition, evoke’s 888.ro brand will have merged with that of Winner.ro to create a regional player with a combined market share of around 7%. 

Winner.ro first appeared in 2019, and has since achieved significant local distribution capabilities through 20,000 retail deposit points, with €19m GGR delivered by the brand in the first six months of this year. 

The newly-combined business will be led by Nicklas Zajdel, who has been the CEO of Winner since 2023 and currently manages 80 people who will be absorbed by the 500-strong evoke workforce that is currently based in Romania.

Zajdel commented: “This is an incredibly exciting transaction, bringing together our local-hero brand, with one of the world’s strongest international casino brands.

“Romania is a high-growth market, and this combination sets us on the path to a sustainable, profitable, market-leading position. Winner has a strong leadership team and we are building on our success in the market through our highly localised approach, and competitive advantages such as our product platform, our enhanced personalisation, and wide network of deposit points.

“I look forward to working with the team at evoke to further deploy these competitive advantages across the enlarged business, driving significant benefits to our customers with enhanced personalisation, and ultimately driving our success in the market and value creation.”

As per a company statement, evoke fully understands the potential of the Romanian market and its acquisition of NGS completely aligns with its value creation plan. 

Data cited by Regulus Partners show that Romania’s market valuation achieved around €1.1bn in net revenue for 2023, with a further 13% CAGR growth projection between 2023 and 2026. 

Therefore, the Romanian market is expected to enhance evoke’s earnings and reduce leverage from 2025 onwards, alongside a dual-brand strategy to support ROI from marketing. 

Through Winner’s acquisition Romania will become the fifth core market for evoke next to the UK, Italy, Spain and Denmark.

The transaction is scheduled to close in Q3 2024, and “is not expected to impact financial leverage in 2024”, leaving the recently issued FY24 guidance unaffected and projected to improve H2 2024 Adjusted EBITDA margin to around 21% – with a revenue growth of 5-9%.

Per Widerström, CEO of evoke, commented: “I am excited to announce the addition of Winner to the evoke portfolio. This acquisition is consistent with our strategy to build sustainable market-leading profitable positions in the most attractive markets. It is also consistent with our M&A strategy to focus on low-capital, high-impact combinations that accelerate the delivery of our strategy.

“We have enjoyed significant success in Romania, which is an exciting growth market. This combination will cement a leading position for evoke, and I am looking forward to working with the whole team at Winner to deliver ongoing profitable growth and market share gains, as we deliver exceptional products through two incredibly strong and complementary brands.

“I am delighted to announce the creation of our fifth Core Market and have no doubt that this transaction will deliver significant value creation on top of our previously announced plan.”