Evoke posts flat Q1 as William Hill comes up against more UK drags

Evoke Plc has opened year trading on stable and expected results, as it continues to address challenges and conditions impacting its UK and Ireland units of William Hill and the 888 group of brands.

Of significance Q1, the LSE gambling group has achieved key Q1 integrations and upgrades, to secure a further £15-£20m in annualised costs savings to be accounted for in 2025.

No Home Comfort

UK and Irish online revenue fell 1%, with the group largely attributing this to its sports betting revenues being impacted by new safer gambling measures, something the group has cited as biting into previous quarterly revenue performances.

Although its UK&I online gaming revenue was up 3%, this was offset by the impacts of its sports betting performance alongside a 21% drop in active player numbers due to what the group called ‘elevated promotional activity in the year prior’.

Evoke’s online performance in home markets was very similar to that of Q1 2024, when the firm was trading as 888holdings prior to its May 2024 rebrand. Revenue during last year’s opening quarter also dropped 1%, with 4% growth in online gaming revenue offsetting sports betting difficulties.

Looking at Q1 2025 again, the retail segment – which consists chiefly of more than 1,400 William Hill betting shops throughout the UK and Ireland – saw revenue drop 6% year-over-year, though again gaming revenue was up 6% sequentially. Betting revenue struggles were pinned on stakes and a lower win margin year-over-year.

Though its UK and Irish results appear to be stagnated, evoke still asserts that its outlook for the remainder of the year is positive from home brands. The firm is putting its confidence particularly in the roll out of new machines and an expected impact from planned improvements to its sportsbook and the retail experience.

Outside the UK&I region, evoke is also taking confidence from its international performance, which paints a much healthier picture.

“We are building momentum in the right areas of the business with particularly strong growth across our International Core Markets,” said Per Widerström, CEO of evoke.

“Whilst the UK&I Online and Retail performance was behind where we wanted to be in Q1, we have moved swiftly to improve some of the underlying drivers of the performance and have been seeing stronger trends in April.

“With improved customer lifecycle management, a clear customer value proposition, new retail gaming cabinets, and an exciting product pipeline, we remain highly confident in our market position and the growth profile of the business.”

Evoke’s international saviours

In comparison to UK&I, international revenue was up 11%, up considerably from the year prior when a 4% growth rate was recorded. Romania was singled out as a particular success story with what evoke called “significant year-on-year growth” following its acquisition of local firm Winner.ro in August last year, which made the country its fifth core market.

International revenue proved the lifeline for evoke this year, driving group wide revenue of £437m (Q1 2024: £431m), representing YoY growth of 1%. The firm’s overall revenue remains stable, though it is dwarfed by the growth experienced by other major multinational plcs like Flutter Entertainment and Entain.

Adjusted EBITDA saw a much more significant uptick, with LTM Adjusted EBITDA recorded at £330m. Though the firm has not provided a side-by-side yearly comparison with Q1 2024, it states that an increase in EBITDA falls in line with its “focus on sustainable, profitable growth”.

Based on its Q1 performance, evoke is hopeful that revenues will continue growing from Q2 onwards. It has set a mid-term revenue growth target of between 5%-9% annually, detailing that year-to-date growth as of 22 April 2025 is 4%.

Times remain tricky for evoke. Although the latter quarters of 2024 saw some return to good form, Q3 in particular, and full year revenue for 2024 increased 3% to £1.75bn (2023: £1.71b), losses grew to £191m. The group is banking on a revamp and upgrade of its core betting and gaming products, both retail and online, to mount a recovery.

“We are moving decisively and at pace to position evoke for long-term success and to drive significant value, and I look forward to providing further updates about our progress as the year progresses,” Widerström concluded.