Bally’s Intralot has declared adjusted net debt of over €1.6bn as it presses ahead with its acquisition of William Hill and Mr Green parent company evoke.
Publishing its H1 2026 financial results this week, the group revealed that debt had increased by around €135m from the year prior, largely driven by a €86m payment relating to its electronic gaming machine licence in Victoria, Australia.
A further €20.5m came from investing activities, €675m from net interest payments, €20.8m from treasury share transactions and €14.5m from transaction fees and bond issuance costs.
Although it amounted to just €20.5m of adjusted net debt, investment has been a particularly significant area for Bally’s Intralot over the past year. The firm was formed via M&A in July 2025 when Intralot acquired Bally’s International Interactive (BII), the international B2B assets of Bally’s Corporation.
Bally’s Corporation subsequently became a major shareholder in the new business, and Robeson Reeves, the American firm’s Chief Executive Officer, later took on the same leadership role at the newly formed, Athens Euronext-listed Bally’s Intralot.
One year down the line, Bally’s Intralot has revealed that BII contributed €377.6m to group revenue and €132.8m to adjusted EBITDA over the past six months. Due to the Bally’s Intralot merger taking place last July, there are no year-over-year comparatives.
The addition of a substantial amount of revenue from BII will be a source of confidence for Bally’s Intralot as it heads into its £243m takeover of FTSE 250 firm evoke. The firm may be looking at this as proof that, despite its net debt, it is more than capable of pulling off successful M&As.
Last year’s merger between Bally’s and Intralot saw the latter secure a six year £400m loan from institutional lenders and a four-year £200m amortising loan from Greek banks. In July 2026, to support the evoke acquisition, the firm secured a £261.7m senior note debt facility with institutional lenders.
Debt remains a key hurdle for Bally’s Intralot and evoke to cross in 2026, with the latter carrying debt of £1.89bn according to its own H1 2026 financials. Reeves has previously played down the significance of evoke’s debt to SBC News, however, describing it as “non-recourse” to Bally’s Intralot.
Looking beyond Bally’s debt
While €1.6bn in debt is a hefty figure, and one Bally’s Intralot will have to keep chipping away at after it takes over one of the UK’s largest gambling enterprises, this doesn’t paint a picture of a business in the red.
H1 trading saw Bally’s declare revenue of £544.2m, up considerably from €182m the year prior – Q2 revenue also rose from €86.5m to €276.1m, with the more than €200m contributed by BII playing a significant role in this growth in both Q1 and Q2.
Adjusted EBITDA also rose from €60.2m in H1 2025 to €184.8m this year, and from €20m in Q2 2025 to €84.7m in Q2 2026. This did not correspond to profitability, however, likely due to the multi-hundred-million payment for evoke.
Bally’s Intralot incurred a H1 2026 loss of €7.2m, down from profit of €9.8m in H1 2025.
However, the group has been making progress in the UK, where it operates a number of brands including the Bally Bet sportsbook and the Jackpotjoy, Virgin Games, Monopoly Casino UK and Rainbow Riches Casino iGaming brands.
If done right, the addition of the heritage UK brand of William Hill plus the proven online assets of 888 could accelerate further British growth for Bally’s Intralot despite the burdens of the country’s new tax regime.
UK constant currency growth came in at 11.6% in Q2, while Bally’s Intralot declared “all-time high” net gaming revenue (NGR). Similar growth of 9% was declared in Spain, where the integration of BII was cited as a particularly significant driver.
The next big stage for Bally’s Intralot is the integration with evoke, with the deal having been approved by the latter’s shareholders by a margin of 99% on 17 August. Other regulatory approvals are pending, however.
“We continue to expect the scheme to become effective in the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027,” Reeves remarked.
