Bally’s Intralot shareholders have voted through the company’s £243.1m acquisition of evoke, the London-listed parent of William Hill and 888, removing the last major ownership hurdle before the deal reaches regulators. The vote mirrors an equally decisive approval from evoke’s own shareholders a month earlier, leaving the transaction on track to close by the end of this year or in early 2027.
What happened
Bally’s Intralot held its annual general meeting on 17 September, where the proposed purchase of evoke was the central item of business.
The Athens-listed company held its annual general meeting on 17 September, where the plan to purchase evoke for 52p per share, valuing the William Hill owner at £243.1m, was a key topic.
A grand total of 99.585% of Bally’s Intralot shareholders approved the takeover, with just 0.415% voting against.
The result closely tracks the outcome on evoke’s side.
This broadly corresponds with the results of evoke’s own AGM, published 17 August, with 99.63% voting in favour.
With both boards’ shareholder bases now formally on record,
approval by the shareholders of both firms means that the takeover now just needs to clear a few more regulatory approvals before it can go ahead.
The deal itself was struck in June, with evoke shareholders entitled to 0.537 new Bally’s Intralot shares for each share held, or a capped cash alternative.
The all-share agreement, first struck in June, values Evoke at 52 pence per share, a 77% premium to the company’s three-month volume-weighted average share price before takeover talks became public.
Once completed, the combined business will bring together Bally’s Intralot’s lottery and gaming technology operations with evoke’s consumer-facing brands.
Once completed, the merger will fold Bally’s Intralot’s lottery and gaming technology operations together with evoke’s consumer-facing brands, William Hill, 888, and Mr Green, creating a combined group with a footprint across six core markets, including the United States.
Why it matters
The transaction would materially reshape competitive positioning in UK betting and gaming. Earlier disclosures around the deal indicated the enlarged group would rank as the second-largest player in UK iGaming and fourth in online sports betting, giving Bally’s Intralot immediate scale in a market it has previously accessed only indirectly. For operators and affiliates, a change of ownership at William Hill and 888 raises questions about future brand strategy, marketing spend and affiliate programme terms, particularly given evoke’s own financial pressures.
Those pressures were the trigger for the sale process in the first place.
The company told investors that it had begun searching for a buyer in December 2025, when it initiated a strategic review of its business after the UK government announced increases in online gambling taxes. The first tax increase, a rise in Remote Gaming Duty from 21% to 40%, came into effect on 1 April this year.
That squeeze has already reshaped evoke’s retail footprint, with the operator
accelerating the closure of William Hill retail outlets this year with the confirmation that 200 more shops would shut their doors back in March.
The same tax environment has driven cost-cutting elsewhere in the sector, as covered in Tenstar Media’s report on Entain’s job cuts amid mounting UK tax pressure.
The bigger picture
The vote is not the final step. A court sanction hearing and outstanding competition clearances still stand between Bally’s Intralot and full ownership, with a review already opened by Jersey’s competition authority alongside other jurisdictional checks. Bally’s own financial position adds a layer of uncertainty, as its parent company has faced separate scrutiny over balance-sheet strength and financing capacity while the acquisition proceeds.
evoke, formed when 888 Holdings absorbed William Hill’s non-US assets, has carried heavy debt since that combination and flagged its own funding constraints in recent filings. A change of control under a US-headquartered gaming group would mark a further consolidation of UK high-street and online betting brands under fewer, larger owners, a trend that continues to influence how operators structure affiliate partnerships and where marketing budgets are allocated across the sector.
Sources
- SBC News – Bally’s Intralot shareholders overwhelmingly back evoke acquisition
- Gambling Insider – Evoke Shareholders Approve Bally’s Intralot Deal Amid Liquidity Concerns
- Northeast Times – Bally’s Intralot Shareholders Back £243M Purchase Of William Hill Owner Evoke
- iGB – Bally’s Intralot strikes £243 million deal for Evoke takeover
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