Evoke, the owner of William Hill, 888 and Mr Green, has reported a 7% year-on-year fall in third-quarter revenue to £406 million, after closing around 270 UK betting shops over the past year. The London-listed operator has used the update to press the UK government not to raise gambling duties further in next week’s Autumn Budget, as its proposed takeover by Bally’s Intralot continues to move towards completion.
What happened
Group revenue for the three months to 30 September 2026 was £406 million, and excluding the roughly 270 betting shops closed over the past year, and at constant exchange rates, revenue fell 2%.
The company said football results that favoured punters early in the season cut one to two percentage points from growth, leaving revenue broadly flat on an underlying basis.
The closures stem from last November’s budget, when remote gaming duty, which applies to games of chance played online, rose from 21% to 40% on 1 April 2026, with a new 25% rate for remote betting due to take effect on 1 April 2027.
Evoke has said it is closing shops partly to offset the higher online tax bill.
Alongside its 2025 results, the company confirmed around 270 closures and said pre-tax losses had more than doubled to £549.1 million, from £220.9 million in 2024.
Chief executive Per Widerström said the underlying business continues to show resilience, pointing to the group’s focus on profitability and cash generation following the duty increases.
He urged the government to “consider” any further tax increases, amid reports that Machine Games Duty will rise to 25 per cent.
On the corporate side,
Bally’s Intralot agreed terms on an all-share deal worth £243.1m for the owner of William Hill and 888 in June, and according to evoke the acquisition remains on track, with both sets of shareholders having passed the required resolutions and the majority of required regulatory approvals also received. Subject to the remaining conditions, completion is expected to be late in Q4 2026 or early Q1 2027.
Why it matters
The 270 shop closures are a concrete illustration of how the UK’s tax regime is reshaping the shape of a major operator’s business, not just its margins. Evoke has effectively shrunk its retail footprint to manage the hit from higher online duty, a trade-off other UK-licensed operators are watching closely as they weigh their own retail and digital balance.
For affiliates and performance marketers, a smaller retail estate for one of the UK’s best-known high-street brands reinforces a longer-term shift of player acquisition towards digital and search channels. As fewer physical William Hill shops remain on the high street, the competition for visibility in organic and paid search results for UK betting brands becomes more consequential, particularly in regions losing local outlets.
The timing also matters commercially.
The first thing to watch is the UK Autumn Budget, in which any change to remote or retail gambling duties would feed straight into Evoke’s cost base and shop estate.
A further tax rise could accelerate retail contraction across the sector, while clarity or restraint from the Treasury would ease pressure on operators still adjusting to this year’s increases.
The bigger picture
Evoke’s update lands in the middle of a UK gambling tax debate that has dominated operator commentary throughout 2026.
Notably, the taxes on betting shops themselves were not raised in last year’s budget, which increased duties on online gaming and betting but left machine games duty and the duty on bets placed in shops unchanged.
That asymmetry has pushed several operators to lean more heavily on retail cost-cutting as a lever to offset online tax pressure, a dynamic now playing out visibly at evoke.
The company’s pending sale to Bally’s Intralot adds a further layer of context.
The acquisition values the entire and to be issued ordinary share capital of evoke at approximately £243.1m at an £2.2bn enterprise value, as Bally’s Intralot seeks to create a global gaming and lottery champion with scaled pan-European B2C.
With shareholder approvals secured and most regulatory sign-offs in hand, the deal is entering its final stages just as evoke navigates a tax environment that could still shift again at the Budget.
The episode fits a wider pattern of UK operators restructuring in response to tax policy, a theme also visible in Flutter Entertainment’s recent round of UK and Ireland job cuts. Together, these moves suggest the UK’s higher-duty regime is now feeding directly into operator headcount and retail footprint decisions, not just reported margins.
Sources
- iGaming Business – Evoke blames tax rises for 270 shop closures as revenue falls 7%
- SBC News – evoke reveals retail estate scars ahead of tax judgement
- Gambling News – Evoke Posts Trading Update, Highlights 7% Drop in Q3 Revenue
- Next.io – Q3 2026: Evoke revenue falls 7% amid retail closures
- Gambling.com – William Hill Owner Evoke Reports 7% Q3 Revenue Fall As Shops Close
- SiGMA News – Evoke urges UK government to avoid tax rises in Q3 trading update
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