Evoke CFO Sean Wilkins has said the operator did a “very good job in the first half of the year” at mitigating the impact of tax increases in the UK market.
The William Hill, 888 and Mr Green parent company reported revenue of £887.5m for the first half of the year, with £348.1m coming from its UK and Ireland (UKI) Online arm.
The operator had to deal with the impact of remote gaming duty in the UK increasing from 21% to 40% from 1 April.
Speaking on evoke’s Q2 earnings call, Wilkins said the measures taken in the UK have been more than just a “cost-cutting exercise”.
He remarked: “We did a very good job in the first half of the year at mitigating the duty increases. The areas we have really focused on to achieve those mitigations include significantly more effective marketing.
“Our marketing year on year has dropped, but we have still managed to get that 4% growth. That demonstrates we have been much more efficient. This has not just been a cost-cutting exercise, so we are very pleased with that as an outcome.
“We’ve shut 70 shops in Q4 last year and 200 in Q1 this year. They were all loss-making shops, so you can see in the results that retail has improved. We’ve improved the customer proposition, and we’ve also reduced our overhead.
“All of those things have added to or allowed us to mitigate the impact of the UK duty, and allowed us to achieve a good result in UKI Online.”
After shuttering 278 betting shops over the last 12 months, evoke’s UKI Retail revenue decreased 2.6% year on year (YoY) to £245.6m.
The operator also reported revenue of £293.8m from its International division for H1, a decrease of 1.9% compared to the first six months of 2025.
While revenue from Italy and Denmark increased 21% and 13% YoY, respectively, management noted slumps in Spain, Europe and the Rest of World.
The Romanian market was also subject to tax hikes, with the GGR tax rate increasing from 21% to 30% in August last year.
Group CEO Per Widerström explained how the firm plans to address the slide in its European markets.
He said: “We do see a mixed performance when it comes to international markets. We’re very satisfied with what we see in core markets of Italy and Denmark but there is some weakness in Spain and Romania, and we do have plans to address that.
“When it comes to Spain in particular, we have some product issues related to the sports side. That said, since the beginning of the year, we have scaled up investment behind our products, both sports and gaming in Spain, and we have seen a good response from a customer perspective when it comes to the new William Hill app we have launched.
“There are further improvements to come on the product proposition when it comes to Spain. We have in fact moved some resources from the UK in order to further scale up and accelerate the product and tech roadmap for Spain. We have also implemented market, customer and commercial improvements in Spain during H1, which are yet to come into effect.
“In terms of Romania, we do see that this is an overall weak market hit by the increased taxation. We are absolutely focused on making sure we are preserving the cash and liquidity of all the markets, including Romania,” he added.
The post Evoke CFO: Handling UK tax rises is more than a “cost-cutting exercise” first appeared on EGR Intel.
Sean Wilkins attests the operator did a “very good job in the first half of the year” at dealing with increased duties, as the William Hill parent company attempts to address a “mixed performance” internationally
The post Evoke CFO: Handling UK tax rises is more than a “cost-cutting exercise” first appeared on EGR Intel.