Over and out in less than half an hour, evoke’s full-year 2025 earnings call aired against the backdrop of ongoing talks with Bally’s Intralot over a £225m acquisition and the looming pressure of the UK tax hikes. The call was kept deliberately short, management said, as negotiations continue with Bally’s Intralot on a potential 50p-per-share deal. The operator has until 18 May to submit a final offer, during which time evoke said it will carry on with its value creation plan. EGR picks out some key lines from the shorter-than-usual earnings debrief, including management’s reaction to the new tax environment and an AI push, as CEO Per Widerström and CFO Sean Wilkins took to the stage.
Calm before the storm
With remote gaming duty in the UK leaping to 40% on 1 April, operators have had a month to get to grips with the new world. And while the expectation is the true effects won’t be seen until later in the year as costs flow through, some operators have already pulled out of the market. Aristocrat Interactive’s white-label offering is no more, and the short-fated ITV Win Bingo & Spins is due to close next week. Wilkins said that consolidation would continue.
He remarked: “We’re expecting to see market consolidation. We think the long tail of players will get hit disproportionately hard by the tax implementation, and that will cause us to improve our market share.
“In the first 30 days, the truth is we’ve not really seen any impact. We are pleased with the UK, particularly online, is performing.”
On specific costings around media spend, Widerström added: “We are yet to see any material changes to the cost and price points [on media assets]. What we do see is a shift in terms of media exposure and media spend where you see the long tail operators reducing spending. But we are still to see a material impact on the media pricing as such.”
Of course, those comments are caveated against the backdrop of Bally’s Intralot potentially acquiring the business, with the firm having already spoken about “massive synergies” it could target should a deal go through.
Drop in the ocean
As anticipated, the black market in the UK was a focus. The execs reported calling on the government and the Gambling Commission (GC) for “far greater urgency” in tackling the issue. The William Hill, 888 and Mr Green parent added that the tax hikes would only further exacerbate the growth of the unlicensed sector.
The government has handed the GC a £26m kitty to help support its fight against the black market. The Betting and Gaming Council previously called the figure a “drop in the ocean”. Evoke also said its revenue is due to decline in 2026, partially because of black market growth.
Wilkins said: “You’ll remember we called out when the Budget happened that the black market was a real risk to the UK market. We still absolutely believe that.
“The government has put aside £26m [for the GC] in order to counteract that. Clearly, that’s almost nothing compared to the enormous resources of the black market.
“We’ve been having ongoing dialogue with [the government] to strengthen what they’re doing about the black market, and I think there are lots of levers at their disposal. It’s absolutely an ongoing discussion that us and the Betting and Gaming Council are having with government.”
Get with the times
AI got an extensive breakdown in the earnings report, with the London-listed operator stating it wants to become “AI-first”. Deployed under the ‘Operations 2.0’ banner, evoke said AI had executed more than 4.4 million tasks and processes in 2025 across the group. Bosses said personalisation across customer journeys had been a key win, while an AI committee and an “AI Centre of Excellence” were established to beef up governance of the tech. Management also said player safety operations had been improved thanks to AI. This year, the company is planning the “transformation of all [its] workflows into agentic workflows”, as well as upskill staff to “create an AI-first culture”.
On the call, Widerström noted: “We are very focused and very determined to be an AI-first company, in the best interest of the customer and our shareholders. Over the last couple of years, we have invested in AI, and in particular agentic AI.
“We have seen the primary benefit in cost efficiency and effectiveness. Now, we also see the revenue benefits coming through, not least in terms of how we are addressing customer lifecycle management and how we do trading.”
Hat in the ring
As well as being a briefer earnings call than usual, the Q&A session was delivered in a different manner, with the public able to submit questions via a chatbox on the stream. So while the usual analyst suspects like Morgan Stanley’s Ed Young weren’t on hand, it did open the door for evoke shareholders such as “Nigel from Alexander James Financial” to grill Widerström and Wilkins.
The disgruntled shareholder asked when he can expect to see shareholder value, before arguing that since the duo had taken up the reigns, stock has decreased and debt increased. Debt now stands at £1.8bn, although leverage has come down to 5.2x. In the past 12 months, stock has fallen 22%, albeit levitated by the Bally’s Intralot news which gave the share price a bump. Widerström moved to respond and quell the concerns. The Swede himself, as of May 2025, holds more than three million shares in the business.
The CEO said: “Being a shareholder myself, I can reassure you we are absolutely focused on delivering shareholder value. We have had two years where we had the privilege to manage this company. As we have seen today, after years of decline, we are back to growth.
“We have substantially improved and expanded the EBITDA margin, and we are deleveraging. That is what we can control. That is what we are focusing on, and we will continue to do that.”
Keep schtum
While not necessarily groundbreaking, the disparity in the forthcomingness between evoke management and Bally’s Intralot on their respective earnings calls regarding the potential deal was stark. In fact, Bally’s Intralot boss Robeson Reeves spoke at length about the potential benefits of the deal should it come to pass, including international expansion, synergies and drawing benefits from the massive William Hill retail estate.
The deal is still in talks, the firm offer not yet on the table, so it is understandable why Widerström and Wilkins were reticent to engage on the topic. The CEO explained the call would be shorter due to the ongoing discussions, no questions would be taken and full-year 2026 guidance could not be laid out. Widerström did say that the strategic review had been “comprehensive”, with evoke being subject to “wide-ranging third-party interest”. It had been rumoured Betfred would be keen on taking the Hills retail estate, although this has not played out.
Widerström added: “We recently confirmed we were in discussions with Bally’s Intralot regarding a possible offer for the whole group, and those discussions remain active. Operationally, our priorities remain unchanged: disciplined execution, driving profitable growth and strengthening the balance sheet.”
The post Five things we learned from evoke’s FY 2025 trading update first appeared on EGR Intel.
News editor Joe Levy takes a look at the London-listed firm’s earnings call, with black market concerns top of the agenda and “AI-first” plans emerge
The post Five things we learned from evoke’s FY 2025 trading update first appeared on EGR Intel.