Starting out in 1970 as a “Saturday boy” behind the counter at one of William Hill’s Glasgow betting shops, Ralph Topping climbed up the ranks to become CEO in 2008 – a position he held until his retirement six years later. In all, he spent 44 years with Hills. When Topping headed for the exit in 2014, this retail and digital brand was financially robust with a growing and diversified international footprint. It also had regained its FTSE 100 status the previous year. “When I retired, William Hill was the biggest listed bookmaker in the UK,” he says proudly.
Today though, William Hill’s standing in the sector is somewhat diminished, as this once bookmaking heavyweight finds itself the subject of a £243m all-share offer for parent company evoke that will see acquirer, Bally’s Intralot, assume evoke’s debt pile. Including the debt and fees, the deal, which is expected to close in late 2026 or early 2027, amounts to £2.27bn. “Does it sadden me? Yes,” the 74-year-old Scot replies when EGR asked how he feels about the predicament his old company now finds itself in. “I feel sorry for the brand because I feel it has been let down by a number of people who get paid to make decisions.”
While rumours surfaced months ago that Bally’s Intralot was kicking the tyres on evoke, the Greek operator’s involvement as a suitor left Topping “gobsmacked”. “It came out of left field,” he remarks, though he thinks there “wasn’t a lot of interest” among other potential acquirers. Even so, the ex-Hills boss questions Bally’s Intralot’s experience when it comes to running a sports betting business, let alone a retail estate of around 1,000 shops.
“Recruitment of people with industry experience in the UK and who are good at their jobs in all areas that make a betting business tick is a large priority. They [Bally’s Intralot] might be happy to bring their own people in but I’m not so sure how many of those they have and whether they’ve got the experience to run a sports betting business.
“They probably need some experienced older heads who still have the energy to give some guidance to an inexperienced management team.” What’s more, the deal comes amid increased regulatory pressure in the UK market as operators cut costs to cope with the jump in remote gaming duty from 21% to 40% earlier this year. Tax on remote sports betting is set to rise from 15% to 25% from next April. Almost two thirds (64%) of evoke’s revenue in 2025 was generated by its UK and Ireland segment.
“They seem to be saying one way or another, especially [Bally’s Intralot] CEO Robeson Reeves, that they are very clever sparrows and not to worry. They can find a way through and will take advantage of other organisations withdrawing from the UK market. How the hell they know that I don’t know,” Topping asserts.
He adds: “The company [evoke] has seen a loss in market share to Entain, [bet]365, Paddy Power, and there is absolutely no cash for acquisitions. They made a partial acquisition of [Romanian operator] Winner, but there is no substantial plan to transform William Hill. There’s also perhaps a lack of operational process and operational focus. The management team, and this is an educated guess, seems very much about making judgements on spreadsheets, when life’s not like that in a properly run betting business.”
Another concern of his is the fact Bally’s Intralot is burdened by debt of its own: almost €1.5bn at the end of 2025. Now the Athens-listed operator behind brands including Jackpotjoy, Monopoly Casino and Bally Bet is set to take on evoke’s debt, which stood at £1.86bn at the end of last year. “This level of debt may well lead to the type of financial pressure that grows like Japanese knotweed. Some level of debt is always welcome in a company, but this level is eyewatering,” Topping stresses.
History repeating itself
There is likeness between this deal and when evoke – then 888 Holdings – bought William Hill International from Caesars Entertainment for £1.95bn in 2022. (Caesars got to keep the US assets, after the Las Vegas-based casino giant gobbled up William Hill in a deal, completed in 2021, worth approximately £2.9bn.) Like Bally’s Intralot, 888 Holdings was a gaming-focused operator taking control of a UK-centric, sports-led online business with physical betting shops. “There are remarkable similarities between evoke and Bally’s – maybe that’s why there was a mutual attraction,” surmises Topping.
To fund the reverse takeover of William Hill – a company roughly three times the size of 888 Holdings itself at the time – meant taking on debt. Lots of it. Soon, the cost of servicing that debt ballooned as central banks tried to curtail soaring inflation fuelled partly by energy and commodity shocks from the war in Ukraine. Evoke’s interest payments more than doubled from 4% to 9%, as the firm’s chief strategy officer at the time, Vaughan Lewis, outlined in a recent Substack post.
“There was a high degree of uber-confidence and arrogance at the time from 888,” Topping insists. “There’s always a time for bold vision, and there’s always a time for common sense. All that board had to do was look at interest rates racking upwards, the era of cheap money was over and the political environment in the UK was changing. It wasn’t a friendly environment and there were huge risks involved. It might have been better for them to sit on their thumbs for a while.”
In the same Substack post, Lewis, who played an instrumental role in the acquisition, admitted it “destroyed a substantial amount of shareholder value” and that they “had every right to be disappointed by the outcome”. Indeed, evoke shares traded above £4 when the deal was announced in September 2021; they’re now less than 50p.
“When it comes to the markets,” Topping points out, “the people in the City are humourless creatures because we’re talking about money. They hear promises being made that one day, providing all things go right, this business will take off, but they price up the prospects accordingly. Debt reduction being slow and disappointing growth is why you’ve seen evoke drop from about four quid [a share] to about 50p now.
“The 888 Holdings guys failed to ask themselves, ‘What is the situation that the company is confronting? How much money does it have and what can we achieve within the budget?’ Never mind their highfalutin, ‘We’re going to dominate the world’.” Not long after William Hill was acquired, a run of negative headlines began stacking up. 888 Holdings CEO Itai Pazner stepped down with immediate effect in January 2023, with the company admitting shortcomings in KYC processes involving Middle East customers. The upshot was the firm reached a £2.9m settlement with the regulator in Gibraltar, where its head office is situated.
Less than two months after Pazner’s exit, in March 2023, William Hill was fined a record £19.2m by the Gambling Commission (GC) for “widespread and alarming” social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures. Remember, this was 12 months after the UK arm of 888 Holdings itself was hit with a £9.4m fine by Britain’s gambling regulator. Then, in July 2023, the group’s licence was placed under review by the GC, resulting in the board terminating talks with a trio of former Entain chiefs over a potential takeover of the business.
Appointed in October 2023, former Fortuna Entertainment Group CEO Per Widerström was parachuted in to steady the ship. The Swede oversaw the corporate identity makeover from 888 Holdings to evoke, a move designed to better reflect an organisation comprising William Hill, 888 and Mr Green. He also instigated a cost-optimisation programme to deliver £30m in savings. A solid roster of industry talent joined the leadership team, while a value creation plan with six key strategic pillars was unveiled – a topic Widerström discussed face-to-face two years ago with EGR at evoke’s UK headquarters off Tottenham Court Road in London.
“Instead of a properly defined, simple to understand strategy, we ended up with mission statements that really didn’t resonate a strategy,” Topping criticises. “I think the outcome has been the debt hasn’t reduced quickly enough.” He was left puzzled, too, by the departure after five years of chair and non-executive director Lord Jon Mendelsohn last October. “Then the chairman left. Why? It’s a mystery to me. He said his work was finished when it quite clearly wasn’t because the debt was not reducing quickly enough and innovation in the company wasn’t particularly high.”
Get the brand back together
William Hill still has a lot going for it, of course – not least its brand. After all, this is a company that has been around since 1934 and is still a household name in the UK. Despite having more than halved in number since Topping was in charge, the betting shops dotted up and down the country remain billboards for the business.
“If you dig deeply enough into it, you’d find there has been very little investment in the betting shops,” he says. A source told industry newsletter Earnings & More this month that to refit and kit out Hills’ shops to the same standard as Paddy Power could cost around £200,000 per outlet – or a total of £200m if the whole estate was upgraded. “They can’t afford that,” the source said.
Topping continues: “Don’t run away with the idea that I’m a betting shop enthusiast because I’m not, but, if they are part of your marketing of your business, which they are, and are serious contributors, which they are, then you have to look after them. It’s not a question of leaving them to wither and die, which I think William Hill and 888 have done. They haven’t put the investment into betting shops.”
It could be a case that Bally’s Intralot eventually decides to dispose of most or all the shops. Betfred’s Fred Done was rumoured to be a potential buyer once evoke’s board initiated a strategic review in late 2025 to explore the breakup or full sale of the group.
More broadly, Topping’s thoughts turn to who will hold the reins at Hills once the deal completes and Bally’s Intralot is running the show. “It will be interesting to see how the business is structured going forward in terms of who runs William Hill. I think if Robeson [Reeves] has bought it, then he should very much run it, because he’ll need to generate the return for shareholders, so it’s his baby going forward. I don’t think Per [Widerström] will be kept on, but I don’t think he’ll cry about that.”
When asked by EGR how he would go about the task of reviving his old firm’s fortunes, Topping insists it’s about getting back to basics. “There have been challenges throughout the whole history of William Hill,” he notes. “The company has gone through various ownerships in its lifetime – some better than most – but I think if they get the right management team and the right people involved, they can rise to the challenge on the back of what remains a very powerful brand. Keep things simple, don’t over-complicate it.
“If they don’t sit around staring at their navels and talking about strategy and all that bollocks, there’s a real chance for them. It’s about going back to what William Hill was famous for, which was pricing, uncomplicated marketing and meeting the needs of the current generation of current punters, who haven’t changed that much. And being innovative with the products you offer.” The former boss concludes: “I wouldn’t write anyone off if they keep it simple.”
EGR has contacted evoke and Bally’s Intralot for comment.
The post Ralph Topping: William Hill brand “has been let down by people who get paid to make decisions” first appeared on EGR Intel.
The outspoken ex-CEO pulls no punches in his criticism of the way his former firm has been run by owners evoke, plus why he was “gobsmacked” when Bally’s Intralot emerged as a bidder for the debt-laden group
The post Ralph Topping: William Hill brand “has been let down by people who get paid to make decisions” first appeared on EGR Intel.