Bally’s Intralot is on its way to initiate the biggest M&A shakeup in the UK in recent years with the proposed purchase of evoke.
Robeson Reeves, Chief Executive Officer of Bally’s Intralot, was quick to point out the opportunities ahead. Naturally though, there are many questions lingering when two companies of such global scale merge. SBC News breaks down the key elements behind the potential deal.
Mammoth debt between Bally’s Intralot and evoke
Bally’s Intralot officially made a bid this morning to acquire evoke and its assets William Hill, Mr Green and 888, for 52p per share. But the elephant, or the mammoth, in the room remains the combined debt between both entities.
Going off the evoke and Bally’s Intralot most recent financial statements, both heavyweights have respective debts of £1.9bn and €1.75bn (£1.5bn). Such a debt can hardly go unnoticed, prompting the question of whether Bally’s Intralot can withstand the pressure.
When prompted about this by SBC News, Reeves remained steadfast that because of how evoke’s debt is structured, there is little to lose for Bally’s Intralot shareholders and a lot to win from the deal.
He commented: “I think what’s really important to understand about this deal is…the risk of the debt. Now, the debt that evoke has is entirely connected to the evoke silo. So, if the evoke business will have to pay the interest on that debt, it is non-recourse to Bally’s Intralot.
“I guess you could argue that shareholders in Bally’s Intralot carry low downside risk if we were to fail, but huge upside benefit if we’re successful, and I’m very confident that we’ll be successful, and that’s exactly why bondholders have agreed change of control waivers and things like that, they’re confident that we can deliver to our plan.
“That’s also why the shareholders and founders of evoke have signed irrevocable consent to support the deal.”
Even with evoke’s debt being non-recourse, however, Bally’s Intralot still needs to manage its own debt obligations whilst keeping evoke’s assets afloat, which requires an effective cost optimisation strategy.
Reeves confirmed that his company has a “very clear pathway” for the year after the deal is complete, utilising synergies and prioritising a three-point spent rationalisation strategy.
“We talked about £180m of synergies. This will come from marketing spend rationalisation, essentially reductions in TV or sponsorships, where it’s sensible to do so. That’ll be the largest pool of it.
The next piece will be in people-related costs. Now, some of that obviously will relate to management and so on. The final piece will be simply on tech infrastructure.
“We believe we’ve got a very clear pathway, which doesn’t require complexity or sort of tech platform consolidation. All of those things we’ll review as soon as we’re in the door and determine what’s worth doing, because you can only allocate so much focus.”
UK taxes leave power vacuum to be filled
The new tax rates in the UK introduced back in November have put pressure on the domestic gambling market, with companies scrambling to mitigate the costs of a 40% Remote Gaming Duty.
We’ve seen arguments that this will ultimately chase some operators away from the market, leaving the biggest brands to challenge each other for the UK player’s attention. Flutter and Entain have both previously stated that they expect their market share to increase as a result of the November decision, and now Reeves thinks the same will happen with Bally’s Intralot and evoke.
“I think the large operators should see consolidation,” he added. “People with high enough margins should be able to continue what they do. I think the long tail suffers sadly, and I’m a big fan of competition, but this market is one where competition will be reduced.
“You can see from our numbers. Our Q1s were 10.5% percent up YoY, April was 11.5%, May was 16% up YoY on a revenue basis. So we’re growing, there’s no doubt about that.
“I’m pretty confident…we’re growing faster than others, and I don’t see that slowing, because all of this was triggered as soon as the [UK Budget] announcement came.
“We saw an increase in new customers coming through the door off the same amount of marketing spend, which kind of tells you that there’s reduced competition in the marketplace.
“We got a 60% increase in first time deposits off the same spend almost instantly on the 26th of November [Budget announcement date], and we’ve seen that trend continuing, and even more so as a signal to consolidation and lack of competition.
“The quality of players coming through the door is continuing to increase. What I mean by that is that prediction lifetime value models are saying these players are better, which really talks to the concentration of wallet share.”
Not staying in one place
While the UK makes up the lion’s share of evoke’s total revenue, coming off the call it appeared that Reeves had a bigger appetite for the company’s international presence instead, which would make good on Bally’s Intralot numerous claims of becoming a major global powerhouse.
It’s important to remember Bally’s Intralot’s origins – the firm came about as a merger between American casinos and online betting giant Bally’s Corporation and Greek lottery technology firm Intralot. International business is its backbone.
Similarly, while evoke may be very UK-led due to William Hill, this brand still has an international background while Mr Green is active in Denmark, Italy and Latvia, among others, and 888 is active internationally under a Malta licence.
“We’re inheriting the international market, so I view it as a degree of diversification,” Reeves told SBC News, having highlighted growth opportunities in markets like Romania, Spain, Denmark, and Italy.
He added: “I’m a big fan of the fact they (evoke) have so much iGaming, I think you could argue we’ve been slightly opportunistic with the tax changes, but I wanted to save ourselves time in international expansion.
“That’s where it’s coming from, that’s why we like the deal.”
Prior to the UK tax announcements of November 2025, William Hill began winding down its international presence. The company exited 13 international markets, nine of these being in Africa, in addition to Vietnam, Bolivia and Nicaragua.
Africa in particular has become a big focus for some operators in 2026, such as Super Group and Kaizen Gaming. While not confirming if African market entries from William Hill or any of the 888 brands are set in stone, it’s clear that the continent is on Reeves’ and Bally’s Intralot’s agenda.
He continued: “evoke are still present in Africa… they reduced the number of territories that they play in. We want to have diversified income, right? So we will definitely be looking at which markets we should be spending our money in, which markets we should be growing in.
“Don’t treat it as entrenching. I’m definitely looking at this as giving us a pathway for further expansion. That’s that’s the big power, to be honest. The 888 platform … it’s actually very good at being in many places and our intention is to have diversified.
“I view this as a diversification versus a concentration.”
While the debt burden may be high, Reeves expressed confidence that the company will be able to fight through this to seize international opportunities.
As mentioned earlier, dealmakers have set a target of achieving £180m of synergies, and believe the company can achieve 75% of this within the first 12 months of the takeover’s completion – expected in either Q4 2026 or Q1 2027.
“To grow in markets that you already have a presence is very different to launching in markets you don’t have a presence, and evoke are in many markets,” Reeves added.
“We’ll pick up the easiest things. So, they’re (888) live in Portugal, so how do we expand in Portugal? How do we continue to grow?
“The debt burden, the way we’ve constructed it, I believe, is a very smart way.”
Don’t Cry for me LSE
This morning’s agreement will lead evoke Plc beginning its delisting from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) as UK capital markets lose another gambling incumbent from its ranks.
Yet Reeves offered little condolence. Despite an enlarged Bally’s Intralot having significant UK exposure, Reeves emphatically believes that the Athens Stock Exchange is a better and calmer home for the company.
The Athens listing and status is of vital importance to Bally’s Intralot strategy, capital planning and prospects.
Removed from the scrutiny of the UK pack of gambling PLCs, Reeves sees better capital opportunities and a stronger investor profile under the Athens ticker.
“I think relevance is the most important thing for any stock. In Athens right now, we’re a top 20 stock on the Aspen Stock Exchange. With this combination, we go into the Athens top- 10.”
“Certain things which happen if you fall into these sorts of positions. You fall into bigger pool of indexes and funds. That, in essence, has an enhancement on your multiples, which makes it very interesting and makes your paper more valuable, which is interesting.”
A new capital markets status is relevant option for Reeves should Bally’s Intralot want to “continue down the M&A path”.
“We feel very positive about Greece, in fact two weeks ago I rang the bell on the stock exchange again as it became part of Euro Next… We feel very positive about Greece, we like being relevant and have no intention to leave Athens”.
Article contributions from Ted Orme-Claye and Ted Menmuir.