Evoke has reported group revenue of £887.8 million for the first half of this year, a 3% rise on H1 2024 and an encouraging return while it implements its recovery and value creation plan.
Group adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 44% to £165.9 million, driven by higher gross margins and a change in attitude to marketing spend relative to revenue and other cost-saving measures.
Evoke is one of the world’s leading betting, online casino and gaming companies and owns several high-profile brands such as 888, William Hill and Mr Green.
There was a robust return from International revenue and signs that William Hill will help drive UK and Ireland’s revenues through the second half of the year.
Evoke H1 2025 Report In Depth
While posting its H1 2025 interim results, evoke highlighted a 13% increase in the International revenue segment, rising from £265 million year-on-year to £299.4 million.
That included double-digit growth in the core markets of Italy and Denmark and a triple-digit return in Romania.
International revenue’s Adjusted EBITDA increased by £44.9 million to £85.5 million, a 110% hike.
That helped offset a small decline in UK and Ireland’s online operations, where there was a 0.7% drop in revenue to £336.2 million.
Adjusted EBITDA here still rose by 37.3% to £60 million.
Year-on-year comparisons will have been slightly skewed as figures for H1 2024 will have included much of the revenue generated from the Euro 2024 tournament in Germany.
Football’s month-long European Championship is held every four years and is a traditionally strong driver in the sports betting market.
Retail showed a decrease of 2.4% with £252.2 million revenue and a 22.1% drop in Adjusted EBITDA to £29.6 million, but evoke qualified these figures by confirming the rollout of 5,000 new gaming machines to outlets which was completed in March.
They had already had a positive impact, being a contributory factor to a 7% rise in gaming growth in Q2, growing market share.
Positive Brand Presence
The upgrades to William Hill’s high-street outlets will continue while the brand enjoys a refresh online too.
Just last month evoke reported growth across William Hill’s online and retail units with results for Q2 2025 being the second strongest in terms of quarterly revenue performance since the beginning of 2023.
Evoke CEO Per Widerström said: “While we have made strong progress in gaming, we acknowledge that our sports performance has lagged slightly.
“This is primarily due to historical underinvestment in our self-service betting terminals (SSBTs), where the user experience has not kept pace with market standards.
“In H2, we are investing to address this through terminal upgrades, improved UX, and increased SSBT density in key locations.
“Combined with enhancements in pricing, promotions, and in-store experience, we believe this will strengthen our competitive position.”
While William Hill has already demonstrated improved performance, evoke’s other main brand 888 had seen a revenue drop, which the company said was due to its change in strategy to remove ‘unprofitable marketing’.
Evoke remain confident that the positive signs from 888 towards the end of H1 will see its contribution to the group grow.
At the start of this month, it was announced that 888 Casino is returning to the Netherlands after a four-year absence, In collaboration with the ComeOn Group.
Jim Munro is a betting industry and gambling expert who has been a national newspaper journalist for over 30 years, predominantly at The Sunday Times and The Sun, where he wrote a weekly soccer betting column. Jim also worked on the launch of Virgin Bet with Gamesys and was subsequently head of editorial at LiveScore, the sports media and betting group.
