Evoke's Q3 Revenue Falls 7% to £406m as 270 Shop Closures and Customer-Friendly Results Bite

The owner of William Hill, 888 and Mr Green reported a 2% like-for-like revenue fall for the third quarter, after 2% growth in the first half, in a brief update with no divisional figures, no profit number and no guidance. Its chief executive used it to lobby the Treasury five days before the Budget.

• Evoke plc revenue fell 7% to £406 million in the three months to 30 September, against £435 million a year earlier, according to its Q3 2026 trading update published on 23 October
• Excluding about 270 fewer shops and at constant currency, revenue fell 2%; evoke says customer-friendly football results cost 1 to 2 percentage points
• The update gives no divisional split, profit or debt figure, and no guidance while the all-share takeover by Bally's Intralot is pending
• Evoke says the majority of regulatory approvals for the deal are in, with completion now expected "late" in the fourth quarter of 2026 or "early" in the first quarter of 2027
• Chief executive Per Widerström urged the government to "carefully consider any further increases" before the Budget on 28 October, when Machine Games Duty is reported to be rising to 25%

Fewer Shops, Kinder Football and a One-Number Update

Evoke reported group revenue of £406 million for the third quarter of 2026, down 7%, in an unaudited trading update on Friday 23 October. On a like-for-like constant-currency basis, which strips out the approximately 270 fewer shops than a year earlier, revenue fell 2%.

Evoke attributes part of the fall to "particularly customer-friendly sports results in the beginning of the football season", which it estimates took 1 to 2 percentage points off growth, leaving revenue "broadly stable on a normalised basis". That normalisation is its own calculation, and the update does not split the roughly five-point gap between the reported and like-for-like figures between closed shops and currency.

A year ago the Q3 2025 update reported revenue of £435 million, up 5%, with growth figures for each of its three divisions. This one gives a single group number: no adjusted EBITDA, no leverage figure and no outlook. Evoke has given no forward-looking guidance since January, first because of its strategic review and then, as its interim results put it, "considering the recommended acquisition by Bally's Intralot".

The Shop Estate and the First Half

Evoke had 1,024 shops open at the end of June against 1,302 a year earlier, a 21.4% reduction, after closing about 200 in May, according to its H1 2026 interim results. Retail revenue fell 2.6% to £245.6 million but rose 4% like for like, and retail adjusted EBITDA rose 5.4% to £31.2 million, which the company put down to closing loss-making shops.

Across the half, UK and Ireland online revenue rose 3.5% and International fell 1.9%. Adjusted EBITDA fell 9.5% to £150.2 million after a £46 million rise in gaming duties, more than half of which evoke said it offset through lower marketing and cost cuts.

The Deal, the Debt and the Duty

Remote Gaming Duty rose from 21% to 40% on 1 April 2026, and a 25% remote betting rate follows in April 2027; evoke put the extra duty at £125 million to £135 million a year before mitigation. The strategic review it began after the November 2025 Budget ended in the Bally's Intralot agreement of 5 June, approved by shareholders in August.

Evoke said on Friday that "the majority of the required regulatory approvals" have been received and that completion is expected late in the fourth quarter or early in the first quarter of 2027. The interims gave the window simply as the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027.

The deal also carries evoke's refinancing. Net debt was £1,899.4 million at 30 June, 5.6 times adjusted EBITDA. Two tranches totalling £769 million mature in July 2028, and the £200 million revolving credit facility, £157 million drawn, becomes repayable in January 2028 if most of that debt is not refinanced first. On completion, a new five-year second-lien facility would repay the 2028 tranches. Without it, the directors see a material uncertainty over whether evoke could improve profits enough to refinance in time; they flagged a second one if the deal completes, citing their lack of visibility over Bally's Intralot's intentions.

Widerström said the business "continues to show resilience". "The closure of 270 shops over the past year shows the real impact on jobs and livelihoods from higher industry taxation, and we urge the UK Government to carefully consider any further increases ahead of its forthcoming Autumn Budget," he said. Evoke shares were at 42.0p on Friday, unchanged on the previous close, on Yahoo Finance data.

A Trading Update Without Numbers Makes the Budget Plea the Headline

Evoke has stopped showing the market its divisions just as the duty rises work through them. A single group figure cannot show whether the 2% like-for-like fall came from UK online gaming, which carries the 40% rate, from International, already shrinking in the first half, or from the remaining shops. The most substantive passage is addressed to the Treasury, not investors. Flutter made the same argument this week when it put up to 1,400 UK and Ireland jobs at risk. The closures are real, but evoke's own report shows the slimmer estate earning more, which suggests not every closed shop was a casualty of tax.

Like-for-Like Growth Has Turned Negative, Even if Football Explains Most of It

Like-for-like revenue went from 2% growth in the first half to a 2% fall in the third quarter. Evoke's answer is the football: take out 1 to 2 points and revenue is flat. That may be right, but the normalisation is the company's own and the release offers nothing to test it against. Even on its figures, the quarter is flat at best, with the higher duty in full effect and marketing already cut. Offsetting duty with lower spending works only while revenue holds.

The Deal Decides What the Budget Costs Evoke

With 1,024 shops at the end of June, evoke is among the operators most exposed to Machine Games Duty, which The Times has reported will rise from 20% to 25%, a figure the Treasury has not confirmed. For a standalone evoke, a bigger tax bill would land on a group at 5.6 times leverage with £769 million to refinance by early 2028; completion moves that problem onto Bally's Intralot and new financing. The shares at 42.0p appear to be tracking the all-share terms rather than this quarter, which would explain why the update did not move them.

Evoke's quarter was weak but not alarming on its own measure, and the measure is all the market was given. What the Budget takes on 28 October, and whether Bally's Intralot closes on time, will matter more to William Hill's shops than anything in this update.