REG - Evoke PLC - Response to the UK Budget

EvokeAnnouncement

26/11/2025 18:00

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RNS Number : 1687J  Evoke PLC  26 November 2025

 

26 November 2025

 

evoke Plc

("evoke" or "the Group")

 

Response to the UK Budget

The Board believes that industry tax changes, which will begin to impact from
April 2026, will result in thousands of industry-wide job losses and increase
customer activity on the unregulated black-market, ultimately reducing the
overall monetary amount of tax the gambling industry pays in the UK

evoke (LSE: EVOK), one of the world's leading betting and gaming companies
with internationally renowned brands including William Hill, 888 and Mr Green,
notes today's UK Budget in which it was announced that Remote Gaming Duty
("RGD") is set to increase from 21% to 40% from April 2026, and a new online
sports betting duty of 25% will be applicable to sports excluding horse racing
from April 2027, replacing the existing 15% General Betting Duty.

In 2024, evoke paid taxes and duties of £329m to the UK Exchequer, equating
to more than 60% of its UK profits. It is the Board's assessment that RGD at
40% will result in substantial and far-reaching changes to the entire UK
operating environment for betting and gaming, including driving further growth
in the unregulated and untaxed black-market. As a result, the Board believes
that the significant changes in RGD announced today will ultimately reduce the
amount of tax generated by the UK gambling industry. In addition, the
significant increases in duties reduce the commercial rationale for licensed
operators such as evoke to invest in the UK market and, consequently, the
Board believes that several thousand UK jobs in the betting and gaming
industry will be lost as a direct result. This will mean substantially lower
investment from the industry into UK sports, especially horseracing, placing
elements of the broader betting and gaming supply chain at severe risk.

Crucially, the Board believes the duty increases will severely jeopardise the
progress made by the licensed UK betting and gaming industry during recent
years regarding safer gambling. As a direct result of today's changes, the
Board expects that - as has been seen in other markets that have experienced
significant tax increases - regulated betting and gaming products will need to
become more expensive for consumers, which will in turn drive more players to
the black-market where there is no protection for customers, no accountability
for operators, and no tax generation.

Financial impact and guidance

Prior to any mitigating actions and based on the Board's expectations for
gross gaming revenue ahead of today's UK Budget announcement, these changes in
tax rates would increase duty costs by approximately £125-135m on an
annualised basis once fully implemented from April 2027, with approximately
£80m of the pre-mitigation impact arising in FY26 given the timeframe for
implementation.

The Group currently expects to be able to mitigate approximately 50% of the
impact from higher duties over the medium-term through supplier savings,
reduced marketing, retail store closures, operating cost savings, and
potential changes to the customer proposition. As one of the leading and
largest operators in the UK market, the Group is better positioned than many
to navigate this increase and, over time, potentially stands to benefit from
further consolidation of market share with the likely exit of smaller
operators due to the rising costs.

The Group is withdrawing its medium-term financial targets as it evaluates its
future investment plans as a result of these significant duty changes. A
further update will be provided as and when appropriate.

Per Widerström, CEO of evoke, commented:

"The decision today by the UK government to substantially raise taxes is
highly damaging for the economy and consumers. As an industry, we have
consistently warned of the significant impact on jobs, investment in the UK,
and player protection that these changes would have, yet sadly the Government
has chosen not to listen. These proposals are ill-thought-through,
counterproductive, and highly damaging. It is clear these changes will
significantly harm businesses, employees, and customers.

 

We will begin immediately on executing our mitigation plans, which involve a
significant reduction in investment into the UK, and, very regrettably, the
likely need for thousands of jobs to be cut up and down the country. As a
result of the actions now required, these tax changes will reduce the overall
level of tax the regulated industry pays in the UK, and more importantly it
will have a significant negative impact on player protection as these changes
will incentivise activity moving to the illegal and dangerous black-market."

 

Enquiries and further information:

 evoke Plc                                       +44(0) 800 029 3050
 Per Widerström, CEO

 Sean Wilkins, CFO

 Investor Relations                              ir@evokeplc.com (mailto:ir@evokeplc.com)

 James Finney, Director of IR

 Media                                           evoke@hudsonsandler.com (mailto:evoke@hudsonsandler.com)
 Hudson Sandler                                  +44(0) 207 796 4133

 Alex Brennan / Hattie Dreyfus / Andy Richards

 

About evoke Plc:

evoke plc (and together with its subsidiaries, "evoke" or the "Group") is one
of the world's leading betting and gaming companies. The Group owns and
operates internationally renowned brands including William Hill, 888, and Mr
Green. Incorporated in Gibraltar, and headquartered and listed in London, the
Group operates from offices around the world.

The Group's vision is to make life more interesting and its mission is to
delight players with world-class betting and gaming experiences.

Find out more at: https://www.evokeplc.com (https://www.evokeplc.com)

 

Important Notices

This announcement may contain certain forward-looking statements, beliefs or
opinions, with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and
business of evoke. These statements, which contain the words "anticipate",
"believe", "intend", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "seek", "continue",
"aim", "target", "projected", "plan", "goal", "achieve", words of similar
meaning or other forward looking statements, reflect evoke's beliefs and
expectations and are based on numerous assumptions regarding evoke's present
and future business strategies and the environment evoke will operate in and
are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ
materially. No representation is made that any of these statements or
forecasts will come to pass or that any forecast results will be achieved.
Forward-looking statements involve inherent known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and contingencies because they relate to events and depend on
circumstances that may or may not occur in the future and may cause the actual
results, performance or achievements of evoke to be materially different from
those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Many of these
risks and uncertainties relate to factors that are beyond evoke's ability to
control or estimate precisely, such as future market conditions, currency
fluctuations, the behaviour of other market participants, the actions of
regulators and other factors such as evoke's ability to continue to obtain
financing to meet its liquidity needs, changes in the political, social and
regulatory framework in which evoke operates or in economic or technological
trends or conditions. Past performance of evoke cannot be relied on as a guide
to future performance. As a result, you are cautioned not to place undue
reliance on such forward-looking statements. The list above is not exhaustive
and there are other factors that may cause evoke's actual results to differ
materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of their date and evoke, its
respective parent and subsidiary undertakings, the subsidiary undertakings of
such parent undertakings, and any of such person's respective directors,
officers, employees, agents, affiliates or advisers expressly disclaim any
obligation to supplement, amend, update or revise any of the forward-looking
statements made herein, except where it would be required to do so under
applicable law. No statement in this announcement is intended as a profit
forecast or a profit estimate and no statement in this announcement should be
interpreted to mean that the financial performance of evoke for the current or
future financial years would necessarily match or exceed the historical
published for evoke.

 

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