The long-running takeover saga between Bally’s Intralot and evoke has reached a conclusion, as the latter’s board recommended shareholders approve an offer valuing the company at £243 million. But with a combined debt burden of approximately £3.4 billion and Oaktree Capital, a private credit facility, brought on lend £900 million in funding, the work for Bally’s Intralot is only just beginning.

Sitting down on the iGaming Daily podcast, host Charlie Horner is joined by SBC Media’s editor-at-large Ted Menmuir to assess what the deal means for both businesses, the future of evoke’s biggest subsidiary William Hill, and what it signals for the broader UK market.

How Things Look

On paper, the logic of the merger appears straightforward as two established, but battle-scarred operators, combine to create a group capable of generating roughly £3.5 billion in annual income. Beyond this, the merged entity could leverage commercial partnerships and compete against the upper tier of UK operators. 

In practice, things aren’t always that straightforward.

“No one denies that this is a risky combination,” Menmuir posits, pointing to the overlapping legacy infrastructure across platforms including Kambi, OpenBet, GameSys and Playtech as one of the more pressing integration challenges facing the new leadership team. 

Menmuir was also clear that framing this as a growth story would be premature. With remote gambling duty now at 40%, and the competitive dynamics of the UK market intensifying, the more honest characterisation may be survival-driven consolidation as Menmuir says, “Everyone in the UK is on the same boat”. 

William Hill

Much of Bally’s focus will inevitably fall on William Hill – evoke’s flagship UK asset – which has in recent years also grown to be evoke’s most complicated. The brand has been weakened by constantly changing leadership, a failed integration with 888 and a struggling online casino offering, but Bally’s CEO Robson Reeves is optimistic.  

His view, as parroted by Menmuir, is that William Hill has been unfairly pigeonholed as a sports betting brand, and that untapped potential exists in its casino vertical if the right technology and product decisions are made. 

Their immediate priority, however, is much simpler: stop the bleeding. “There is no honeymoon period for any UK leadership team at a PLC level. Not in this environment.” said Menmuir.

Athens > London

Following the acquisition, the combined businesses will look to delist from the London Stock Exchange and relist in Athens with the move set to place it among the top 10 PLCs on the Greek exchange while opening access to Euronext index funds across Europe.

Reeves’ case for the move, put to him directly by Menmuir on the media call, was that Athens offers a cleaner capital markets environment away from the scrutiny that has defined evoke’s recent years on the LSE.

Whether that argument holds up over time remains to be seen, but the optics are not lost on the market. Another FTSE-listed gambling company has chosen to look elsewhere…

The First Domino?

Horner circled back to one of the episode’s main questions: is this the opening move in a wider consolidation of the UK market?

Ted gives his answer: “It’s my belief that this is the first transformative deal of a new era for gambling, not just the UK alone and it’s reflective of what leadership views in the market and how the markets are going to play out”. 

Menmuir argues that Bally’s Intralot and evoke haven’t solved the problem, but rather positioned themselves to absorb the pain now and emerge on the other side of it in 2028 with a cleaner structure and a credible platform for growth. 

This is, of course, a longer-term bet than most investors will be comfortable sitting with. But in a UK market where the cards have already been dealt, it may be the only play left on the table.

Check out the full episode of the iGaming Daily Podcast here.