Bally’s Intralot has confirmed that its takeover of evoke, the London-listed owner of William Hill and 888, will not be completed this year. The Athens-listed group now expects the outstanding gaming regulatory approvals and the Gibraltar court sanction hearing to be wrapped up by the first quarter of 2027, pushing the deal back from the end-of-2026 timetable that had been widely expected when terms were agreed in the summer.
The update came alongside the company’s results for the first nine months of 2026, published on 10 November, which also gave a fresh look at how one of Britain’s largest online gaming businesses is coping with the sharply higher Remote Gaming Duty.
Why the evoke deal has slipped into 2027
The two boards agreed terms on 5 June 2026. Under the offer, evoke shareholders are due to receive 0.537 new Bally’s Intralot shares for every evoke share they hold, a structure that valued evoke at roughly £243 million at the time of the announcement.
Shareholders on both sides have already given their backing. evoke investors approved the scheme in August, and Bally’s Intralot shareholders followed in September with a vote of more than 99% in favour. Because evoke is incorporated in Gibraltar, the takeover is being carried out as a scheme of arrangement under Gibraltar company law, which means a court there must formally sanction it before it can take effect.
What remains is the regulatory paperwork. Consents are still needed in markets including the UK, Gibraltar, Italy, Malta and several US states, because each licensing authority has to approve the change of control. Bally’s Intralot now says that process, together with the court hearing, should be finished by the end of March 2027.
The delay matters because of the savings case behind the deal. The companies have pointed to around £180 million of pre-tax cost and capital expenditure savings, measured up to the end of the second full year after completion. A later completion date pushes that clock back by the same amount.
UK online revenue keeps growing despite the 40% duty
The trading figures were the other talking point. Bally’s Intralot reported nine-month revenue of €830.3 million and adjusted EBITDA of €273.6 million, with both figures inflated against last year by the October 2025 combination with Bally’s International Interactive, the division that runs the group’s UK online gaming brands.
That international interactive arm generated €579.2 million of revenue over the nine months and €201.6 million in the third quarter alone, up 4% on the second quarter. According to trade coverage of the results, UK online revenue grew 12.2% year on year in the third quarter, a slight acceleration from 11.6% in the second quarter, and UK revenue for the nine months rose 11.4% to a record level.
Those numbers stand out because the tax burden has jumped. Remote Gaming Duty on online casino and similar products rose from 21% to 40% in April 2026, following the decision announced in the 2025 Autumn Budget. Bally’s Intralot said the higher rate reduced its adjusted EBITDA by around €68 million across the nine months. The company said growth, more efficient marketing and tighter cost control had clawed back a meaningful share of that hit, with reports putting the recovery at around 55% in the third quarter.
Elsewhere in the group, legacy business-to-business revenue fell 8.1% to €191 million over the nine months, mainly because of lower US lottery income, while Spain posted a record quarter with revenue up 18.9% to €13.3 million.
What it means for the UK market
For British customers, nothing changes yet. evoke continues to operate its brands under its existing UK Gambling Commission licences, and any change of ownership will only take effect once the regulator has signed off. The Commission assesses whether new owners are suitable to hold a licence, which is one reason cross-border deals of this size can take many months.
The bigger picture is a UK market that is consolidating under heavier taxation. BritishGambler has covered the build-up to the duty rise in our report on why the industry feared the 40% gambling tax, and the wider debate over higher licence fees, taxes and the black market.
Whether the combined Bally’s Intralot and evoke business can deliver the promised savings will not be clear until well into 2027. For now, the deal is on track but running later than planned. The full figures were reported by iNTERGAME.
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