The owner of William Hill and 888 could put itself up for sale after last month’s Budget dealt a hammer blow to the firm’s UK business.
London-listed Evoke’s chief executive Per Widerstrom warned in the aftermath of Rachel Reeves’s latest Budget that an ‘ill-thought-through, counter-productive, and highly damaging’ tax raid worth £1.1billion would result in thousands of job losses.
And the group, which also owns the online-only Mr Green brand, told shareholders on Wednesday it would conduct a strategic review to consider ‘a range of potential alternatives to maximise shareholder value’.
This could include ‘a potential sale of the group’ as a whole, or Evoke opting to flog some of its assets.
Evoke has appointed Morgan Stanley and Rothschild & Co as its joint financial advisers for the review.
Evoke shares soared 6.1 per cent to 23.25p around midday, having plummeted by more than 60 per cent since the start of the year.
Evoke owns the 888, William Hill and Mr Green brands
The group and its major UK rivals have previously warned the Budget tax raid on the sector will cost jobs, close high street bookies and strengthen illegal black market operators.
The Chancellor’s latest Budget raised the remote gaming duty levied on online casinos from 21 to 40 per cent, and lifted the levy on online sports betting from 15 to 25 per cent.
However, horse racing was spared from online sports betting hike and the Chancellor also abolished a so-called ‘bingo duty’ of 10 per cent.
Analysts at Peel Hunt expect the changes to lead to ‘a seismic shift in the landscape and significant consolidation over time’.
They added: ‘However, that retail was broadly left untouched (bingo duty has finally been abolished!) implies a divergence in how the Government views bricks versus clicks.
‘Although the tax grab is undoubtedly a negative for the entire industry (with a significant risk of leakage offshore), the impact will not be equally felt, with those operators boasting a significant retail presence, or of suitable scale, better placed to mitigate the impact and gain share.’
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