Evoke rings the changes to focus on reset
Cultural shift ongoing at William Hill parent, GGR growth in Europe, Finnish fears &Co
Good morning, on Gaming&Co today:
Evoke turnaround continues as 888-era CSO to depart in summer
Online market drives GGR in Europe to new heights
Finland: Affiliate marketing marketing ban will backfire, says trade body
News shorts: bet365, OpenBet, Spain, Netherlands, Oddschecker
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Evoke CSO to depart, with group reset on track
William Hill and 888 parent hails “radical transformation” of the past 18 months
New era: The last surviving executive of the 888 Holdings era, CSO Vaughan Lewis, will leave Evoke this summer, as the business continues the “cultural shift” instigated by CEO Per Widerstrom when he joined the business 18 months ago.
Lewis was brought into 888 in 2020 to internationalise the business through M&A. After completing the $2.1bn acquisition and integration of William Hill, slimming down to five core markets which account for 90% of revenue and no M&A on the horizon, his job seems complete.
“We have transformed the business with a complete reset,” Widerstrom told analysts. “The strategy is working and we are pleased with our progress but we know there is more to do.”
By the numbers
Evoke delivered a modest revenue increase in 2024 of 3% to £1.75bn, with adj. EBITDA for FY24 up 4% to £312.5m, although it shot up 33% during the second half of the year to £197m. UK retail was the only blip on the copy as FY24 revenues dropped 5% to £506m.
Changes unseen: “On the face of it you could be forgiven for thinking it was quite a pedestrian year, but the figures don’t reveal the full scale of the radical transformation of the business,” said CFO Sean Wilkins.
During 2024, Evoke withdrew from Argentina, Colombia, Latvia and the US as it focused on cost savings and efficiency across the business.
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Online driving European GGR growth
France is third largest European market according to H2-EGBA data
Record revenue: The European gambling market delivered record GGR of €123.4bn in 2024, a YoY increase of 6.3%, according to new data published by H2 Gambling Capital for the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA). Online gambling continued to be a major driver of growth, delivering 39% of total market GGR, up from 37% in 2023.
Britannia rules ok: The UK remains Europe’s largest gambling market with total revenue of €30.8bn, followed by Italy at €25.5bn, France at €17.8bn, and Germany at €17.7bn.
Long-term growth: EGBA expects the market to grow 3.5% to €127.7bn in 2025, with online delivering €51bn. Looking further ahead, the market is projected to reach €149.2bn in GGR by 2029, with online expected to grow at 6.9% annually and reach €66.8bn.
Maarten Haijer, Secretary General of EGBA, said: “While land-based gambling remains dominant and continues to grow in absolute terms, online channels are showing stronger momentum, driven by changing consumer preferences and technological advancement.”
📊 Revenues by product and channel
(© H2 Gambling Capital)
Ban on affiliates in Finland will backfire, warns new report
Government takes aim at marketing with draft regulations
Nordic noir: The proposed ban on gambling affiliate marketing in Finland could lead to a surge in illegal operators dominating search results, a key trade body has warned. Reducing the size of the black market is a key driver behind Finland moving from a state monopoly to a multi-licensed approach, but the government’s plans to ban affiliates under the new framework will likely prove counter-intuitive, the Quality Mark Responsible Affiliates (QMRA) said.
Dutch courage: In a new report - released a week after the draft Gambling Bill was presented to Finnish parliament - the QMRA pointed to experiences from the Netherlands, where it said restrictions on legal affiliates have allowed unlicensed gambling platforms to thrive in search rankings.
Counterproductive: The report warns removing licensed affiliates in Finland would lead to a lack of consumer protections, increased fraud and greater exposure of vulnerable players to unregulated gambling.
QMRA Director Steven Vrolijk said: “If Finland bans legal affiliates, its search results may soon be dominated by illegal results.”
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News shorts
Online betting giant Bet365 will cease its activities in China tomorrow (27 March). The UK group confirmed the news yesterday and told EGR that it was “a business decision”. The group’s revenues from China have dropped considerably in the past decade and according to some industry observers, the decision could be related to its US activities and coud open up the possibility of the Coates family envisaging a sale.
OpenBet’s senior leaders have completed the $450m management buyout of the sports betting solution provider. The agreement was announced in Nov24 and follows the group's parent company Endeavor Holdings’ announcement last week that it will pay Sportrardar $225m to take over its data firm IMG Arena.
Closing deals: OpenBet currently works with FDJ United and PMU in France, but the former is planning to migrate to Kindred’s KSP in the next 12-18 months and PMU has said it will overhaul its sports betting strategy this year.
Spain’s iGaming GGR rose 17.6% YoY to a record €1.45bn in 2024 as players deposited €4.58bn and withdrew €3.15bn from their accounts during the period. Online casino GGR was up 17% to €730.7m while sports OSB rose nearly 24% to €609m, the highest rise of any vertical. Active player numbers increased 21.7% to 1.9 million.
Marketing spend was up 30.4% to €526.3m across advertising, affiliate and sponsorship activities. The total amount spent on bonuses rose 31% to €261.5m, helped by the country overturning its ban on welcome bonuses.
The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has vowed to continue fighting advertising from illegal operators in 2025 and revealed that the Dutch online gaming market grew by nearly 5% and its share of the country’s overall market grew to 34% in 2024 from 29% in 2023.
New recruits: FairPlay Sports Media, the parent company of Oddschecker, has recruited Jerome Underhill and Andrew Smith as COO and CFO respectively. The executives will lead FairPlay Technologies, a newly-launched division focused on product and betting technology. Underhill previously worked at Xandr, Microsoft’s advertising subsidiary, while Smith’s most recent role was as Playtech CFO.
Calendar
Results: 27 Mar: Playtech
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