Despite the looming threat of tax rises; the outlook for British gambling stalwarts evoke–owner of the storied William Hill brand–and the Rank Group, which was once synonymous with national across-the-board entertainment, is looking brighter thanks to much-improved financial quarters.
Ever-cognisant of the proposed upcoming tax raid by U.K. chancellor Rachel Reeves, who aims to strip an additional £3 billion in extra tax from the gaming industry, markets–the FTSE100 in the case of evoke and the broader London Stock Exchange in the case of Rank–have reacted with a modicum of caution to the results, ending September 30. But there can be no doubt that the British Omnichannels are back in contention.
While the value of shares in evoke, now helmed by steady-as-she-goes Per Widerström, are down by near-four percent today, Monday, the company’s iGaming operations, year-on-year, have shown an increase of eight percent in Q3.
Overall, evoke posted revenue of £417 million (US$543.11m/€500.62m) in the third quarter, three percent up on Q3 2023 – and the first quarter of year-on-year growth since Q1 2022 and the controversial over-the-top £2 billion acquisition (US$2.6bn/€2.4bn) of blue chip William Hill, much reported in these pages at the time.
Internationally, the company, with important markets in Denmark, Italy, Romania and Spain, enjoyed a 14 percent growth in revenue, y-o-y, in Q3, to £139 million (US$181.03m/€166.81m).
Iconic
But retail revenue, fronted by those iconic High Street William Hill betting shops, declined by nine percent in the period.
“Our online business is a clear growth engine for the group and we saw a return to double-digit online revenue growth in our core markets in Q3 2024 underpinned by our focused market strategy and supported by important product investments and the results of our clearer customer value proposition and segmentation.”
While evoke pushes ahead with its stated goal of pulling-out of the U.S. market by the first quarter of next year, Widerström said he was anticipating revenue growth of “up to nine percent” for H2 2024 and a big improvement in Adjusted EBITDA margin to around 21 percent.
“We are achieving our plans to improve trading in the short-term, while simultaneously radically transforming the group’s capabilities for the long-term,” stressed the evoke boss.
Momentum
Meantime, over at Rank, CEO John O’Reilly (pictured below) was banging his company’s famous gong for its Q1 financial quarter, ending September 30, that saw Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) leap 12 percent to £197.5 million (US$257.57m/€237.04m), with the group’s digital division NGR surging 15 percent, year-on-year, to £57.9 million (US$75.42m/€69.49m).
Rank’s Grosvenor Casino saw NGR rise 13 percent, like-for-like, to £95.3 million (US$/124.18m/€114.38m), boosted by a slight rise in visits and an 11 percent increase in spend-per-visit; while its Mecca bingo parlours also had growth, albeit of a more modest, four percent, nature to £34.7 million (US$45.22m/€41.64m).
NGR at Rank’s Spanish Enracha venues was also up – by nine percent to £9.6 million during the quarter (US$12.51m/€11.52m).
“We have continued to build on the momentum that we have generated over the past year and a half, and I am very pleased with our start to this financial year,” said O’Reilly.
“With all business units performing well, the double-digit growth in our Grosvenor venues and UK digital business is particularly encouraging.
The value of Rank Group shares may have dipped by just under two percent on Monday.
“[But] Customers [are] clearly enjoying the improvements we are making across our land-based estate and to our digital offering,” said CEO O’Reilly, whose stewardship of the legacy brand is leading Rank back to promise and stability.
