Amid fevered take-over talks between wounded, debt-burdened British iGaming giant evoke and on-the-charge Bally’s Corp., the fate of evoke CEO Per Widerström–the man responsible, arguably, for the longest whinge in iGaming–is provoking a storm of speculation.
Worth well over US$2 billion (£1.49bn) at the height of its valuation, when operating as 888 Holdings, evoke is now poised to be shifted for a mere US$260 million (£194.05m) to Providence, Rhode Island-headquartered Bally’s through their European avatar Bally’s Intralot.
Few gambling industry watchers believe that Widerström, a Swede, with a hitherto impressive corporate record, will survive evoke’s putative sale to Athens-based Intralot.
Massive Debt
But the big question roiling iGaming’s higher echelons is will Widerström, formerly CEO of the Fortuna Entertainment Group, depart with grace or will he be ejected through the boardroom window like his predecessor Itai Pazner, the brilliant and mercurial Israeli who built the then-888 Holdings into a gambling giant before succumbing to hubris and massive debt in a deal too far by buying the discarded carcass of William Hill from Caesars Entertainment for £2.2 billion (US$2.94bn) in July, 2022.
Ever since that fateful decision to buy retail-heavy William Hill, with its 1,300 iconic High Street betting shops, all struggling to remain relevant in a gambling age driven by digital intelligence and iGaming, Widerström’s current employer has struggled to manage the massive attendant debt.
Lame Duck
Even a change of name, from 888 Holdings to evoke, and the defenestration of Pazner has failed to set a successful new course.
Widerström, appointed CEO on October 16, 2023, after the brief interregnum of Executive Chair Lord Jon Mendelsohn, soon launched a “mea culpa non est” to explain evoke’s faltering performance, a howl that soon mutated into a whinge about “taxes, taxes, taxes” – the longest whinge, some say, in British betting history, given new volume by UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ gambling tax-hiking Autumn Budget last year.
For their part, evoke, currently engrossed in sell-out talks with Bally’s Intralot, have repeatedly declined to comment on the fate of their lame duck CEO.
The William Hill owner’s Net Debt now stands at £1.86 billion (US$2.49bn) and they posted FY25 losses of -£549.1 million (-US$409.69m).
