Evoke Plc has called 2024 a pivotal year for its business, fulfilling its promise to return to growth in the online segment, despite an increase in corporate losses to £191 million ($238.75 million).
The company, listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), reported that it successfully met all of the objectives and commitments of the first year of its Value Creation Plan (VCP), showing improved profitability across the group in the second half of the year.
Key achievements include a 3% revenue growth in the 2024 financial year to £1.75 billion ($2.19 billion) (2023: £1.71 billion/$2.14 billion), marking the first increase in three years, driven by “dynamic growth in the online segment and a significant acceleration in the second half of the year.”
The group’s EBITDA stood at £230 million ($287.5 million), a 9% decline compared to 2023 (£252 million/$315 million). In its annual report, Evoke recorded £90 million ($112.5 million) in exceptional items and adjustments, mainly related to the exit from its U.S. joint venture (-£43 million/-$53.75 million) and restructuring under the VCP (-£47 million/$-58.75 million).
However, the impact on overall results was partially mitigated by the management highlighting the contribution of adjusted EBITDA in the second half, which amounted to £197 million ($246.25 million) (+33% growth), supported by the identification of £45 million ($56.25 million) in recurring cost savings.
The year ended with a net loss of £191 million ($238.75 million) — marking the third consecutive annual loss for Evoke since the acquisition of William Hill Plc by 888 Holdings in July 2022.
This loss includes debt servicing and refinancing costs totaling £168 million ($210 million), as well as exceptional items amounting to £162 million ($202.5 million) (U.S. exit, VCP initiatives, and amortization charges).
Per Widerström, CEO of Evoke Plc, commented: “2024 was a pivotal year for Evoke as we launched and implemented our new strategy for success, radically transforming almost every area of the business and moving decisively to create a more sustainable, profitable, and cash-generative company.”
“Whilst a transformation of this scale is never easy, I am pleased with the strong progress we made during the year as we built a winning team and delivered a consistently great customer experience. I am very proud of how our teams embraced the major changes implemented during 2024 and would like to thank all my colleagues for their continued skill and commitment.”
The key achievements of the year focus on Evoke’s return to growth in the online segment: the UK and Ireland division increased online revenue by 5.3%, reaching £693.2 million ($866.5 million). However, the region continued to face challenges due to a 5.4% decline in retail revenue, which dropped to £506.1 million ($632.625 million), leading to a 13.7% decrease in adjusted EBITDA to £209.1 million ($261.375 million) due to weak performance in the retail network.
International operations continued to outperform expectations, with revenue rising 7.3% to £555.2 million ($694 million) and adjusted EBITDA increasing by 30.8% to £130 million ($162.5 million) — driven by strong growth in key markets such as Italy, Spain, and Denmark. The growth momentum is expected to continue into 2025 with the integration of Winner.ro, making Romania an updated core market.
The Board of Evoke maintains its targets for the 2025 financial year, expecting revenue growth of 5–9% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of at least 20%.
The management plans to achieve additional cost savings of £15–25 million ($18.75–31.25 million) annually — a forecast that is expected to fully offset the anticipated £10 million ($12.5 million) headwinds due to changes in national insurance taxation and the National Living Wage in the UK.
However, Evoke has faced short-term headwinds in Q1 2025, which will result in revenue growth below guidance. This is primarily due to the introduction of additional safer gambling measures in the UK at the end of Q4, and a temporary slowdown as platforms normalise following a period of elevated activity in late 2024.
In the medium term, the group aims to reduce its debt ratio to below 3.5x by 2027, which will provide more time to build world-class capabilities.
CEO Widerström concluded: “We remain laser-focused on our core markets of the UK, Italy, Spain, Romania, and Denmark. These markets – where we have strong brands and market positions – now represent approximately 90% of our revenue, with each boasting attractive long-term growth potential, high barriers to entry, and established regulatory frameworks.
2025 is shaping up to be another exciting year for Evoke. While Q1 revenue growth is expected to be low single digit, we remain highly confident in our full-year expectations of 5–9% growth, in addition to driving further margin expansion through our more efficient operating model. Our exciting product pipeline, continued UK Retail optimisation programme, and ever-improving capabilities around data and personalisation all reinforce my confidence in making further progress in 2025 as we continue to execute against our plans to create significant shareholder value.”
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