888 and William Hill owner evoke has confirmed a two per cent drop in revenues for the first half of the 2024 financial year.
Revenue fell to £862m from £881.6m, driven by UK retail betting’s eight per cent drop year-on-year – as reported in the company’s July trading update.
And it registered a loss of £143.2m in H1 2024, the loss widening by 341 per cent from £32.5m in H1 2023.
However, evoke added in its latest update that revenue is up four per cent sequentially on the second half of 2023.
Adjusted EBITDA of £116m was 26 per cent down year-on-year and equates to a margin of 13.4 per cent, in line with the prediction of a range of between 13 per cent and 14 per cent given in the July update.
Going forward, evoke expects a “significant improvement in profitability” in the second half of the year compared to H1.
“This will be driven by the full period benefit of the £30m cost saving programme, more effective marketing that is focused on our core customers and enhanced product,” the company said.
“The benefits of increased focus and capabilities means that the online marketing ratio is expected to be 18-19 per cent in H2 compared to 25 per cent in H1.
“Profitability will also benefit from reduced US B2C losses as part of the market exit, and the ongoing benefits of the new One Company operating model, with a reduction in layers in the business and increased usage of lower cost locations.”
CEO Per Widerström said the financial performance in the first half of the year was “disappointing” and “behind our initial plan.”
But he said the “underlying health” of the business is “getting stronger.”
“We are completely transforming this business,” Widerström said. “Whilst the scale of change is significant, it is necessary for us to deliver mid- and long-term profitable growth and value creation.
“We have already taken bold, decisive actions to both instigate a turnaround in short-term trading performance while simultaneously investing into the group's capabilities to drive step-change value creation and build a bigger, more profitable, more sustainable and more cash-generative business in the future.”
