evoke shares rose on Tuesday after the betting and gaming group announced a 5% revenue increase to £435m in the third quarter, marking its fifth straight period of year-on-year growth as all three operating divisions expanded.
The owners of William Hill, 888 and Mr Green maintained their full-year guidance, reiterating expectations of achieving an adjusted EBITDA margin of at least 20%. The company gave investors reason to be cheerful by saying it was confident it could deliver adjusted EBITDA ahead of current market expectations.
evoke shares were 4% higher at the time of writing.
Growth was broad-based. UK&I Online revenues grew 1%, with an 8% rise in sports offset by a 2% decline in gaming.
International revenues climbed 8%, driven by double-digit growth in Italy, Denmark and Romania. Spain saw a slowdown, whilst non-core markets declined.
Retail delivered 6% revenue growth. Both sports and gaming advanced 6%, the latter benefiting from new gaming cabinets rolled out earlier this year.
Denmark was a real bright spot following migration to evoke’s in-house platform, with Q3 growth of 19% and monthly revenue reaching all-time highs.
In Italy, 888 continues gaining casino market share whilst William Hill has returned to pre-migration daily revenue levels after addressing sports product gaps on the Exalogic platform.
“During Q3 we continued to execute against our strategy which is transforming our long-term competitive capabilities and building a more efficient and profitable business,” said Per Widerström, CEO of evoke.
“With Retail continuing the improving trend from Q2, all three divisions were in growth during the quarter. Whilst our refined approach to UK Online marketing to drive improved profitability slightly held back our top-line performance, we are pleased to have recorded our fifth consecutive quarter of profitable growth,” said
“We have clear plans in place to support an improvement in revenue during Q4 through continued acceleration in product enhancements, including retail sports and our recently launched new William Hill Vegas app. We are also making ongoing improvements to our customer lifecycle management capabilities. Alongside this, the improvements we have made to the operating model and efficiencies in our cost base mean we remain confident of achieving our implied Adjusted EBITDA guidance, which would outperform market expectations.”
The company is deliberately reducing marketing spend on 888 to improve returns, whilst delivering strong double-digit contribution growth across both brands.
The group successfully launched its Final One Standing free-to-play game, attracting over 300,000 entrants in the first week with strong conversion to cash activity.
New accumulator products, including an omni-channel Acca Boost, are driving improved customer engagement and higher structural win margins.