{"id":2587,"date":"2026-04-20T13:21:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/?p=2587"},"modified":"2026-04-27T13:26:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:26:29","slug":"breaking-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/bettingjobs-earningsandmore-partnership\/breaking-cover\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Cover"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"header-anchor-post\">Bally ho!<\/h3>\n<div class=\"pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent\">\n<div class=\"pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA\"><strong>Half a pound:<\/strong> Evoke has confirmed it has received an approach from Bally\u2019s Intralot that values the company at 50p-a-share or a 28% premium to the already elevated share price on Friday.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>The statement came as a response to newspaper speculation that Bally\u2019s Intralot was in late-stage talks to buy the owner of William Hill, 888 and Mr Green.<\/li>\n<li>The speculation was accompanied by a 31% share price surge last week<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The future is uncertain:<\/strong> The statement added that the proposal is expected to comprise an all-share combination with a partial cash alternative. It noted there was no certainty that an offer would be made or what its terms might be.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Evoke said it was evaluating the offer with the help of its financial advisors, Morgan Stanley and Rothschild &amp; Co.<\/li>\n<li>It added that Bally\u2019s has committed to making an announcement on whether it will firm up a bid or withdraw no later than 5pm on May 18.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Are you sitting uncomfortably?<\/strong> Bally\u2019s Intralot said it believes a combination with Evoke would \u201chave the potential to deliver substantial strategic and operational synergies, including enhanced scale, an expanded geographic footprint and opportunities for cost efficiencies.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To get comfortable with any deal, Bally\u2019s Intralot will need to take on Evoke\u2019s sizable \u00a31.8bn debt pile.<\/li>\n<li>The company itself was <a href=\"https:\/\/earningsandmore.substack.com\/i\/167331636\/a-bigger-boat\">formed in July last year<\/a> when the Bally\u2019s interactive international business merged with Athens-listed lottery backend supplier Intralot.<\/li>\n<li>The common link is majority shareholder Standard General, which is run by sector dealmaker Soo Kim.<\/li>\n<li>In forging that deal, Intralot\u2019s net debt at the end of December stood at \u20ac1.49bn.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Double talk:<\/strong> Any transaction will see Bally\u2019s Intralot double-down on its exposure to the now highly taxed UK market, adding Evoke\u2019s online and retail exposure to its existing UK footprint.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Effectively the old Gamesys business, Bally\u2019s Intralot has a 94% exposure to the UK via the Jackpotjoy brand.<\/li>\n<li>Evoke launched a strategic review in December in the wake of the UK government\u2019s Budget announcement of a substantial hike in remote gaming duty to 40%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/earningsandmore.substack.com\/p\/breaking-cover\">Read the rest of the article by clicking here!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bally ho! Half a pound: Evoke has confirmed it has received an approach from Bally\u2019s Intralot that values the company at 50p-a-share or a 28% premium to the already elevated share price on Friday. The statement came as a response to newspaper speculation that Bally\u2019s Intralot was in late-stage talks to buy the owner of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bettingjobs-earningsandmore-partnership"],"acf":[],"post_author_name":"","post_authors_type":"","post_authors_from_team_members":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2590,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions\/2590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/2589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}