888 one of the world’s leading betting and gaming companies with internationally renowned brands including 888, William Hill, Mr Green and SI Sportsbook, will today hold a Capital Markets Day.

The CMD will comprise a series of presentations from members of 888’s executive leadership team. The presenters will outline the enlarged Group’s updated strategy and priorities, including its key growth opportunities, financial targets, and an update on the anticipated cost synergies following the acquisition of the non-US assets of William Hill (which completed in July 2022).

In connection with the CMD, 888 will present a series of new financial targets for 2025, consisting of: Revenue of above £2 billion: Refined strategic focus on a smaller number of key markets, with clear targets to drive greater market share and build sustainable long-term market leadership positions;

Adjusted EBITDA margin above 23%: Focus on building scalability into the enlarged Group’s operating model, using the benefits of unified proprietary technology and operations to drive higher profit margins; Adjusted net debt / EBITDA of less than 3.5x: Extremely disciplined approach to capital allocation, with a focus on leverage reduction to less than 3.5x by end of 2025; and Adjusted EPS of at least 35p: Strong focus on core equity growth drivers to deliver the benefits of the enlarged Group.

In addition, the Group will announce both an acceleration and increase in anticipated cost synergies, with: An increase in the pre-tax cost synergy target to approximately £150 million (previously at least £100 million), of which approximately £34 million are expected to be capital expenditure related synergies (previously £15 million); and 

An acceleration of delivery, with approximately £87 million operating cost synergies expected to be achieved in 2023 (previously £54 million).

Itai Pazner, CEO of 888, commented: “Today we set out our approach to unlocking the significant benefits of the combination of 888 and William Hill and I am pleased to share a more detailed view of our strategic direction and priorities. 

As a newly combined business we have significant scope for improving our operating model and delivering efficiencies. Over the next two years we plan to fully integrate our business – creating a bigger, stronger and better organisation with higher profit margins. We are focused on building a customer-led business with a portfolio of world class brands that provide complementary offerings, supporting our ambitions to drive market share growth in some of the most attractive betting and gaming markets in the world. This will be enabled by a scalable, unified proprietary technology stack that will underpin our product and content leadership focus.

While our financial leverage is currently higher than our mid-term target, our streamlined operations and capital discipline will give us a clear path to deleverage to less than 3.5x by the end of 2025. 

Our long-term potential remains exciting. Building our unified tech platform will present us with real future growth opportunities as we take advantage of our world class brands, product and content leadership, and customer excellence to set our business for the next decade of growth.”