evoke one of the world’s leading betting and gaming companies with internationally renowned brands including William Hill, 888 and Mr Green, notes the UK Budget in which it was announced that Remote Gaming Duty is set to increase from 21% to 40% from April 2026, and a new online sports betting duty of 25% will be applicable to sports excluding horse racing from April 2027, replacing the existing 15% General Betting Duty. 

In 2024, evoke paid taxes and duties of £329m to the UK Exchequer, equating to more than 60% of its UK profits. It is the Board’s assessment that RGD at 40% will result in substantial and far-reaching changes to the entire UK operating environment for betting and gaming, including driving further growth in the unregulated and untaxed black-market. As a result, the Board believes that the significant changes in RGD announced today will ultimately reduce the amount of tax generated by the UK gambling industry.

In addition, the significant increases in duties reduce the commercial rationale for licensed operators such as evoke to invest in the UK market and, consequently, the Board believes that several thousand UK jobs in the betting and gaming industry will be lost as a direct result. This will mean substantially lower investment from the industry into UK sports, especially horseracing, placing elements of the broader betting and gaming supply chain at severe risk.

Crucially, the Board believes the duty increases will severely jeopardise the progress made by the licensed UK betting and gaming industry during recent years regarding safer gambling. As a direct result of today’s changes, the Board expects that – as has been seen in other markets that have experienced significant tax increases – regulated betting and gaming products will need to become more expensive for consumers, which will in turn drive more players to the black-market where there is no protection for customers, no accountability for operators, and no tax generation.

Prior to any mitigating actions and based on the Board’s expectations for gross gaming revenue ahead of today’s UK Budget announcement, these changes in tax rates would increase duty costs by approximately £125-135m on an annualised basis once fully implemented from April 2027, with approximately £80m of the pre-mitigation impact arising in FY26 given the timeframe for implementation. 

The Group currently expects to be able to mitigate approximately 50% of the impact from higher duties over the medium-term through supplier savings, reduced marketing, retail store closures, operating cost savings, and potential changes to the customer proposition. As one of the leading and largest operators in the UK market, the Group is better positioned than many to navigate this increase and, over time, potentially stands to benefit from further consolidation of market share with the likely exit of smaller operators due to the rising costs.

The Group is withdrawing its medium-term financial targets as it evaluates its future investment plans as a result of these significant duty changes. A further update will be provided as and when appropriate. 

Per Widerström, CEO of evoke, commented: “The decision today by the UK government to substantially raise taxes is highly damaging for the economy and consumers. As an industry, we have consistently warned of the significant impact on jobs, investment in the UK, and player protection that these changes would have, yet sadly the Government has chosen not to listen. These proposals are ill-thought-through, counterproductive, and highly damaging. It is clear these changes will significantly harm businesses, employees, and customers. 

We will begin immediately on executing our mitigation plans, which involve a significant reduction in investment into the UK, and, very regrettably, the likely need for thousands of jobs to be cut up and down the country. As a result of the actions now required, these tax changes will reduce the overall level of tax the regulated industry pays in the UK, and more importantly it will have a significant negative impact on player protection as these changes will incentivise activity moving to the illegal and dangerous black-market.”