Evoke Takeover Clears Vote, Now Awaits UK Regulator Sign-Off

If you hold an account with William Hill or 888, the company behind your login is about to change hands. Shareholders of Bally’s Intralot, the Athens-listed lottery and gaming group, voted overwhelmingly on 17 September to approve a £243.1 million takeover of Evoke, the parent of both brands. It follows a similarly decisive vote by Evoke’s own shareholders in August, but the deal still cannot close until a string of gambling regulators, including the UK Gambling Commission, give their approval.

What’s actually changed

The Athens-listed company held its annual general meeting on 17 September, where the plan to purchase evoke for 52p per share, valuing the William Hill owner at £243.1m, was approved by 99.585% of Bally’s Intralot shareholders, with just 0.415% voting against.

This broadly corresponds with the results of Evoke’s own AGM, published 17 August, with 99.63% voting in favour.

Under the terms agreed back in June,
Evoke shareholders are set to receive 0.537 new Bally’s Intralot shares for each share they hold, with a cash alternative also on offer, capped at £117.1 million overall.
With both shareholder votes now secured, the focus shifts to regulators.
Jersey is one of three specifically named merger-control processes tied to the deal, alongside Austria and the UK, while the June agreement also carries foreign investment conditions in several European markets, and separate gaming approvals are still needed in the UK, Italy, Germany, Gibraltar, Malta, Canada and three US states.

The Gambling Commission’s role matters here because any change of corporate control over a licensed operator has to be assessed before it can take effect. As one analysis of the deal put it,
the deal will require regulatory approvals in multiple jurisdictions, most notably from the UK Gambling Commission, which oversees William Hill’s substantial British operations.
Completion is still pencilled in for
either Q4 2026 or Q1 2027
, but that timetable depends entirely on how quickly those approvals come through.

What it means for you

For everyday players, nothing changes at the login screen just yet. Your account terms, deposit limits and self-exclusion status stay exactly as they are while the takeover works through its regulatory approvals. But it is worth watching, because a change of controlling company can eventually affect how a brand is run.
Given the scale of Evoke’s UK footprint — William Hill alone still operates a large network of high street betting shops — regulators will be looking closely at how a lottery-technology specialist like Bally’s Intralot plans to run consumer gambling brands at this scale.

Evoke itself has acknowledged there is still uncertainty about how things will look under new ownership.
Evoke’s directors said they have limited visibility over Bally’s Intralot’s “ability and intentions to operate the group under its ownership.”
If you bank with either William Hill or 888, that’s a reason to keep an eye on any customer communications about the deal over the coming months, rather than something requiring action now.

The bigger picture

This takeover is partly a story about UK tax policy reshaping the market.
The company told investors that it had begun searching for a buyer in December 2025, when it initiated a strategic review of its business after the UK government announced increases in online gambling taxes, with the first increase – a rise in Remote Gaming Duty from 21% to 40% – coming into effect on 1 April this year.
That pressure has already had visible consequences for consumers, with
Evoke accelerating the closure of William Hill retail outlets this year, confirming that 200 more shops would shut their doors back in March.

Evoke also carries a track record that regulators will be weighing as they assess the change of ownership. The business, then trading as 888 Holdings, was hit with a record £7.8 million Gambling Commission fine in 2017 over player protection failings, and agreed to a further £19.2 million penalty in 2023 for social responsibility and anti-money laundering shortcomings. Whether Bally’s Intralot can convince the Commission it will run these brands to the standard expected of a UK licence holder is likely to be central to how quickly, and on what terms, this deal is allowed to close.

Sources

• SBC News – Bally’s Intralot shareholders overwhelmingly back evoke acquisition
• Northeast Times – Bally’s Intralot Shareholders Back £243M Purchase Of William Hill Owner Evoke
• Gambling Insider – Evoke Shareholders Approve Bally’s Intralot Deal Amid Liquidity Concerns
• Bettors Insider – Bally’s Intralot Backs Acquisition Ambitions With £261m Loan Amid Evoke Takeover