Business
Acquisition of Winner.ro
Acquisition of Winner.ro.
About this update from Evoke Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\n \n23 August 2024\n \nevoke Plc\n(\"evoke\" or \"the Group\")\n \nAcquisition of Winner.ro\nCreation of evoke's fifth Core Market with leading position in high-growth, regulated Romania online market\nevoke (LSE: EVOK), one of the world's leading betting and gaming companies with internationally renowned brands including William Hill, 888 and Mr Green, is pleased to announce the acquisition of New Gambling Solutions S.R.L (\"NGS\"), which operates Winner.ro (\"Winner\"), the #7 online betting and gaming operator in Romania.\nevoke will inject its Romania business plus a cash consideration of €10 million (on a debt-free, cash-free basis) in exchange for a 51% share in the enlarged Romania business, which will bring together 888.ro with Winner to create the #4 group in the market with combined market share of approximately 7%. The combined Romania business, NGS, will operate a multi-brand strategy, leveraging a local hero brand alongside a highly-complementary, world-renowned casino brand.\nBased on a 2026 earn-out calculation, evoke will own between 51% and 57% of the business, with an option at its sole discretion to increase ownership to 100% from the third anniversary of completion. \nThe combination of Winner and 888 in Romania fully aligns with evoke's strategy and value creation plan:\n· The large and fast-growing Romanian market was worth approximately €1.1 billion in net revenue in 2023 and is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 13% from 2023-2026 (Regulus Partners). The attractive market dynamics are creating rising barriers to entry, with strict local regulations and high levels of localisation.\n· Winner was launched in 2019 and has built a strong market presence through its focused strategy to deliver innovative products, highly localised experiences, and significant local distribution through 20k retail deposit points. In the first 6 months of 2024, Winner delivered gross gaming revenue of approximately €19 million.\n· The transaction is consistent with evoke's strategy to focus on low-capital, high-impact routes to value creation. It is expected to enhance earnings and reduce leverage for the Group in 2025 and beyond benefitting from both strong growth in the Romanian market, an effective dual-brand strategy enhancing ROI from marketing, an...