Evoke’s Strategy Shift Pays Off with Higher H1 Profit and Growth

Evoke PLC has shown strong results in the first half of 2025. This marks its fourth straight quarter of growth. The company has seen a big jump in profits. This success comes from a shift in strategy to focus on international markets and to boost efficiency in operations.

Evoke Sees Profit Surge as Overseas Growth Offsets UK Decline in H1

In the first half of the year ending June 30, the group’s revenue grew by 3% compared to last year, reaching GBP 887.8 million ($1.2 billion). The adjusted EBITDA jumped 44% to GBP 165.9 million ($225 million), which pushed the margin up to 18.7% from 13.4% in the previous year.

The company also managed to reduce its pre-tax loss to GBP 77.7 million ($105 million) from GBP 147 million ($199 million), while achieving an adjusted pre-tax profit of GBP 12.6 million ($17 million), a turnaround from last year’s loss. Tight control over expenses had a significant impact on these results, with operating costs dropping by 14% and marketing expenses decreasing by almost 8%. This happened even as the company kept investing to upgrade its products.

Overseas business had a big impact on profits. Money from key foreign markets — Italy, Spain, Denmark, and Romania — went up over 20% when you do not count currency changes, and this part of the company made twice as much money.

On the flip side, online income from the UK and Ireland dropped 1% because there were not any big soccer events like last year, and the company spent less on ads, but this area still made 37% more money. Store income fell 2% overall, but started growing again in the second quarter after the company put in 5,000 new gambling machines, which brought in 15% more cash per machine.

Evoke CEO Credits Transformation Plan for Sustained Growth and Strong Outlook

CEO Per Widerström said the results showed how their transformation program has paid off. This program aimed to focus on making money in key markets while leaving less profitable areas, like the US B2C business. He highlighted progress in automation, AI-based customer interaction, and combining platforms as the main reasons for better profits and customer value.

Widerström also said that growing for four quarters in a row has put the group in a good spot to keep this up in the second half of the year. Additionally, a strong lineup of new products and better operations will help with this.

Evoke kept its full-year outlook the same. It expects revenue to grow 5–9% and the adjusted EBITDA margin to be at least 20% for 2025. The company also repeated its medium-term goals. These include yearly revenue growth in the same range, about 100 basis points of yearly EBITDA margin growth from 2025 on, and debt below 3.5x by the end of 2027.