Evoke plc

Good morning everyone and thanks for joining us today for our first half 2026 results. I am Per Widerstrom and I'm joined today by Sean Wilkins, our CFO. Starting with the agenda on slide two, the format today is deliberately short. I will begin with a brief overview of the context for today's presentation and the first half performance. Sean will then take you through the financial results and cash flow in a bit more detail before we open the line for questions. Starting with slide three and before getting into the performance I want to briefly discuss the recommended acquisition by Ballast Intralot which we announced a little over two months ago. The announcement followed a comprehensive strategic review initiated by the board The board concluded that the recommended acquisition represented the most attractive and deliverable proposal available to Vogue and its shareholders. The acquisition remains subject to the relevant shareholder regulatory and other approvals including our own shareholder vote next Monday the 17th of August. I am pleased to tell you that progress with the relevant filings is going to plan and we still expect to complete in the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027. As a result we are keeping Financial Guidance and during the Q&A we won't be able to add anything on the transaction beyond the information contained in a published announcement and other form of documentation. Operationally our priorities are unchanged. We remain focused on maintaining momentum, serving our customers, supporting our colleagues, meeting our regulatory obligations and managing the business with discipline through the completion of the transaction. Turning to slide four and the first half performance. This was a period that really demonstrated the resilience of the underlying business in what was materially more challenging external environment in terms of increased duties in several of our core markets and most notably in the UK. Group revenue was stable at 888 million pounds and increased by 2% on a like for like basis accounting for the 270 store closures versus the prior year. In terms of profitability, the first half had 46 million pounds year-on-year headwind from increased gaming duties. Against that backdrop, adjusted EBIT of 150 million pounds was down 10%. By down 16 million year-on-year, the result also shows that mitigating actions we set out early in the year are working and are offsetting a meaningful part of the duty impact. The second quarter saw a continuation of the Q1 trends. We outlined that there were full year results and Q1 update, with the strongest performance coming from UK and Ireland online. Revenue grew 4% and adjusted April increased 28%. This despite the additional duties kicking in from April. William Hill Vegas continues to perform very well, supported by the change we have made to marketing, promotion investment, and customer value to produce better returns. Retail are also making good progress. Like-for-like revenue grew 4% and adjusted EBITDA increased 5% despite smaller estate and continuing inflationary cost pressure. The closure of structured loss-making shops has improved the economics of the remaining estate, while trading following a machine rollout and improvements to self-service betting terminals has been encouraging. International was more mixed. Italy and Denmark continued to grow strongly, but that was offset by weaker revenue in Spain, Romania, and the rest of the world. Profitability was also affected by duty increases in Romania and Italy, and by a greater proportion of revenue coming from higher duty markets. We had plans in place to address several of these areas, and in Spain, for example, we have made significant product improvements recently, although these had only limited impact on the first half results. Overall, the business has responded decisively to a substantial increase in our cost base. Our focus remains on the areas we control, commercial efficiency, cost discipline, cash generation, and consistent operation execution. I will now hand over to Sean to go through the financials.

Thanks, Per. Turning to slide six, I'll now take you through the financial performance for the first half in a bit more detail. Firstly, I'd say performance overall has been in line with our expectations, so it's been a decent start to the year, all things considered. That said, the story continues to be mixed across markets and brands, driven by the actions we've been taking to drive growth and improve profitability. Total online revenue increased 1%. Within that, UKNI online grew 4%, with gaming up 7%. William Hill remained the key driver, particularly gaming, where William Hill Vegas continues to grow double digits and go from strength to strength. 888 revenue continued to decline as we maintained a deliberate focus on profitability and customer economics rather than pursuing low return volume. International revenue declined 2%, but the picture varied significantly by market. Italy delivered another strong period with revenue up 21% and Denmark grew 13%. These performances were offset by declines in Spain, Romania and the rest of the world. In Spain, the improvements made to product and marketing are taking time to translate into the level of performance we want. Romania continues to be affected by the combination of a weaker economy, higher taxes and the growth of the unregulated market. We have responded by managing marketing and promotional investment carefully to protect returns Retail revenue declined 3% on a reported basis, reflecting the smaller estate with 270 fewer shops than the prior year On a like for like basis, revenue increased 4%, supported by the continued strength of the gaming machines and improvements to self-service betting terminals, including 2,000 new ones being installed, leading to good underlying market share trends. Turning to adjusted EBITDA, the group delivered £150 million down £16 million year on year and broadly flat across the operating segments, excluding the increase in corporate costs, most of which is bonus accrual and balance sheet timing. This is despite the significant headwind of an additional £46 million in gaming duty costs year on year. Our original guidance was that we would offset around half of that gross headwind. In the first half, we've actually offset more than half of the headwind, albeit the UK changes were only effective from the 1st of April. We've achieved this through lower but more productive marketing investment, improved promotional efficiency and operational cost savings. You really see the impact of our mitigation efforts in the UK and I online adjusted EBITDA, which increased 28% despite the duty headwind. The full detail is in the appendix, but we have seen good savings across both marketing and operating costs, driving a much more efficient operation. International is where we are more disappointed with the start-up to the year, with adjusted EBITDA down 20%. The reduction was driven primarily by the higher duty rates in Romania and Italy, the shift in revenue mix towards higher duty markets, and weaker revenue in several markets. While these external factors have compressed gross margin, it nevertheless remains the highest margin of the group's segments, supported by leading positions in several attractive regulated markets. Retail adjusted EBITDA increased 5% despite the reported revenue decline and ongoing wage and cost inflation. The decision to close shops is never taken lightly. However, in the current external environment, it was necessary to address structurally loss-making locations. The performance of the remaining estate demonstrates the benefits of concentrating resources on a more productive shop portfolio. Corporate costs increased to £26 million, with the largest drivers being staff bonus accruals compared with no accrual in the prior year period, together with the timing of certain balance sheet movements in both the prior year and current year. The bonus accrual will ultimately reflect the relevant full year performance outcome. We're not commenting on current trading post period end, other than to say we continue to trade in line with our expectations. Clearly one call out worth making is on the World Cup, which was really successful from an operational point of view in terms of product delivery, commercial plans and driving customer engagement. It also exceeded our revenue expectations and provided a good springboard as we go into the upcoming football season. Turning to slide 7 and our cash flow. This is our usual bridge, taking you from opening to closing cash, excluding customer balances. The business generated £85 million of underlying free cash flow in the period, but with exceptionals and other one-off outflows, net debt increased by approximately £37 million. Together with a lower LTM EBITDA, this meant leverage was up to 5.6 times. Touching on a few of the key moving items. Working capital was a £14 million inflow, primarily reflecting higher gaming duty accruals, with UK duty paid quarterly in arrears. CAPEX of £51 million was slightly front-loaded given the Retail Closure Programme and some of our product investment, and will continue to be disciplined in terms of capital allocation as we go through the year, ensuring we see sufficient ROI on our plans. Exceptional costs of £27 million include £5 million for Retail Closure Programme and £7 million for the Strategic Review, as well as the ongoing Integration and Transformation Programme we've discussed before. Within other, this includes the repayment at par of the remaining £11 million outstanding on the 2026 William Hill bonds, together with the ongoing TLB amortisation of around £2 million. We also paid £11 million in relation to the historic Austrian gaming tax liability, where the final assessments have now been made and the remaining balance is currently being paid at approximately £2 million per month. At the period end, cash was £106 million and the group had £43 million of undrawn RCF capacity, giving total liquidity of approximately £150 million. As Per said, we will be disciplined with our capital allocation and focused on cash generation and balance sheet strength as we move through to completion. Finally, just to say, I think this slide and the increase in leverage really illustrates the constraints created by the group's existing capital structure, particularly following the significant increase in gaming duties. The board considered these constraints carefully as part of the strategic review, alongside the investment required to continue improving the operating performance of the business. The recommended acquisition provides a clearer path to a more sustainable capital structure, which was an important factor in the board's unanimous recommendation. With that, we'll move to Q&A.

Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please click the question box on the bottom of the webcast. Our first question from today is from Ricardo Chinchilla at Deutsche Bank. UK and Ireland online EBITDA increased 28% despite materially higher gaming duties. Could you quantify the contribution from revenue growth, marketing optimisation and operational efficiencies within that bridge? And secondly, international EBITDA declined 20% while revenue was only down 2%. Which specific geographies contributed most significantly to the margin compression beyond Italy and Romania duty increases?