- Breaking
evoke Q3 2026 Trading Update: Revenue £406m, Down 7% as the Shop Estate Shrinks
evoke reported revenue of £406m for the three months to 30 September 2026, down 7% as reported and down 2% on an underlying basis, after about 270 fewer shops. The available summary gives no segment data or guidance.
evoke plc reported revenue of £406 million for the three months to 30 September 2026, down 7% as reported, in its third-quarter trading update. On an underlying basis, revenue fell 2% like-for-like at constant currency, once the effect of about 270 fewer shops is excluded, according to the company's release.
The Figures
The update, issued as a stock exchange announcement, gives group revenue of £406 million and the two growth rates above. A like-for-like, constant-currency measure adjusts for exchange-rate moves and changes in the number of trading outlets, aiming to show how the continuing business performed rather than how the whole estate changed.
The company said sports results were a headwind of between one and two percentage points, and that revenue was broadly stable once that effect is normalised. Sports results means the outcomes of events on which customers bet, which can affect a betting business's revenue from quarter to quarter.
What the Chief Executive Said
Chief executive Per Widerström said the business continued to show resilience. He also said the closure of roughly 270 shops over the past year showed the impact on jobs and livelihoods of higher industry taxation, and asked the government to consider carefully any further increases. These are the company's statements about its own position and tax policy; this article does not independently assess the causal claim.
Tax Backdrop
The UK Government's 2025 Budget set Remote Gaming Duty at 40% from 1 April 2026, up from 21%. It also introduced a 25% remote betting rate from 1 April 2027, with remote UK horseracing bets excluded from that change and remaining taxed at 15%, and abolished Bingo Duty from 1 April 2026. These are published policy changes, not proposals awaiting the October 2026 Budget. Trade reports say evoke was among the companies whose chief executives wrote to the Chancellor on 14 October asking for restraint on sector taxes. That letter is described in separate reporting and has not been verified against the original document for this article.
Bally's and Intralot
The release also updates readers on a transaction involving Bally's and Intralot. It says shareholders of both companies passed the required resolutions and that most approvals had been received, with completion expected in late Q4 2026 or early Q1 2027. The available summary does not explain how the transaction relates to evoke's own business, so no further inference is made here. The full announcement should be checked before publication.
What the Update Does Not Contain
- Revenue by segment, such as retail and online.
- Financial guidance for the full year.
- A net debt figure.
- Comment from a chief financial officer.
Readers looking for those items will need to wait for later company disclosures. This article does not estimate them.
Confirmed and Not Confirmed
Reported in the available evoke release summary: the revenue figure, both growth rates, the sports-results effect, the approximate shop count, the Bally's and Intralot timetable and the chief executive's statements. The source was available as a summary rather than a full-text verification in this preparation, so the article remains subject to fact-check.
Not confirmed: any breakdown of shop closures by brand or region, and any causal link between the closures and a specific tax measure beyond the company's own assertion.
Timeline
- 26 November 2025 — The UK Government publishes its Budget policy on gambling duty changes.
- 1 April 2026 — Remote Gaming Duty rises to 40%; Bingo Duty is abolished.
- 30 September 2026 — End of the quarter covered by the update.
- 23 October 2026 — evoke publishes its Q3 2026 trading update, according to the cited RNS listing.
- 28 October 2026 — UK Budget scheduled.
Bottom Line
evoke reports lower revenue as reported, a smaller underlying decline and a shrinking shop estate, and its chief executive links the closures to industry taxation. The update offers limited detail beyond that, so conclusions about profitability or full-year performance cannot be drawn from the figures presented here.
| Fact box | |
|---|---|
| Company | evoke plc |
| Period | Three months to 30 September 2026 |
| Revenue | £406m, down 7% reported |
| Underlying | Down 2% like-for-like, constant currency |
| Guidance | Not included in the summary reviewed |