Profits slide at William Hill owner Evoke

William Hill and 888 owner Evoke reported a slump in first-half profits on Thursday as it highlighted a "disappointing" performance but sounded an upbeat note on the outlook.

In the six months to the end of June, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell 67% to £43.8m, while revenue dipped 2% from the same period a year earlier to £862m.

Evoke said the decline was mainly driven by UK Retail being down 8%, with UK & Ireland online revenues up 1% and International broadly flat.

Looking ahead, the company said it expects a "significant" improvement in profitability in the second half of the year. This will be driven by the full period benefit of the £30m cost saving programme, more effective marketing that is focused on core customers and enhanced product, it said.

Chief executive Per Widerström said: "As I said in our July trading update, while the financial performance in the first half was disappointing and behind our initial plan, the underlying health of the business is continually getting stronger. The corrective actions we have already taken give us even more confidence that our strategic approach is sound and that we will achieve sustainable success.

"We are completely transforming this business. Whilst the scale of change is significant, it is necessary for us to deliver mid and long-term profitable growth and value creation. We have already taken bold, decisive actions to both instigate a turnaround in short-term trading performance while simultaneously investing into the group's capabilities to drive step-change value creation and build a bigger, more profitable, more sustainable, and more cash generative business in the future."