Bally’s Intralot closed the first half of 2026 with €1.62 billion in adjusted net debt, €125 million more than the €1.49 billion it carried at the end of 2025, while the group keeps preparing to acquire William Hill and Mr Green owner evoke. Its pro forma adjusted net leverage ratio sat at 4.05x on June 30, with management pinning much of the increase on spending tied to its new gaming-machine monitoring contract in Australia.
The single biggest contributor was an €85 million payment for Bally’s Intralot’s 15-year electronic gaming machine monitoring license in Victoria. Net interest payments took another €67.5 million, treasury share transactions €20.8 million, other investing activities €20.5 million, and transaction fees and bond issuance costs €14.5 million. Free cash flow of €89 million offset some of that, though unfavorable currency movements on sterling-denominated debt pushed the other way.
Revenue for the half came in at €544.2 million against €182 million a year earlier, a comparison heavily distorted by the consolidation of Bally’s International Interactive. That business alone contributed €377.6 million in revenue and €132.8 million in adjusted EBITDA over the six months, lifting total adjusted EBITDA to €184.8 million from €60.2 million in H1 2025. Legacy B2B revenue went the other direction, falling 10.1% on a reported basis as weaker US lottery activity and equipment sales dragged on the segment.
None of that higher earnings turned into a first-half profit. Bally’s Intralot posted a €7.2 million pre-tax loss, compared with €9.8 million of earnings in the same period last year. Net finance expenses jumped to €69.6 million from €14.4 million, and between depreciation, transaction fees, and the bigger interest burden, most of the additional EBITDA from the Bally’s International Interactive combination got absorbed.
The UK business also had to swallow the remote gaming duty increase from 21% to 40% on April 1, which Bally’s Intralot put at roughly €34 million in the second quarter alone. Revenue growth and operating-cost reductions offset around 65% of that hit, the company said, while UK online revenue still grew 11.6% year over year on a constant-currency basis in Q2 and hit a record level.
July brought another potential €306 million of financing capacity, after Bally’s Intralot signed a £261.8 million senior secured term facility with institutional lenders. The three-year financing splits into two tranches and can go toward working capital, acquisitions, or refinancing existing debt, and the company pointed specifically at its wider acquisition plans when announcing it.
Those plans revolve around the proposed evoke acquisition, which values the William Hill, 888, and Mr Green owner’s equity at roughly £243 million. Evoke shareholders approved the all-share deal on Aug. 17 with 99.63% of votes in favor, and Bally’s Intralot has its own shareholder meeting set for Sept. 18. Completion is expected in Q4 2026 or Q1 2027, once the remaining regulatory approvals come through.
Evoke arrives with a substantial debt load of its own, reporting £1.90 billion in net debt at the end of June and leverage of 5.6x. Its H1 revenue was almost flat at £887.5 million, while adjusted EBITDA dropped 9.5% to £150.2 million as higher gambling duties, especially in the UK, pushed costs up. Part of Bally’s Intralot’s acquisition financing is meant to refinance evoke debt maturing in 2028.
Morningstar DBRS held Bally’s Intralot’s issuer rating at B (high) in June, but moved its outlook from Positive to Stable once the evoke deal was announced. The agency expects the acquisition to materially increase both total debt and interest costs, forecasting closing net leverage around 4.8x and adjusted gross debt-to-EBITDA of about 5.2x. It expects leverage to come down over time through EBITDA growth, synergies, and mandatory repayments, while warning that debt-to-EBITDA approaching 6x could trigger negative rating action.
Liquidity stood at €287.3 million at the end of June, made up of €192.3 million in cash and restricted cash plus €95 million of unused revolving credit. Last year’s Bally’s International Interactive transaction gave the group a much larger revenue base heading into the evoke acquisition, but its own debt has kept climbing right before it takes on an operator carrying almost £1.9 billion of net debt.