Evoke is to invest €10m to acquire a 51 per cent share in an enlarged Romanian business, bringing together 888 and the Winner operator brand in the market.
The combined Romanian operations will be formed from evoke’s acquisition of Winner parent company New Gambling Solutions (NGS).
Acquiring Romania’s seventh biggest online betting and gaming operator and combining it with 888’s existing presence will create the fourth biggest company in the market, evoke said, with a market share of around seven per cent.
Evoke will have the opportunity to acquire 100 per cent of the enlarged business from the third anniversary of completion. Before then, as part of a 2026 earn-out calculation, evoke will own up to 57 per cent of the business.
The acquisition is recently appointed CEO Per Widerström’s first at evoke. He said the company has enjoyed “significant success” in Romania, adding that the deal is expected to deliver “ongoing profitable growth and market share gains” through “two incredibly strong and complementary brands.”
The deal makes Romania evoke’s fifth core market after the UK, Italy, Spain and Denmark.
The combined business, NGS, will be overseen by Winner CEO Nicklas Zajdel, who joined the operator in 2023. He will be supported by a local management team and nearly 80 staff in Romania. This will add to the approximately 500 evoke employees already based in Romania.
Zajdel said: “This is an incredibly exciting transaction, bringing together our local-hero brand with one of the world's strongest international casino brands.
“Romania is a high-growth market, and this combination sets us on the path to a sustainable, profitable, market-leading position. Winner has a strong leadership team, and we are building on our success in the market through our highly localised approach and competitive advantages such as our product platform, our enhanced personalisation and wide network of deposit points.”
The combined business will operate on the third-party Newton platform.
The transaction is expected to complete in Q3 this year.
