£243M Evoke Takeover Enters Jersey Competition Review

Jersey has opened a competition review of Bally’s Intralot’s planned £243.1 million acquisition of evoke. The filing comes four days before Bally’s Intralot shareholders are due to vote on measures required for the takeover.

The Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority issued its Notice of Application on September 14. It covers Bally’s Intralot’s proposed purchase of the entire issued ordinary share capital of evoke. For now, this is an application rather than an approval. The regulator has not announced a decision or given a date for one.

Jersey was already written into the transaction documents when the deal was agreed in June. A 15M review of those conditions shows that the acquisition has three specifically named merger-control processes: Austria, Jersey and the UK.

Jersey Was on the Deal’s Original Approval List

The Jersey condition calls for written JCRA approval under the Competition (Jersey) Law 2005. The terms also allow for the possibility of a second detailed review if the authority finds competition issues that need further assessment.

That distinction matters for the latest notice. September 14 confirms that the Jersey process is active. It does not show that this part of the clearance list has been completed.

There is also no public list showing exactly which of the deal’s other regulatory conditions have already dropped away.

Evoke said after its August shareholder meetings that a number of antitrust and regulatory conditions had been satisfied. It did not identify them individually. Evoke shareholders had approved the transaction at the same meetings, including a 99.63% vote in favor at the General Meeting.

The June terms extend beyond the three competition reviews. They also contain foreign investment conditions in several European markets and gaming approvals in jurisdictions including the UK, Italy, Germany, Gibraltar, Malta, Canada and three US states.

This means the Jersey filing cannot yet be treated as evidence that Bally’s Intralot is down to its final regulatory approval.

September 18 Brings the Next Scheduled Vote

The next fixed date in the transaction calendar is September 18. Bally’s Intralot shareholders are due to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting that day. The meeting is part of the timetable published with the evoke scheme documents and follows the target company’s shareholder approvals in August.

The deal values evoke at about £243.1 million. Its shareholders are set to receive 0.537 new Bally’s Intralot shares for each evoke share, while a cash alternative is available subject to a £117.1 million overall cap.

Court Sanction Sits Ahead

The Gibraltar court still has to sanction the scheme after the other required conditions are dealt with. The companies continue to place that hearing, and completion of the takeover, in the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027.

So far, the September filings add two visible items to the deal calendar: Jersey’s competition review is now formally under way, and Bally’s Intralot has its own shareholder meeting still to come.