As noted by the company, the CMD will comprise a series of presentations from members of its executive leadership team, who will outline the enlarged group’s updated strategy and priorities. This includes key growth opportunities, financial targets, and an update on the anticipated cost synergies following the acquisition of the non-US assets of William Hill, which completed in July 2022.
888 will present a series of new financial targets for 2025, including revenue of above £2bn ($2.4bn), an adjusted EBITDA margin above 23%, and adjusted net debt/EBITDA of less than 3.5x.
Moreover, the company will announce an acceleration and increase in anticipated cost synergies, with an increase in the pre-tax cost synergy target to approximately £150m, and an acceleration of delivery, with approximately £87m operating cost synergies expected to be achieved in 2023.
“Today we set out our approach to unlocking the significant benefits of the combination of 888 and William Hill and I am pleased to share a more detailed view of our strategic direction and priorities,” said 888 CEO Itai Pazner.
“As a newly combined business we have significant scope for improving our operating model and delivering efficiencies. Over the next two years we plan to fully integrate our business – creating a bigger, stronger and better organisation with higher profit margins.
“We are focused on building a customer-led business with a portfolio of world-class brands that provide complementary offerings, supporting our ambitions to drive market share growth in some of the most attractive betting and gaming markets in the world. This will be enabled by a scalable, unified proprietary technology stack that will underpin our product and content leadership focus.”
888 noted that there have been material external changes since the acquisition that it must address at the CMD, including the operating environment becoming more challenging and the group being more exposed to the effect of higher interest rates given its current levels of debt, while the overall market growth rates across its key online markets have moderated.
Pazner added: “Our long-term potential remains exciting. Building our unified tech platform will present us with real future growth opportunities as we take advantage of our world-class brands, product and content leadership, and customer excellence to set our business for the next decade of growth.”
