{"id":13423,"date":"2025-11-24T12:40:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T15:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/?p=13423"},"modified":"2026-04-19T11:31:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T14:31:47","slug":"william-hill-to-exit-10-african-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/william-hill-to-exit-10-african-countries","title":{"rendered":"William Hill to exit 10 African countries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Closures linked to subpar performance and the operator&#8217;s broader strategy to focus on larger and more profitable markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Nigeria.- Starting <strong>December 2,<\/strong> <strong>William Hill<\/strong> will stop offering online gaming and betting services in 13 markets, including ten African countries such as <strong>Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Angola, Burkina Faso, Somalia, Mozambique, Sudan, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Evoke Plc<\/strong>, which bought William Hill in 2022 for \u00a32.2bn (\u20ac2.6bn), confirmed the closures will affect the <strong>William Hill, Mr Green and 888 brands<\/strong> in these territories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A company spokesperson said: &#8220;On a periodic basis, we review the products we provide in markets across the world. In this instance, we have made the decision to close the William Hill, MRG and 888 brands in a selection of markets across Africa and Asia.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the company noted that the separate 888Africa joint venture, launched in 2022 with local partners to serve regulated African countries, is not affected and will continue operating normally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Evoke hasn&#8217;t specified reasons for exiting each country, the decision may be linked to its subpar performance in these African jurisdictions and its broader strategy to focus on larger and more profitable markets like <strong>the UK, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Romania<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite <strong>an 11 per cent increase<\/strong> in international revenue in the first half of 2025, the company is implementing cost-cutting measures of up to \u00a325m (\u20ac29m) and expects slower overall growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company has assured customers in the affected jurisdictions that their balances will remain secure and all open bets will be honoured until December 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A notice to customers read: &#8220;Your balance is safe with us. If you have any open bets, these will be settled as normal up until the 2nd of December 2025. Any bets that are due to be settled after the 2nd of December 2025 will be voided and refunded to your account.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Players can continue to log in and withdraw money until January 5, 2026. After that date, accounts will be locked and any remaining funds can only be claimed by contacting customer support.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label\">See also:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-article\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/11\/LONACI_SHELL--300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href='https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/national-lottery-of-cote-divoire-launches-lonaci-games-at-shell-petrol-stations'>National Lottery of C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire launches LONACI games at Shell Petrol stations<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Closures linked to subpar performance and the operator&#8217;s broader strategy to focus on larger and more profitable markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":7520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Evoke Plc is ceasing online gaming and betting operations for its William Hill, Mr Green, and 888 brands in 13 markets, predominantly African, effective December 2. This strategic divestment is attributed to subpar market performance and a corporate pivot towards larger, more profitable regulated jurisdictions like the UK and Europe, alongside broader cost-cutting initiatives. The 888Africa joint venture remains operational and unaffected by these closures.","focusai_entities":"William Hill, Evoke Plc, Mr Green, 888, 888Africa","focusai_location":"Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Angola, Burkina Faso, Somalia, Mozambique, Sudan, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, UK, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Romania, Africa, Asia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (0.8), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.9), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Evoke's Market Strategy","query":"What specific financial metrics or operational challenges in these African and Asian markets prompted Evoke Plc's strategic divestment, and what is the projected impact on its consolidated NGR and EBITDA margins from focusing on core regulated jurisdictions?"},{"label":"Regulatory & Competitive Impact","query":"How will the withdrawal of William Hill, Mr Green, and 888 brands from these 13 markets impact the local regulatory compliance landscape and create competitive opportunities for other licensed operators or emerging market entrants?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60016,60012],"tags":[60036],"class_list":["post-13423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-west-africa","tag-igaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13423"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13487,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13423\/revisions\/13487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}