Q&A: Winner.ro CEO and evoke strategy chief on securing a podium position in Romania

Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is often touted as one of the next boom markets as the region continues to grow in prominence and international firms turn their attention to growing markets. One only has to look at Entain snapping up Polish market leader STS and Croatian firm SuperSport in the past few years and Flutter taking a 51% stake in Serbian business MaxBet in January to recognise that focus is firmly on CEE.

Evoke has now joined the party after taking a 51% ownership stake in New Gambling Solutions, the parent company behind Romanian local hero Winner.ro for €10m. The deal was announced in August before completing in early October, with evoke promoting Romania to one of its core markets alongside UK, Spain, Italy and Denmark.

The London-listed operator had held its own local presence in the market, but by combining with Winner.ro, will now take a combined market share of around 7% – and with plans to grow that percentage in the offing.

Winner.ro, which is led by former Fortuna Entertainment Group head Nicklas Zajdel as CEO, has around 80 staff on the ground which will be added to by evoke’s 500 employees based in the nation.

The deal also marked the first M&A move by evoke since Per Widerström took up the reins as CEO in October 2023. Here, Zajdel and evoke chief strategy officer Vaughan Lewis explain why the deal was attractive for both parties and what future aspirations the business holds for the growing Romanian market.

EGR: What made Romania stand out as the next core market for evoke? There would have been multiple factors, but did anything take precedence, such as TAM, advertising regulations, etc?

Vaughan Lewis (VL): Romania is a really exciting market. It was worth approximately €1.1bn in net revenue in 2023 and, according to Regulus Partners, is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 13% from 2023 to 2026. It’s also a market that is going through an evolution. New local regulations and high levels of localisation are not only making the market dynamics more attractive for us, but also creating rising barriers to entry.

With Winner, which has built a strong market presence through its focused strategy to deliver innovative products and highly localised experiences, we believe we can build on our existing position in the market to grow market share and become a top-three operator. This is why we have decided to graduate the market from one of our ‘optimise’ markets to a ‘core’ market, alongside the UK, Spain, Italy and Denmark.

Vaughan Lewis, evoke CSO

EGR: In a similar vein, why was Winner.ro the standout acquisition target for evoke?

VL: Winner is a fantastic local operator, with a strong product-led approach to really deliver for customers in Romania. Over recent years, it has built a strong position in the market and has several competitive advantages. This includes an all-new product suite, which is delivering rich content to players and enhanced personalisation as well as strong local distribution network with more than 20,000 retail deposit points.

The business also has a highly effective local management team with nearly 80 people based in Romania. The team will complement our 500 colleagues already based there, help us gain even greater insights into the local market and further strengthen our position in the market. When we look at the deal in the context of our evoke’s strategic framework, this deal will enable us to hit all three of our competitive advantages in Romania.

It will allow us to lead with distinct brands and products relevant to local consumers; bolster our local expertise to ensure we deliver operational excellence driven by data insights; and create even more opportunities for our colleagues to grow and realise their full potential. We’re really excited by the deal.

EGR: As per the announcement, the deal isn’t expected to change evoke’s full-year 2024 guidance. When do you anticipate the transaction becoming accretive and to what scale?

VL: The transaction closed in early October, so there will be a small benefit in 2024, but we expect it to have a big impact in 2025, when we expect the acquisition to enhance earnings and reduce leverage for the group. This will be delivered by our dual-brand strategy for the market, which will deliver strong ROI from marketing and synergies from the combination.

EGR: In terms of the options to take full ownership of Winner.ro by 2026, are those options tied to anything in particular?

VL: The terms of the deal will see evoke own between 51% and 57% of the business, based on a 2026 earn-out calculation. We have an option to increase to full ownership on the third anniversary of completion, so in Q4 2027. For us, this is a fantastic opportunity – through the low-capital, high-impact combination of Winner’s local hero brand with a highly complementary, world-renowned casino brand in 888, we will aim to increase our market share and build upon our podium positions in the market.

EGR: As a slight adjacent, does the Winner deal mark the type of M&A that we can expect from evoke moving ahead to change optimise markets into core markets? Or head into a brand-new market entirely?

VL: Earlier this year, we set out our clear market focus and are currently focused on attractive ‘core’ markets, which reflect 85% of total revenue for full-year 2023. We want to build on our market positions in these markets. Our ‘optimise’ markets are those where we maximise cashflow and value – primarily to support activity in our core markets. In Romania, the deal with Winner, which creates a really strong combined business with highly relevant brands and products for local players, creates opportunities for us deliver sustainable and profitable growth and build a leading position in the market.

This is why we’ve graduated it to a ‘core’ market. Looking forward, we see potential for further ‘core’ markets in the group over time, which could either be through M&A, including our partnership with 888AFRICA, or could be through changes in market conditions and strengthening of our competitive capabilities as we execute our strategy. 

EGR: What does being acquired by evoke mean for Winner in terms of recognition of the quality of the business?

Nicklas Zajdel (NZ): This combination is a testament to the hard work of our colleagues, who have helped transform Winner into a really strong local operator with several compelling competitive advantages – from our extensive distribution network and local expertise to genuinely innovative and locally relevant products for players.

I look forward to working with the team at evoke to further deploy these competitive advantages across the enlarged business, driving significant benefits to our customers with enhanced personalisation and ultimately driving our success in the market and value creation.

EGR: You’ve been CEO since last year, so this is a significant change in the trajectory of the business. Did you expect M&A to be on the table so soon after joining?

NZ: When I joined, it was clear there were huge ambitions for the business. This combination immediately takes us to being one of the top players, and we are aiming to be a top-three player in the market before not too long.

Nicklas Zajdel, Winner.ro CEO

EGR: What will be the challenges and benefits of meshing the existing Winner workforce and evoke’s Romanian headcount?

NZ: There will be huge benefits to our combination. Winner has an existing workforce of approximately 80 colleagues in Romania, and we will be joined by a number of employees from evoke. In addition, evoke has more than 500 people based in Romania who offer support across many of the group’s core functions. The combined business will enhance our local expertise, while combining highly complementary brands in Winner and 888. This will create opportunities for us to learn from one and other and evolve our local proposition to expand upon our competitive advantages and build an even stronger local position. In the coming years, we believe the combined business can become a top-three operator.

EGR: In terms of shared knowledge, what are you expecting to learn from evoke and, in turn, what do you think Winner will be able to bring to the table?

NZ: Evoke has a long history of leveraging content-rich products across its world-class brands to deliver unique and differentiated experiences for players around the globe. I’m excited to work with Per, Vaughan and the team and take learnings from evoke’s track record of success and take Winner to the next level.

Similarly, I believe our local expertise can help enhance evoke’s local customer value proposition, experience and product delivery in the market. We have a deep understanding of the kind of content local players want, how best to reach them and build loyalty and also of the local regulatory landscape. We believe this will add significant value to the combined business.

EGR: Romanian is a market currently dominated by Superbet. The announcement noted the combined company would be around the fourth largest in the market, so what is the long-term goal here?

VL and NZ: By leveraging our enhanced local expertise and combining Winner’s hero local brand and 888casino’s world-class casino brand, we believe there are significant opportunities to deliver sustainable and profitable growth. In the future, we are targeting a podium position in the market. The overall market is growing strongly, and we plan to grow market share, making this joint venture a material business in its own right. 

EGR: Are there any synergies being explored as part of the deal, and if so, could you expand on those and when you expect to achieve them?

VL and NZ: The combined business will benefit from synergies as we leverage our enhanced scale, benefit from a dual-brand approach and leverage expertise from across both businesses.  This will enable us to better leverage local data when bringing new products to market, deliver greater ROI via our dual-brand strategy and build market share gains profitably.

EGR: The combined business will also run off third-party tech via Newton. What was the thinking behind outsourcing the platform rather than choosing in-house?

VL and NZ: Winner has been utilising the Newton platform since its launch, benefiting from its highly localised approach in technology, product and player engagement. Beyond these essential features, Newton offers a comprehensive proprietary gamification suite directly embedded in the product, real-time AI-driven content delivery for both betting and casino, real-time AI-powered player engagement and monetisation tools, a social hub with feed and chat functionality, and a range of other distinctive features that bolster its competitive advantage.

EGR: Is there any opportunity for the Winner brand to expand outside of Romania following the acquisition?

VL and NZ: As one of our ‘core’ markets, our immediate focus is on building a podium position in Romania.

EGR: What are the hopes and aims over the next 12-24 months for the combined business?

VL and NZ: We are really excited about the future of the combined business. Now, post-completion, our attention turns to delivery. We plan to migrate the 888 brand and player base onto one platform, and then benefit from significant scale economies, and delivering strong benefits to our customers. Our focus is on delivering our dual-brand strategy, building on the fantastic track record of success that Winner has already delivered and leveraging our combined local scale to target a podium position in Romania.