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So be prepared for an absolutely shocker of a budget is what Reeves is saying. Things are just going from bad to worse under this government. Welfare spending is completely out of control, and they're destroying the productive economy to fund it.

This share will probably end the year in the 30's.

Pretty good results overall - especially the continued revenue growth, but nobody dares touch this share with this tax-everything-in-sight government in power.

Along with the issues of completely out of control welfare spending there is a lot of government debt rolling over onto higher rates, and they're going to have to find a lot of money to pay that. Debt interest was £25bn in 2020-21. By 2024-25 it was £105bn, and could be approaching £150bn for this tax year.

Unless they make significant cuts to spending in this budget then there is likely trouble ahead even if gambling taxes aren't raised this time.

Q3 results released 28th October. Will be interesting to see what they say about potential implications of further tax raids in the budget.

It does seem like a worst case scenario playing out unfortunately. But really this extends beyond just gambling companies. How can any company in the UK plan ahead or invest in this environment when they could be hit by a crippling tax raid at the next budget?? You can't operate under these conditions.

A significant number of companies are going out of business, and this governments attitude is "well we'll need to tax the surviving businesses even harder to make up the shortfall!"

It's unbelievable seeing it back down at this level! Hard to see what could turn it around in the medium term really. Maybe the budget including spending cuts might provide some respite, as otherwise the rampant spending on benefits and welfare means it'll just keep getting hit at every subsequent budget.

They could potentially sell the retail estate. I know Boylesports were interested back in about 2021, but whether they would risk it now under the government, I'm not sure.

Draftkings and play tech have both shown interest in the company in the past, but I think they might also be scared off by the threat of government tax raids.

Polymarket are doing very well in the US, and I'm not sure if they could be a potential buyer to get a UK gambling licence and also access to other markets evoke operates in?

Gambling is one of the few sectors the UK is good at, & expands into overseas markets with. It seems unfortunately that means nothing to this government, and they'll just tax the sector to death, then they'll move onto the next sector like banking or wherever & tax the life out of that & so on.

Until there is a change of government it's very hard to be positive about anything in the UK. Just batten down the hatches and wait is all you can do.

Not sure exactly the reason for the drop yesterday, but Flutter did mass layoffs yesterday (I used to work in the industry, so saw the flood of 'open to works'). I don't think it's been formally announced. Might indicate H1 is shaping up to be a bad one overall.

The key thing to look out for in the AGM will be plans to migrate William Hill to the 888 platform. I suspect it will happen this summer as the football season is now over. Once that's done they can make the old WH platform redundant, and decommission a ton of systems and data centres and make a large number of support staff redundant. This will incur costs obviously, but then they are nolonger running two platforms simultaneously, so that's when the real cost savings will start to materialise.

Nothing that I've seen. The events I'm watching for is the AGM on 28th May, and any reports that the William Hill platform has been migrated to the 888 platform (this will take place after the football season has finished, and outside of any major sporting events).

Agree, the timeframe is unknown. What I'm watching out for is an announcement that William Hill online has been migrated to the 888 platform. I think that will trigger the final round of layoffs as the old platform becomes completely redundant, and I think that will mark the turning point.

This is pretty much exactly in line with what I'm thinking. Private equity are unlikely to make a bid until there is a clear upward trend established, then I could see something over £2 and maybe around £2.50 if there are multiple interested parties.

It's not impossible somebody like Playtech or Draftings could front run this though, and maybe offer £1.80 or £1.85 while the SP is still in the gutter, which I think 888 would consider.

They've had significant 'one off' costs in the last few years with many layoffs as they integrate the companies, so there must be lots of severance being paid, they offloaded the US business at a £50m loss, closed the Bulgaria office, downsized the Leeds office, and they also paid a £9.4m regulator fine. Most of the 'big hits' are out the way now, and they have a reduced headcount, so lower wage bill.

They also have the option of selling off the shops if they want to raise cash. BoyleSports showed interest in them in 2021

As someone who worked at William Hill on a contract for a while - potential for cost savings here is enormous! They put out quite a polished product, but could probably do it with half the staff if things were run more efficiently.

Obviously they've faced headwinds like regulatory measures and the insane budget tax raid, but i think when they've finished the 888 integration (which really means everything running on the 888 platforms), then things should improve dramatically with the financials.

Once we see 2-3 quarters in a row where debts are being paid down, then I think private equity will swoop. The company don't need to import anything physical, so it's an attractive proposition really.

There is also a clear 'return to office' trend now, and I think this will really accelerate this summer. This would boost the retail side with people back in city centres and out on their lunch breaks.

Needless to say I'm invested! No guarantees of course. But the risk - reward ratio looks very attractive at this level imo.