888 Holdings will soon change its name to evoke plc after shareholders nearly unanimously approved the rebranding. At the company’s Annual General Meeting on Monday, 99.79% of the total votes cast were in favor of the new name. Of the 18 resolutions, just three had a higher “for” percentage than the rename, and they were all effectively routine administrative votes that most shareholders would just automatically vote for and they only eclipsed the evoke vote by 0.01%.
888 originally made the announcement of the potential name change in late March in its 2023 earnings report. It explained the goal was “….to better reflect the strength of the Group’s multi-brand operating model and its vision and mission to make life more interesting by delighting players with world-class betting and gaming experiences.”
Sure, I guess? Though not the online poker superpower it once was, 888 is still one of the most recognizable brands in the internet gambling industry. Newer brands like FanDuel and DraftKings are much bigger in the US, where 888 really doesn’t have any foothold in terms of name recognition, but that isn’t the fault of the name. “evoke” evokes a shrug, it just sounds like a corporate boardroom brainstorm.
888, beyond the use of the number 8, which is considered a lucky number in Chinese and other Asian cultures, at least stands out from the crowd. It’s interesting. Even if you don’t know that it’s a gaming company, you have a feeling there is something to it. When you I “evoke,” and it’s all-lowercase spelling, my eyes glaze over.
It appears that the new name is effective immediately, judging by a tweet from evoke plc on Monday:
While I am clearly not a fan of the name change, perhaps the company felt it was necessary because of all the brand movement in the industry over the last couple decades. The company isn’t just 888 and its associated sites anymore. It owns William Hill, Mr. Green, and of course 888poker, 888casino, and 888 sport. Renaming the company could help avoid brand confusion. And hey, if it wants to sell the 888 sites one day (I’m not saying this will happen, just brainstorming), it can do it much more cleanly than it could if the entire company was still name 888 Holdings.
The company’s stock still trades under the “888” ticker on the London Stock Exchange, but will soon switch over to “EVOK.”
