Entain – FairOdds Network

February 18, 2025

Is the UK online market a growth source or are operators pulling back?

The long-established UK market is going through some seismic regulatory changes. Operators have had to grapple with new measures and impending reforms instituted by the Gambling Commission, raising the question is the UK still a source of growth or are operators pulling back?

The latest data from the Gambling Commission shows that the UK online market is experiencing growth in terms of player activity as gross gambling yield (GGY) from October to December 2024 was up 21% year-on-year to £1.54 billion.

Both online monthly active accounts and total bet and/or spins rose during that period. Total bets and/or spins hit a record of 25.9 billion during the quarter, up 8% year-on-year, while accounts grew by 3%.

Online slots GGY was up 15% to £709 million in the same period, while spins were up 9% to 23.9 billion. Average monthly active accounts were up by 10% to 4.4 million.

Despite this growth, the UK has faced a tough period of gambling reforms relating to the previous government’s Gam..

February 5, 2025

Greenblatt expects player acquisition decline as BetMGM aims to be “home of the premium mass player”

Entain and MGM Resorts' JV, BetMGM, expects player acquisition rates to slow as it looks to benefit from a premium player base placing higher value bets.

While the group posted a falling EBITDA, once again in the negative, in its FY24 results on 4 February, it pointed to a “year of investment” which sought to increase player value and active users of its product.

Speaking to analysts following the group’s full-year earnings call on 4 February, BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt said during the year the focus had been on investing in its igaming strengths and refining its marketing, attribution, CRM and segmentation models.

These helped to drive a stronger performance in the latter part of the year.

Monthly user growth expected to slow

Monthly users in the operator’s fourth quarter were up 55% year-on-year. Greenblatt said this was achieved without the addition of any new states. Total monthly active users for the year hit 946,000, up 14% year-over-year.

However, while BetMGM toute..

January 13, 2025

Weekend Report: Entain confident on FY24 earnings, Betfred exits Nevada, Concacaf seeks first betting partner

Welcome to the Weekend Report, where iGB looks at the news that you may have missed across Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This week: Entain confident on FY24 EBITDA guidance, Betfred exits Nevada and Concacaf seeks first betting partner.

Entain reiterates EBITDA guidance for FY24

Entain said it remains confident of EBITDA guidance for FY24 despite taking a hit in the latter part of the year from customer-friendly sports results in the US.

Entain set out full-year targets during its Q3 trading update in October. Here, it said group EBITDA would be at the upper end of a range between £1.04 billion (€1.24 billion/$1.26 billion) and £1.09 billion.

Now, Entain has repeated this guidance despite its BetMGM joint venture in the US being impacted in Q4. Unfavourable sports results meant players won more during the period, which in turn impacted performance.

Entain said BetMGM still expects to post EBITDA of negative $250 million for the full year. This is in line with earlier guidance issue..

January 7, 2025

What will it take to return UK retail betting to growth?

UK retail betting is in decline. Can the sector take inspiration from a high street betting stalwart and Serbia’s thriving social scene to turn the channel’s luck around?

UK retail betting continued its slow long-term decline in Q3 2024 with the channel’s gross gambling yield (GGY) falling 1% to £533 million in the UK, according to UK Gambling Commission data. Entain reported a drop of 2% in retail betting revenue in the market, while Evoke observed a 9% fall in revenue across its international retail portfolio.

Meanwhile online gambling is surging in popularity due to ease of access and improving technology. The Gambling Commission reported an overall Q3 GGY of £1.32 billion (€1.6 billion/$1.7 billion), with online real event betting GGY rising by 6% year-on-year to £453 million.

In its Q3 results, Evoke said it had hired a new retail managing director in September who had identified and actioned a series of measures to improve trading in the short term. This included the rollout ..

November 18, 2024

LatAm Q3 results round-up: Brazil betting launch dominates discussions

With the majority of the gambling industry having published their Q3 results, iGB looks at how operators fared in the region and their plans for the future there.

Brazil will launch its legal betting market on 1 January 2025 and one operator that is hoping to make a real dent in the market is the giant Flutter Entertainment.

Back in September, Flutter announced it had agreed to acquire an initial 56% stake in NSX Group, which operates the Brazil-facing Betnacional brand. The deal is worth $350 million (£266.5 million/€316.0 million).

For the nine months ending 30 September, Flutter reported year-on-year revenue growth in Brazil of 4%. In its earnings call following the Q3 results release, CFO Rob Coldrake spoke of the operator’s excitement for the market opening.

“We’re very confident about our approach in Brazil,” Coldrake told reporters. “We’ve grown with our brands that we’ve got there already. We’re very excited about the NSX acquisition.”

The NSX acquisition will create a new..

July 30, 2024

Caesars’ Big Brazil and Sportingbet apply for Brazil licences

Sportingbet and Caesars Sportsbook’s Big Brazil have submitted their licence applications in Brazil, becoming the fourth and fifth operators to do so.
Sportingbet applied for a Brazil sports betting and igaming licence on Thursday (25 July). The following day, Caesars Sportsbook’s licensee Big Brazil joined Sportingbet, Betano, Superbet and Rei do Pitaco in submitting its application.

In applying during the initial 90-day window of preference, Sportingbet and Big Brazil have ensured their applications will be prioritised by the ministry of finance’s Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA).

The SPA guarantees that operators who submit their applications by the 20 August deadline will have their applications processed by 1 January 2025, the anticipated launch date of the legal market.

Licences will last for five years and will cost BRL30m (£4.6m/€5.4m/$5.9m) in fees. Those who receive a licence will be able to offer gambling via three skins. Meanwhile, operators who fail to secure a lice..

March 25, 2024

Former BetCity owners fire €104 million demand back at Entain

BetCity's former owners have claimed Entain was not only aware of the KSA's investigations, but also severely impacted their earn-out.

The counterclaim against Entain has been submitted by BetCity’s former owners, which consists of various members of the Singels family. Also included are former CEO Melvin Bostelaar and former marketing director Robert Kooiman.

It comes in response to Entain’s original accusation that undeclared regulatory investigations at the time of the acquisition meant the Dutch-facing business was worth as much as €156m (£133m/$169m) less than assumed.

Entain acquired BetCity for €450m in January 2023, with the deal ultimately giving it access to the Dutch market. BetCity was one of the initial 10 licensees in the Netherlands.

However in January this year, Entain launched a compensation claim after details of two regulatory cases came to light. Entain said in the claim it was unaware of the investigations into BetCity when it acquired the business…

September 8, 2023

LeoVegas breaks ground with BetMGM UK

The news that BetMGM would be launching in the UK gave its gambling market a much-needed shake. But it was the fact that LeoVegas, not Entain, would be MGM’s launch partner that really set the conversation alight. Gustaf Hagman, CEO of LeoVegas, believes his company is more than ready to take on the challenge.

To say the journey to the launch of BetMGM UK has been complex would be an understatement.

To the uninitiated, an established US-facing brand – a joint venture of two industry giants – has managed to implant itself into the UK market.

But peeling back the layers reveals a different story. BetMGM’s US offering is a joint venture shared between MGM and Entain. But the launch of BetMGM UK doesn’t include Entain at all.

Instead LeoVegas, which was acquired by MGM Resorts last year for $604m, will power BetMGM’s new UK platform. This means that BetMGM UK will be competing directly against Entain’s UK brands, which include the likes of Ladbrokes, Coral and Gala.

Despite the enormi..

September 7, 2023

Net profit up 56.4% at STS in H1

Net profit at Polish sports betting operator STS Holding grew 56.4% to PLN97m (£18.1m/€21.1m/$22.6m) in the first half of 2023, a period in which it agreed to be acquired by Entain CEE for £750.0m.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the half-year rose by 34.1% to PLN157m.

The news that Entain CEE – Entain’s Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) venture – would acquire Poland’s leading sportsbook operator came in June, after Mateusz Juroszek, chief executive of STS, and his father Zbigniew, entered into an agreement to accept Entain CEE’s acquisition offer.

Entain CEE paid PLN24.80 per STS share. This put the business at an equity value of £750m and an enterprise value of an estimated £690m. The deal closed on 24 August, after STS shareholders – holding 155,591,656 in STS shares – backed the deal.

On the half-year, Mateusz Juroszek said STS focused on optimising its operations during the six months, adding that he projects increased player ..

August 25, 2023

Entain CEE adds another piece to the puzzle with STS

Entain CEE’s £750m acquisition of STS Holdings gives Entain access to Central and Eastern Europe's (CEE) largest economy, Poland. For Mikolaj Cymerman, head of corporate development at Entain CEE, this is just the first step.

The deal for the Polish sportsbook market leader marks the second acquisition made by Entain CEE, a joint venture between Entain and investment management company Emma Capital.

It’s also a major milestone for the two parties. Getting a foot in the door will allow Entain to make serious inroads in the CEE market, one already somewhat carved out by its first acquisition – of Croatia’s SuperSport – last year.

Mikolaj cymerman, head of corporate development, Entain CEE

“Once SuperSport happened, people were thinking ‘OK, so they’ve bought SuperSport and that’s it’,” Cymerman explains. “But now with STS, this kind of structure starts to unravel and people are seeing that this wasn’t a one-trick pony.”

It was this first acquisition that set the wheels in motio..

July 17, 2023

Entain to acquire Angstrom Sports in £200m deal

Entain will acquire sports modelling, forecasting and analytics specialist Angstrom Sports in a deal worth up to £203m.

Under the deal, Entain will pay an initial £81.0m, as well as £122.0m in additional payments over a three-year period, totaling £203.0m.

Angstrom utilises simulation-based predictive modelling to offer a range of pricing and forecasting capabilities to sportsbook clients.

Primarily serving the US market, Angstrom’s offering covers the most popular competitions and leagues in the country.

The acquisition will allow Entain to offer a full suite of end-to-end analytics, risk and pricing capabilities for its US operations, namely BetMGM, which it runs as a joint venture with MGM Resorts International.

This will improve customers’ US sports betting experience including more betting opportunities, optimised parlay and in-play products, it added.

The acquisition is expected to complete during Q3 2023.

Unlocking new US opportunities

“We’re delighted Angstrom will b..

July 14, 2023

Women’s sports boom raises corruption risk, new report warns

Increased and more widespread monitoring of women’s sport should be considered to help combat match-fixing, according to a new report.

‘Breaking Barriers: Assessing Women’s Sports, Betting, and Integrity Challenges’ looked at the current state of female sports around the world.

Presented this week at iGB L!VE, the study had the support of leading industry organisations, operators and suppliers. These included the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), All-In Diversity Project (AIDP), Entain, Flutter and Stats Perform.

The report flagged a “dramatic” rise in women’s sport worldwide, accompanied by a similar increase in betting.

Football led the way in terms of betting activity, with an annual market growth rate of approximately 20% since 2020. This was followed by tennis, basketball and cricket, with growth rates of over 10% during the period from 2017 to 2022.

The study also looked at the characteristics of female bettors. The percentage of female bettors in women’s ..

December 2025
Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

Tag: Entain