Wheel Of Happiness

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In an interview with the Financial Times over the weekend, Done cautioned that additional tax hikes could result in widespread betting shop closures, harm related sectors such as horse racing and accelerate the decline of the high street.

Betfred currently operates approximately 1,094 retail shops across the UK. Done highlighted the concrete risks of Machine Gaming Duty – taxes on gambling machines – doubling from 20% to 40%, a move reportedly under consideration by Chancellor John Healey ahead of the Autumn Budget.

Betfred’s retail business still heavily depends on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) and in-shop gambling. Despite the maximum stake limit being cut to £2 in 2019, FOBTs account for roughly half of Betfred’s shop profits. Done emphasised that without these machines, retail betting wass “impossible”.

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But in the UK Entain’s share price weakness is less about prediction markets and more about tax, debt and confidence.

The company reported approximately £3.6 billion of net debt at the end of June, with reported leverage of 3.1x underlying EBITDA. Online underlying EBITDA fell 5% in the first half despite 7% growth in online net gaming revenue. The tax impact has been substantial.

The UK government increased Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) from 21% to 40% from 1 April. Then from April 2027, a new 25% General Betting Duty rate for remote betting will apply, although remote bets on UK horse racing are excluded from the new rate.

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“This decision has not been made lightly and our immediate priority is to support those of our colleagues who may be impacted through this transition.”

Earlier this year, Entain reported it would be cutting 500 roles globally across operations and its central functions, it insisted it was not a reaction to the earlier increase in RGD, but rather part of new CFO Michael Snape’s restructuring and cost cutting exercise.

Entain said at the time: “As part of our ongoing focus on enhancing Entain’s operational efficiency and agility, we have begun implementing organisational changes which will regrettably impact a number of roles across the group over the months ahead.”