Entain reviews options for CEE joint venture
Entain is reviewing strategic options for its Central and Eastern European (CEE) joint venture, including a possible sale of its majority stake to existing partner EMMA Capital, according to a Reuters report. The review covers a business built around Croatian sportsbook SuperSport and Polish bookmaker STS, and comes as UK gambling tax increases add an estimated £200 million to Entain’s annual cost base.
A spokesperson for Entain declined to comment. EMMA Capital said it would neither confirm nor deny any talks. Discussions remain at an early stage and no agreement has been reached.
How the joint venture was built
Entain CEE traces back to 2022, when EMMA Capital sold a 75% stake in SuperSport to Entain for a deal valuing the Croatian operator at €920 million. EMMA Capital then contributed its remaining shares into the new joint venture, retaining a 25% stake.
The structure changed again in 2023, when Entain CEE acquired STS, Poland’s largest bookmaker, for approximately £750 million. The Juroszek family, STS’s previous majority owners, subscribed for 10% of Entain CEE shares as part of that deal, diluting EMMA Capital’s stake to 22.5%. EMMA Capital funded its share of the STS purchase price, around €160 million, from its own resources.
The joint venture agreement includes contractual options allowing either partner to alter the ownership structure after the third anniversary of the original 2022 transaction, the window now under discussion. SuperSport, founded in 2000, is Croatia’s largest gaming company. STS, established in 1997, runs sports betting through branch networks and online platforms, including live card and virtual sports games.
Q1 2026 sets back a year of growth
The review follows a sharp slowdown in CEE trading. Entain’s Q1 2026 trading update showed CEE net gaming revenue (NGR) down 6%, with online down 1% and retail down 30%. Poland gained from its migration onto the CEE SuperSport platform, but Croatia’s sports margin fell 7.1 percentage points year-on-year, a result of customer-friendly outcomes across a football-heavy betting mix.
That contrasts with a stronger 2025, when every Entain brand’s performance showed CEE NGR growing 5% on a constant-currency basis for the full year, driven by 6% online growth, with SuperSport’s Croatian business up 7%. CEE delivered earnings of £183.7 million in 2025, up from £170 million in 2024.
UK tax costs push group-wide review
The UK gambling tax increases that came into effect in April raised online casino and slots duty to 40% from 21%, and sports betting duty to 25% from 15%. Entain expects the changes to add roughly £200 million a year to its cost base, even after mitigation.
The company booked an impairment charge of £487.7 million against its UK business tied to the tax rise. Management expects to offset around 25% of the incremental UK impact in 2026 through group-wide cost measures, rising to more than 50% from 2027. The CEE review sits inside that wider push to free up cash and reduce leverage.
Entain reported annual profit of £1.16 billion for 2025, ahead of expectations, but adjusted net debt stood at £3.64 billion at year-end. Any proceeds from a CEE sale are reportedly being weighed as a possible route to debt reduction.
What STS brought to the group
STS, acquired in 2023, had already shown strong underlying growth before the deal. The operator posted NGR of PLN 663 million (£121 million) for FY22, up 17% year-on-year, with adjusted EBITDA of PLN 273 million (£50 million). STS had compounded NGR growth of 24% annually since 2020, with adjusted EBITDA compounding at 34% a year. Entain expected the deal to be earnings-accretive from its first full year of ownership, backed by more than £10 million in run-rate synergies.
What happens next
No transaction has been agreed, and Entain has not set a timeline for concluding the review. A sale would hand EMMA Capital full control of a business it helped build from the SuperSport deal onward, while giving Entain a way to trim debt and offset UK tax costs. Whether that trade makes sense will depend on how CEE trading develops through the rest of 2026, after a first quarter that undercut the momentum built up over the previous year.
Source: Reuters
