Entain confirms 500 job cuts
Entain is cutting about 500 roles, roughly 2% of its global workforce, as it works to offset sharply higher UK gambling taxes and, in a separate move the same week, pushes the Premier League to ban sponsorship deals with unlicensed operators.
The reductions were first reported by Bloomberg on Thursday, 16 July, and later confirmed by an Entain spokesperson. They affect corporate functions along with product and technology teams, and have already begun.
Bloomberg reported the cuts are meant to absorb higher UK gambling duties and growing competition from prediction markets. Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) rose from 21% to 40% on 1 April 2026, and a new 25% remote betting duty follows on 1 April 2027, up from 15%. Bets on UK horse racing, spread betting, pool bets and self-service terminals are excluded.
Entain estimated in a statement on 26 November 2025 that the changes would add around £200 million a year, before mitigations, to its UK and Ireland online business.
The group has been reshaping its balance sheet alongside the cost programme. In late June it agreed to sell a 20% stake in its Central and Eastern European joint venture to EMMA Capital for around €425 million, with proceeds earmarked for debt reduction.
Entain did not issue a fresh executive statement on the layoffs. The cuts follow the tax mitigation plan chief executive Stella David set out at the group’s FY25 results in March, when she said Entain had to be “fighting fit” to digest the added tax burden and “accelerate our pace” through the next phase of its restructuring. Entain’s first-quarter results in April showed online net gaming revenue up 5%, led by the UK and Ireland. The reductions add Entain to a widening list of operators cutting staff in 2026.
David presses Premier League on unlicensed sponsors
Separately, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) opened an eight-week consultation on 15 July on banning sponsorship and advertising deals between British sports bodies and gambling operators that hold no Gambling Commission licence.
The consultation closes at 11.59pm on 9 September and would cover kit sponsorships, pitchside billboards and venue naming rights. The government’s preferred timeline would not bring a ban into force before August 2027, ahead of the 2027/28 season.
Entain welcomed the consultation the same day and has gone further, writing to Premier League chief executive Richard Masters and to David Kogan OBE, chair of the Independent Football Regulator, to urge a voluntary ban ahead of the 2026/27 season rather than waiting for legislation. It is the latest step in a campaign that has already seen the operator press six Premier League clubs on their unlicensed sponsors.
“Unlicensed gambling operators are often little more than fronts for organised crime. They target vulnerable consumers, pay no UK tax, and ignore safeguards licensed operators must provide.”
David made the comment in Entain’s official statement on 15 July. The company cited analysis by the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) and the World Advertising Research Centre showing unlicensed operators are on course to account for 47.7% of UK gambling advertising spend in 2026/27. It also pointed to H2 Gambling Capital data showing the illegal market’s turnover grew from £5 billion to £16.6 billion between 2019 and 2025.
David added that sponsorship restrictions alone will not be enough, calling for tougher action against the social media platforms, payment providers and affiliate networks that give unlicensed operators reach. Entain has separately published research mapping an illegal gambling network operating on UK social media.
What happens next
The two moves sit either side of the same pressure. Licensed operators are paying more to the UK Treasury at the point when an unlicensed market, which pays nothing, is expanding its share of the advertising and sponsorship that reaches British consumers. For Entain, the near-term question is whether the Premier League and the football regulator act voluntarily before the 2026/27 season, or leave the field to a statutory ban that, on the government’s own timetable, will not take effect until August 2027.
Source: Entain
