Entain chief Stella David has claimed that the company has ‘never been in better shape’, despite posting a loss of £681 million in 2025.
That was a significant increase on the 2024 deficit of £461 million… taking combined group losses past the £1 billion mark over the past two years.
But there are plentiful reasons to be cheerful for backers of the Coral and Ladbrokes owner, according to their CEO.
Making Gains
It should be said that a whopping £488 million of that £681 million loss was an ‘impairment’ charge, which is an accounting term that acknowledges the reduction in value of an asset.
That, in this case, relates to the gambling tax hike at the backend of the year, with the impairment charge made to mitigate for a loss of future profits.
Despite those losses, which were reported in an earnings call to shareholders on Thursday, the Entain group delivered an annual revenue of £5.26 billion last year – an increase of 3%, year on year.
Underlying earnings were up 8% to £1.16 billion, which was a better return than forecasted, with total net gaming revenue up 7% for the year.
There were even solid results recorded in the UK and Irish market, which has been hit hardest by tax upheaval and regulatory change, with total net gaming revenue up 6%.
As well as their online successes, Entain chiefs confirmed that they were ‘very committed’ to their high street betting shop empire, with around 2,400 properties carrying an Entain brand having been upgraded or with plans for a future upgrade.
Riding the Storm
Although David herself described the government’s tax raid on betting firms as ‘dramatic and hugely disappointing’, she confirmed that Entain were in a position to offset more than half of their new tax burden as of next year.
The adoption of AI efficiencies, as well as the cost reductions that have come from scaling back marketing and customer acquisition efforts, have led to improved back-office performance.
And David believes that the tax increases could actually work in Entain’s favour, with smaller brands and independent operators potentially squeezed out of the market for good.
“There will be less competitors over time… and we’ll be one of them,” she said.
“If you look at the shape of the market, the bottom quarter of operators have around one percent share each. They are simply not equipped to ride the storm of these tax increases.”
The Entain interim CEO did, however, warn of the perils of the black market, which continues to grow in size and is thought to be worth around 10% of the regulated sector.
David cautioned that the ‘regulated market will shrink as the black market grows’, however she remains confident that Entain will increase their share within the licensed sector due to the firm’s ‘scale and capacity to do that.’
Not Horsing Around
One of Entain’s spending efficiencies has been cutting the amount they spend on marketing and commercial partnerships.
They have recently announced that Coral will no longer sponsor the race known as the Coral Cup at the Cheltenham Festival; one of the flagship meeting’s oldest partner agreements.
The firm remains supportive of horse racing, David added, pointing to the roll-out of their bet builder tool for UK racing – something that ‘others don’t have’.
And the bad news for horse racing continues, with another leading bookmaker now announcing that they too will be pulling their sponsorship of races like the Lancashire Oaks and the Old Newton Cup – which they’ve funded for more than 20 years, while also withdrawing their support for the much-loved Craven meeting at Newmarket.
And that comes after BetMGM gave up their sponsorship rights to Newcastle’s prestigious Fighting Fifth Hurdle earlier this year.
All of which is a direct outcome of the tax hike announced in November by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves. And, according to City AM, that was a move questioned by the government’s own Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
They claimed that the decision would not raise the amount of money that the government expected, questioning the £2 billion figure proposed by the Social Market Foundation think tank and describing it as ‘unrealistic’.
The Freedom of Information act request initiated by CityAM also reveals that DCMS officials had warned of job losses and black market growth if the planned tax increase went ahead, while horse racing ‘protections’ would yield little relief given the impact on the gambling industry as a whole.