Entain Plc, owner of betting brands Ladbrokes and Coral, announced plans to reduce its global workforce by 2%, equating to approximately 900 jobs. This move comes as the company grapples with increased UK online gambling taxes and higher operating costs. The decision follows a previous announcement where CEO Stella David had indicated that job cuts would not be necessary to offset the tax impact.
The UK government's recent tax hikes on online gambling include an increase in remote gaming duty to 40% from 21%, and a new general betting duty for remote betting at 25%, up from the existing 15%. These changes are expected to impose an additional £200 million in annual costs on Entain. While the company aims to mitigate more than 50% of this impact by 2027 through various cost-saving measures, including reduced marketing and promotions, the workforce reduction is a direct response to the financial pressures.
Despite the earlier assurance from CEO Stella David that cost-saving measures would not involve job cuts or store closures, the company is now implementing these workforce reductions as part of a broader strategy to save about £100 million annually. Entain previously reported an underlying core profit of £1.16 billion for 2025, but also saw a significant loss after tax of £680.5 million, partly due to a £488 million non-cash impairment charge related to the UK tax increases. The company anticipates these tax changes will result in an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) impact of approximately £100 million in 2026, rising to £150 million from 2027.
Enterprises like Entain expect to capture market share as smaller competitors struggle under the new tax regime, yet still warn that such punitive tax increases could harm the industry, risk jobs, and potentially drive customers towards unregulated black markets. The company plans to absorb these regulatory and tax changes while continuing to pursue sustainable growth, partly by leveraging AI to reduce production and asset generation costs. The UK gambling tax increases are set to generate an estimated £1.1 billion for the government by 2029-2030.
