Betfred’s corporate accounts with Companies House show a bookmaker in an improved financial position after the shutting down of its Spanish and American businesses, as management contends to new upcoming challenges. 

The holding company behind the retail and online bookmaker, Betfred Group Holdings, filed its accounts for the 78 weeks ending 30 March 2025, citing comparatives against the 53 week period ending 1 October 2023, on 4 January. 

According to the report, group turnover (revenue) for the 78 week period came in at £1.45bn, up from £908m during the previous 53 week period – changes reflect an extra 15 weeks incorporated in 2024/2025 accounts. 

Gross profit as of 30 March 2025 stood at £1bn, up from £673m during the 53 week reporting period. Enhanced profits can be  attributed to a longer reporting period, but the past year saw Betfred undertake major changes and cost controls.

US reduction boosts Betfred

Chiefly, 2025 saw the group exit from what it called ‘unprofitability overseas businesses’ during the 78 week reporting period, with Spain and the US withdrawals singled out as principal directives. 

Betfred initiated a sale of its Spanish business in December 2024, disposing of the Betfred Spain SA asset for £2m, making a profit of £1.6m booked on year accounts. A window in the US also began with the company withdrawing from nine US states.

Founded in Northwest England, and with its online business headquartered in Gibraltar, Betfred has been – like other major UK betting and gaming firms – experimenting with its international presence for some time.

The group expanded into Spain in 2019, domiciling its Spanish business in the autonomous city of Ceuta on the North African coast. The company also launched in the US the same year, but called it quits in the country in July this year.

At that time, Betfred was active in just one US state, Pennsylvania, having withdrawn from nine of its 10 markets during the 78 week reporting period as discussed above. Competition in the US is intense, with FanDuel and DraftKings effectively maintaining a duopoly over the market, and so many European firms like Betfred and Super Group have opted to focus elsewhere.

Speaking to SBC News earlier this year, in a conversation largely revolving around UK taxation and regulation, Betfred CEO Joanne Whittaker offered some reflections on the firm’s six year US journey.

In Whittaker’s assessment, ‘no one could envision the scale of DraftKings and FanDuel’ at the time it launched in the market. After assessing its options, the firm seems more than comfortable in exiting the US, and its March 2025 accounts show why.

“Hindsight now is wonderful, but we went into too many states before we proved what our model would be,” Whittaker told sSBC at the time. “We have no regrets, we tried and we made the right decision.”

Having secured a leaner operating model via initial US exits and the sale of its Spanish business, Betfred was able to flip a loss during the 53 week reporting period to a profit during the 78 week one – profit after tax standing at £128.8m to be exact.

The taxman cometh

Though it may have pulled the plug on its US and Spanish missions, Betfred cites that it maintains options to expand its international status. 

South Africa is now the group’s main non-UK market, and it consolidated its position there during the last reporting period by acquiring the holding company behind BF SA Support Services, the service provider to its South African business.

Betting is a huge business in South Africa, with figures from the National Gambling Board of South Africa published in September last year putting total gaming revenue for the 2023/24 financial year at R59.3bn (€2.9bn), making it one of the country’s biggest economic sectors.

Whittaker told SBC earlier this year that the company is ‘looking at how we can scale’ its Betfred South Africa and Lotto Star brands in the country. Betfred will have to remain vigilant of regulatory developments, however, as the huge growth of gaming has prompted concerns about its societal impact in a country which struggles with poverty and inequality.

On the topic of regulation, this brings us to the mulit-billion pound elephant in the room – taxation. Remote Gaming Duty will go up from 21% to 40% in April, and General Betting Duty will go up from 15% to 25% in 2027. 

Both raises will hit Befred’s online and retail businesses hard, as management has been very open in how it is preparing for worst case scenarios, including the potential for widespread shop closures of its betting estate of +1,300 UK betting shops.  

According to its latest accounts, Betfred paid £20m ‘tax on income’ in the UK during the 78 week period ending 30 March, while the overseas figure from Gibraltar, Spain, the US and South Africa came in at £44.9m.

The initial stages of 2025 were clearly a profitable time for Betfred, though its performance for the rest of the year will not be gleaned until its next Companies House filing. The forthcoming taxes in the UK could flip everything on its head, however.