Entain declared a group-wide loss after tax of £681m for 2025, suggesting tough times for the company with UK tax raises coming up in just a couple of weeks.

The LSE-listed group revealed that this £681m figure includes a £488m impairment relating to the UK gambling tax changes. This marks an increase of £220m on the 2024 loss and Entain’s third consecutive year of multi-million losses.

Announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, in the Autumn statement last November, the new framework will see online gaming tax effectively doubled from 21% to 40% from April 2026. Operators large and small expect it to have a huge impact on margins.

Tax impacts aside, Entain’s experience of 2025 trading remained broadly stable with net gaming revenue (NGR) up 3% to £5.33bn (2024: £5.16bn) and group-wide revenue also up 3% to £5.25bn (£5.98bn).Underlying EBITDA also rose 7% year-on-year from $1.08bn to $1.16bn.

Stella David, Chief Executive Officer of Entain, said: “2025 has been a successful year for Entain. We are continuing to drive strong underlying momentum and I am immensely proud of our strategic and operational progress and the results it is delivering.

“Entain’s diverse and globally scaled portfolio of podium positions is more important than ever to ensure we are a long-term winner in our industry. The business has never been in better shape and is well positioned to not only navigate the tax and regulatory challenges facing our industry, but to seize them as opportunities.”

International scale vs UK tax

The markets which will be likely of most interest to Entain analysts and investors in the firm’s earnings call at 9:30am today (5 March) will likely be the UK and Ireland – particularly the former, due to the above-mentioned tax hikes coming into effect in 27 days.

UK and Irish revenue overall was up 6% YoY to £2.19bn (2024: £2.05bn), driven by growth of 9% for its gaming operations and 2% for sports and ahead of Entain’s expectations. Online betting and gaming saw the sharpest increase, up 15% to £1.14bn (2024: £985m).

Retail revenue was down 2%, however, from £1.07bn to £1.05bn with gaming revenue down 1% and sports betting down 3% across the Ladbrokes Coral retail estate. As Ladbrokes Coral is one of the biggest players in UK retail, this could paint a negative picture for the sector at large.

Successive data sets from the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), both quarterly gross gaming yield (GGY) statements and figures from the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB), show that consumer interest and volume for retail gaming are down.

In all fairness, the declines for Ladbrokes Coral are not as significant as they could have been, and other retail heavyweights like Betfred have reported positive results lately. 

The impact of taxes on retail is yet to be seen, however, as operators may consider closing shops to account for the new costs associated with online businesses. Interestingly, Entain’s FY25 results have excluded the impact of store closures from like-for-like growth metrics.

International revenue also saw some marginal growth, up 2% on a constant currency basis to $2.64bn (£2bn). Entain’s international presence spans across Europe, North America, South America and Australia, with the bwin brand a key international asset.

NGR from Italy rose 6%, yet another positive experience from the re-regulated market which launched in November 2025. Operators have been particularly receptive to the tax framework in Italy, which is the second largest betting market in Europe. Another European standout was Croatia, which helped drive 5% NGR growth for Entain CEE.

In Brazil, where Entain’s key assets are Sportingbet and Betboo, NGR was down 1% YoY. Brazil launched its regulated market on 1 January 2025 to much fanfare, but conversations around taxation have come around much quicker than expected, and operators find themselves facing much more challenging circumstances in 2026.

Turning to Australia, where Entain operates the Ladrokes Australia and Neds brands, NGR was down 6%. This is attributed to customer-friendly sports results and soft wagering conditions, although conversations around regulatory restrictions and mounting political pressure on the sector may make Australia another challenge moving forward.

Once again, the US stands out as a key revenue pipeline for Entain. The company is a 50% shareholder in the BetMGM joint venture there, while MGM Resorts operates the brand in all other markets via LeoVegas.

BetMGM (US) saw net revenue of $2.8bn in 2025, up 33% YoY. Entain has cited ‘profitable growth’ across both online sports and iGaming for the brand, growth of 63% and 24% respectively.

Entain has a tough year ahead of it in 2026, chiefly due to the UK tax changes. Nonetheless, the company remains confident and forecasts online NGR growth of 5-7% on a constant currency basis, excluding the US.

It also expects an underlying online EBITDA margin of between 23-24%, including its expectation to mitigate around 25% of the UK tax impacts. It has not provided any guidance for UK-specific revenue or retail-specific revenue, however.

The group also expresses confidence in its global scale, perhaps banking on international assets to provide a bulwark against the blow to profitability to come in the UK. BetMGM, for example, expects to deliver revenue of $3.1-3.2bn and Adjusted EBITDA of $300-350m.

Lastly, the company has taken further confidence from the fact its group-wide underlying EBITDA, UK&I revenue and adjusted cashflow of £151m were all ahead of expectations.

CEO David concluded: “I am excited about the future as we evolve our strategic priorities, accelerate our performance, and maintain our focus on sustainable growth and cash generation. I am confident in Entain’s ability to deliver at least £500m of annual adjusted cash flow from 2028.”