Bet365 confirms 340 job losses across three hubs

• Bet365 will cut 340 jobs, roughly 3% of its workforce, across its Stoke-on-Trent, Malta and Gibraltar sites.
• Around 300 roles go from Stoke-on-Trent, home to about 5,500 staff; the remaining 40 split across Malta and Gibraltar.
• Roughly 7,270 roles have been cut across the gambling and iGaming sector since November 2025.

Bet365 will cut 340 jobs, around 3% of its total workforce, across its Stoke-on-Trent headquarters and its Malta and Gibraltar hubs, citing a highly competitive trading environment and rising regulatory and tax-related costs.

Where the axe falls

Stoke-on-Trent absorbs the bulk of it: around 300 roles at a site that employs roughly 5,500 people and ranks among the city’s biggest private employers. The other 40 or so positions sit across the operator’s Malta and Gibraltar hubs, which handle much of bet365’s European trading and compliance work outside the UK.

A voluntary redundancy scheme opens first, giving staff the chance to leave on agreed terms before any compulsory cuts are considered. Bet365 says forced job losses will be a last resort, not a starting point, and that the process will run over the coming months rather than all at once.

A bet365 spokesperson said:

“Our colleagues are our priority. We understand the concerns many will have. Impacted staff have been informed and are being fully supported throughout this process.”

The spokesperson pointed to “a highly competitive trading environment, plus increased regulatory and tax-related costs” as the driver, framing the restructuring as a move to protect the business long-term rather than a response to a single bad quarter.

Gareth Snell, the Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, said the cuts should serve as a warning to regulators and the Treasury, calling the roles well-paid jobs in a part of the country that needs investment.

Betting and Gaming Council chief executive Grainne Hurst said the losses were further evidence of the real-world impact of tax rises on the sector, and urged the government to rule out further increases.

The duty that changed the maths

Online casino products now carry a remote gaming duty of 40%, up from 21%, since 1 April 2026, following the increase announced in the November 2025 Autumn Budget. A second rise lands in April 2027: sports betting duty climbs from 15% to 25%, with UK horse racing exempted from the increase.

Both changes hit bet365 harder than most of its rivals. It runs no shops, no land-based casinos, nothing to spread the cost across. Every pound of new duty comes straight out of digital margin, and unlike listed operators, it does not have to explain the impact to shareholders on a quarterly earnings call.

Company after company cuts back

Entain, owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, cut roughly 500 jobs in July for the same reason, putting the annual cost of the duty rise to its business at close to £200 million.

evoke, which owns William Hill, has closed around 270 shops, and Flutter Entertainment is weighing the closure of up to 100 Paddy Power shops, putting another 400 jobs on the line.

The pattern reaches well past UK retail. FanDuel has cut hundreds of sportsbook roles as Flutter leans into prediction markets, and PENN Entertainment has trimmed 75 jobs from its interactive arm following the collapse of its ESPN Bet partnership.

On the supply side, IGT cut about 700 roles after merging with Everi, and Lottomatica cut 348 jobs in Belgrade in a single day once its SKS365 systems were folded into its own platform. CRM supplier Optimove has cut roughly a tenth of its staff under an AI-first restructuring its chief executive called a move made from strength, not crisis.

Add it up and The iGaming Europe counts roughly 7,270 roles gone across 36 separate events since November 2025, split fairly evenly between the UK duty rise, merger integration, prediction markets and AI. Five companies named the UK tax rise directly as their reason, accounting for around 1,400 of those roles between them.

Denise Coates, joint chief executive of bet365, built the business almost entirely on digital sportsbook and casino products, the same strategy that once set it apart from shop-heavy rivals weighed down by high street rents and ageing estates. That same digital concentration now leaves it with nowhere to hide from the new duty rates.

Few operators can absorb tax rises of this size without touching headcount, and bet365’s voluntary scheme is unlikely to cover the full 340 roles on its own. Whether the Treasury revisits the 2027 betting duty before it lands may determine whether this is bet365’s only round of cuts this year, or merely the first.