Entain’s UK revenue rises as Brazil falls 36%

• Entain Q3 group NGR rises 2% as online grows 3%.
• UK and Ireland online revenue jumps 14%, Brazil falls 36%.
• FY26 underlying EBITDA guided to lower end of £910m to £960m.

Entain’s UK and Ireland online business grows revenue by 14% in the third quarter, cushioning a 36% collapse in Brazil and a run of punter-friendly football results.

Group net gaming revenue (NGR) rises 2% for the three months to 30 September, and the Ladbrokes and Coral owner holds its full-year guidance.

Britain carries the load

UK and Ireland NGR rose 8%, ahead of Entain’s own expectations, according to its Q3 trading update. Online grew 14%, driven by a 17% rise in gaming and 15% higher volumes.

Management credits market share gains and continued UK investment, in a market where remote gaming duty almost doubled to 40% in April. UK and Ireland retail NGR rose 3% like-for-like, which excludes closed shops.

Outside Britain, New Zealand, Spain and Canada each delivered double-digit online growth. Group online NGR rose 3%, or 5% with Brazil stripped out, on volumes up 7%. Year to date, the ex-Brazil figure stands at 8%.

Football bites back

The sportsbook had a harder quarter. Group online sports NGR fell 3%, although UK and Ireland online sports grew by the same amount. Football results in August and September went the customers’ way, more than undoing a strong July.

Entain puts the sports margin headwind at about 1 to 2 percentage points, which it says took roughly 4% off Q3 online growth. Online margin was broadly flat year on year, helped by a soft Q3 2025 comparison.

Italy took the heaviest hit. NGR there fell 6%, as a 3.1 percentage point slide in sports margin cancelled out 9% volume growth.

Brazil goes dark

Brazil NGR dropped 36%. Entain says it had already reined in marketing and player engagement in a difficult market before the government pulled the plug on licensed betting on 25 September.

Provisional Measure 1.394 withdrew operators’ authority to offer online sports betting and gaming with immediate effect. In its 28 September update, Entain said Brazil had been expected to contribute about 5% of 2026 online NGR, with a modest EBITDA contribution.

Congress can still approve, amend or reject the measure. Excluding Brazil, international online NGR rose 1%, with Australia up 1% in line with expectations.

Budget in the crosshairs

Stella David, CEO of Entain, said:

“Both online and retail are important parts of our business and valued contributors to tax revenues and local communities. We strongly urge the UK Government to carefully consider any further gambling tax increases which would threaten the viability of many shops, jobs and livelihoods.”

The appeal comes less than two weeks before Chancellor John Healey delivers the 28 October Autumn Budget. The local press reports that he is weighing a rise in machine games duty.

Last month, David told Prime Minister Andy Burnham in a letter that doubling the standard rate to 40% would add around £100m a year to the cost of running Entain’s UK shops. The group has also opened a consultation on cutting 400 customer care jobs, which it tied to higher UK taxes.

Rivals are making the same case. Betfred founder Fred Done has warned that a doubled machine tax could end UK betting shops by 2030.

Guidance holds firm

Entain’s guidance is unchanged from 28 September.

It expects online NGR growth of 4% to 6% at constant currency, or the top end of 5% to 7% without Brazil. Underlying EBITDA, excluding parent fees, should land at the lower end of £910m to £960m.

In the US, BetMGM, Entain’s 50/50 joint venture with MGM Resorts, reported Q3 net revenue of $710m on 13 October, up 7%, with adjusted EBITDA up 112% at $86m. It expects to finish towards the lower end of its $2.9bn to $3.1bn revenue and $300m to $350m adjusted EBITDA ranges.

The market was not won over by these results. Entain shares fell nearly 3% in Thursday morning trading.

The bigger picture

Entain is one of the world’s largest sports betting and gaming groups, with online and retail operations in more than 30 territories. Its brands include Ladbrokes, Coral, bwin, Sportingbet, Eurobet and Neds, and it supplies the technology behind BetMGM.

It has been a bruising year for shareholders. The stock dropped out of the FTSE 100 in September, and Entain is selling a 20% CEE stake to joint venture partner EMMA Capital, a deal due to close in Q4.

Entain still targets £500m of annual adjusted cash flow in 2028, including its 47.5% minority stake in Entain CEE, but admits the impact of upcoming tax and regulatory changes remains unknown.

Between Brasília and the Treasury, the next few months will show how realistic that number is.