Ladbrokes Owner Entain Plans 400 Job Cuts as UK Betting Tax Debate Heats Up
Entain, the company behind Ladbrokes and Coral, has started a consultation that could cut 400 jobs from its 2,000-person customer-care team.
The company announced the plan on 16 September 2026, according to The Guardian. The cut equals one in five roles. The 2,000 roles are based across the UK, according to SBC News.
Entain linked the plan to the impact of higher gambling taxes, according to Reuters. Chief executive Stella David wrote to Andy Burnham and said doubling standard machine games duty from 20% to 40% would add about £100m to the cost of running Entain's UK shops. Machine games duty is tax on slot-style machines in betting shops. No final decision on the tax has been announced.
The proposal follows a half-year report of underlying operating profit of £479m for the six months to the end of June. Underlying operating profit means profit from normal business without one-off items. The result was 2% down on the same period last year but ahead of investor expectations.
Entain shares were down about 36% since the start of the year as of 16 September 2026. The company will move from the FTSE 100 to the FTSE 250 from 21 September. The FTSE 100 covers London's largest listed companies, the FTSE 250 the next group down. Entain is headquartered in London and employs more than 28,000 people worldwide. It started as GVC Holdings in 2004.
Entain says it operates exclusively in regulated and regulating online and retail markets, according to company materials. That means places with clear gambling rules or developing them. The group appointed Dafne Guisard as Chief Operations Officer, responsible for global strategic planning, the customer service organisation, and M&A integration, the work of combining firms after deals. In May, Entain urged the Football Regulator to stop clubs from taking sponsorship from illegal gambling operators.
The broader context here is a business with two stories at once. One is solid daily performance, with earnings above expectations. The other is sharp cost pressure, shown by a one-in-five cut and the £100m shop estimate. Customer care covers call volumes, complaints, safer-gambling checks and integration work, all areas Guisard oversees. Cutting there protects shops and tech spending for now, like trimming the support crew to keep the ship moving, while testing what a smaller team can handle.
In my view, the question for policymakers and investors turns on tax. The letter to Burnham describes shop economics as heavily hit by duty rates, with the extra cost landing on the part of the business with high fixed costs like rent and staff. Whether investors see the consultation as careful planning or a sign of thin margins will depend on any tax change and on service levels with fewer staff through the index move and into the second half.
