Bet365 plans to eliminate 340 jobs across its offices in Stoke-on-Trent, Malta and Gibraltar, citing rising tax and regulatory costs and a highly competitive trading environment.
The proposed redundancies represent approximately 3% of the company’s workforce. Bet365 said it was seeking to reduce the number of compulsory job losses and would initially offer employees a voluntary redundancy programme.
A Bet365 spokesperson said: “We are committed to minimising the impact on our people and are exploring all avenues to reduce the number of redundancies. As a first step, we are planning a programme of voluntary redundancies.
“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.”
Higher duties add pressure
Bet365 attributed the cuts to a “highly competitive trading environment, plus increased regulatory and tax-related costs”. The company also highlighted changes to UK gambling duties as a factor affecting the sector.
The UK government’s remote gaming duty nearly doubled from 21% to 40% on 1 April this year. A separate remote betting duty is scheduled to take effect in April 2027, increasing the effective tax rate on all sports betting products other than horse racing from 15% to 25%.
The changes have prompted other operators to reduce their UK retail presence. In March, William Hill told staff that it planned to permanently close approximately 200 UK retail shops, representing around 15% of Evoke’s retail estate.
Last month, Betfred announced plans to close 132 betting shops in the UK and reduce its workforce by more than 600 employees.
Betfred CEO Jo Whittaker said the operator had attempted to protect its sites and employees, but that higher employer National Insurance contributions, wage inflation, increased gambling taxes and wider economic uncertainty had made the closures unavoidable.
“We have tried hard to protect all our sites and the colleagues who work in them, but the combined impact of higher employer National Insurance contributions, wage inflation, increases in gambling taxes and wider economic uncertainty has left us with no choice,” Whittaker said.
Source: iGaming Business
