Rank Group’s Spanish operations have been hit by a €7.1 million ($8.2 million) payment fraud, prompting the business to report the incident to law enforcement and launch an internal investigation.
The fraud incident relates to Rank’s Spanish-facing brands Yo and Enracha, which offer bingo, electronic casino and slots, sports betting and entertainment.
The scale of the incident is such that Rank said it will be recorded as an exceptional item in its 2025-26 financial results.
The announcement on Monday weighed on investor sentiment, with Rank shares falling sharply in early trading following the disclosure. While the business has not provided further detail on the nature or duration of the fraud, it confirmed it is cooperating fully with authorities and reviewing its internal controls as part of its response.
“The group has reported the matter to the relevant law enforcement agencies and is supporting their investigations, as well as carrying out its own internal investigation with the help of an external law firm,” Rank said in its statement.
Fraud adds to pressure from tax and regulatory headwinds
The incident comes as the operator has already been assessing the impact of regulatory and fiscal changes across its core markets, including the Remote Gaming Duty increase in the UK.
Earlier this year, Rank warned that higher remote gaming taxation would materially affect group earnings, although this is expected to be partially offset by the removal of bingo duty. Even with mitigation, the group previously guided to a significant net impact on annual profitability.
In its most recent quarterly update, Rank reported mixed results for its Spanish operations in the three months to 30 September.
Digital business Yo saw a 1% year-on-year drop in net gaming revenue due to platform capacity issues. The group said these challenges were being addressed with the launch of a new bingo platform and it expects the business to return to growth in the quarter to 31 December. Meanwhile, the nine Enracha venues in Spain delivered NGR growth of 5% during the period.
Overall, Rank saw a 9% year-on-year increase in net gaming revenue to £210.2 million. Digital net gaming revenue climbed 13% year-on-year to reach £61.6 million.
The fraud announcement comes a month after John Ott became Rank’s new chairman on 17 November. Ott, formerly group strategy and M&A director at Barclays Bank, replaced Alex Thursby, whose departure was confirmed by Rank in September.
Rank Group has alerted Spanish authorities and launched an internal investigation to establish how the incident came about.