Land-based and horse racing welcome exemption
The UK Budget has brought dismay for UK betting companies, although the horseracing industry welcomed being included in a list of sports that were exempt from a new online sports betting duty of 25 per cent, which will be applicable to sports.
Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) is set to increase from 21 per cent to 40 per cent from April 2026, and a new online sports betting duty of 25 per cent, which will be applicable to sports excluding horse racing from April 2027, replacing the existing 15 per cent General Betting Duty.
Betting and Gaming Council CEO, Grainne Hurst, said: “Massive tax increases for online betting and gaming announced in the Budget make them among the highest in the world, and are a devastating hammer blow to tens of thousands of people working in the industry across the UK, and millions of customers who enjoy a bet.
“Regulated betting and gaming is one of the UK’s few globally successful sectors, generating £6.8bn for the economy, contributing over £4bn in tax and supporting 109,000 jobs, while delivering vital funding for British sport. While we welcome the decision not to raise land-based duties and to scrap bingo duty – these excessive online tax increases will undermine jobs, investment and growth across the UK.
“The Government’s Budget is a massive win for the incredibly harmful, unsafe, unregulated gambling black market, which pays no tax and offers none of the protections that exist in the regulated sector. These decisions are bad for jobs, bad for customers, bad for sports – and bad for safer gambling”.
evoke, whose brands include William Hill, 888 and Mr Green, said it had paid taxes and duties of £329m to the UK Exchequer in 2024, equating to more than 60 per cent of its UK profits. It believes that RGD at 40 per cent will result in substantial and far-reaching changes to the entire UK-operating environment for betting and gaming, including driving further growth in the unregulated and untaxed black-market.
It says that this will ‘ultimately reduce the amount of tax generated by the UK gambling industry. In addition, the significant increases in duties reduce the commercial rationale for licensed operators such as evoke to invest in the UK market and, consequently, the Board believes that several thousand UK jobs in the betting and gaming industry will be lost as a direct result.’
The evoke board said: “This will mean substantially lower investment from the industry into UK sports, especially horseracing, placing elements of the broader betting and gaming supply chain at severe risk.
“Duty increases will severely jeopardise the progress made by the licensed UK betting and gaming industry during recent years regarding safer gambling. As a direct result of today’s changes, the Board expects that – as has been seen in other markets that have experienced significant tax increases – regulated betting and gaming products will need to become more expensive for consumers, which will in turn drive more players to the black-market where there is no protection for customers, no accountability for operators, and no tax generation.”
Prior to any mitigating actions and based on the Board’s expectations for gross gaming revenue ahead of the UK Budget announcement, these changes in tax rates would increase duty costs by approximately £125 to 135m on an annualised basis once fully implemented from April 2027, with approximately £80m of the pre-mitigation impact arising in FY26 given the timeframe for implementation.
It plans to mitigate approximately 50 per cent of the impact from higher duties over the medium-term through supplier savings, reduced marketing, retail store closures, operating cost savings, and potential changes to the customer proposition. As one of the leading and largest operators in the UK market, the Group is better positioned than many to navigate this increase and, over time, potentially stands to benefit from further consolidation of market share with the likely exit of smaller operators due to the rising costs.
Per Widerström, CEO of evoke, commented: “The decision today by the UK government to substantially raise taxes is highly damaging for the economy and consumers. As an industry, we have consistently warned of the significant impact on jobs, investment in the UK, and player protection that these changes would have, yet sadly the Government has chosen not to listen. These proposals are ill-thought-through, counterproductive, and highly damaging. It is clear these changes will significantly harm businesses, employees, and customers.”
“We will begin immediately on executing our mitigation plans, which involve a significant reduction in investment into the UK, and, very regrettably, the likely need for thousands of jobs to be cut up and down the country. As a result of the actions now required, these tax changes will reduce the overall level of tax the regulated industry pays in the UK, and more importantly, it will have a significant negative impact on player protection as these changes will incentivise activity moving to the illegal and dangerous black-market.”
The message at rival, Flutter Entertainment, was the same, with the operator warning that tax increases will have a very significant impact on the overall market. It said, however, that as the largest scale operator, Flutter has the opportunity to deliver material second-order mitigation benefits, including market share gains, which combined with additional operational efficiencies, will provide substantial opportunities to help offset the impact in the medium-term.
Kevin Harrington, UKI CEO, commented: “Today’s tax increases are a very disappointing outcome and will have a significant adverse impact on our industry. The Chancellor rightly wants to address harm, but these changes will hand a big win to illegal, unlicensed gambling operators who will become more competitive overnight. These black market operators don’t pay tax and don’t invest in safer gambling. At 40 percent, the UK’s remote gaming duty is now above countries such as the Netherlands, where a recent tax increase saw a rise in illegal gambling and a fall in Government receipts. Despite this impact, I am confident that through both our scale and leading position in the UK, as well as the proactive cost initiatives that we are taking, we are well placed to navigate through today’s changes.”
The exemption from at least some of the increases was welcomed by the British Horseracing Association.
Brant Dunshea, BHA Acting Chief Executive, said: “Today’s welcome outcome demonstrates that the Chancellor has listened to our concerns and rightly recognised that racing is a unique national asset – culturally, socially and economically – and we welcome this support.”
“Betting on racing is an integral part of the enjoyment of our sport, and maintaining the rate of horserace betting duties is an important step by the Government to help preserve revenue streams and protect the 85,000 jobs supported by the racing across the country.
“Racing has been part of the British way of life for hundreds of years. It binds our communities together in shared experience, it brings joy to millions. It puts the country on the world stage. It is right that the Government has understood this and acted accordingly.
“At the same time, we recognise that the increase in general taxation on the betting industry may have trickle-down effects on racing. We will work with our partners in the betting industry to understand the implications of this, and how we can work together to ensure that British horseracing continues to thrive.”
Some analysts believe that the UK’s Black Wednesday could leave Ireland as an attractive alternative for some gambling firms.
Lee Hills, CEO of leading iGaming regulation consultancy SolutionsHub, said: “The decision to lift Remote Gaming Duty to 40 per cent and Remote General Betting Duty to 25 per cent will be remembered as the moment the UK online gambling sector shifted from a regulated success story to a market in structural retreat. For years, the UK has been held up as the example of how rigorous oversight, predictable regulation and a stable tax regime supports a diverse and innovative digital industry. That position has now been undone in one Budget announcement that has left operators, investors and advisers genuinely stunned.
“The new duty levels do more than compress margins. They break the commercial foundations that allowed licensed operators to function. The UK now expects regulated businesses to pay the highest online gambling tax burden in Europe while also meeting the most stringent consumer protection expectations. Meanwhile, the black market continues to operate without tax obligations, without compliance duties and without meaningful barriers to entry. Nothing stops unlicensed sites from reaching British players, and nothing in the Budget makes them less attractive. The regulated sector has been made uncompetitive in a single afternoon, and regulators will now be forced to manage the consequences of that imbalance.”
“For many licence holders, the UK presence has also served a strategic purpose in valuation planning. Businesses used the stability of the UK market to support their blended multiples during fundraising, pre-IPO positioning or long-term exit planning. By removing predictability and imposing a steep and abrupt tax increase, the government has weakened the very reliability that made the UK valuable in corporate strategy. Predictability has become uncertainty. Stability has become volatility.”
“Attention will now shift to jurisdictions that offer the combination of regulation, credibility and sustainability that the UK once represented. Operators will pursue regulatory diversification, relocating functions, restructuring licensing portfolios and accelerating growth plans in markets that still reward responsible operation. That realignment is already visible across Europe, and the timing of Ireland’s new gambling regime could not be more consequential.
“Ireland’s introduction of the Gambling Regulation Act and the establishment of the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland arrived just as operators were beginning to reassess their exposure to the UK. The new Irish framework offers clarity, EU positioning and a regulatory culture that supports long-term planning. For operators squeezed out of the UK, or simply unwilling to expose themselves to the new tax environment, Ireland offers a credible and attractive alternative. A Dublin presence now carries clear strategic value, providing a base within a mature financial services ecosystem and direct access to a newly regulated EU market at a moment when stability has become the industry’s most important commodity.
“Unless repealed, Black Wednesday will shape the next decade of the UK gambling sector. The online market will contract, and the contraction will be structural rather than cyclical. Jobs will go, investment will stall, innovation will slow, and consumers will be pushed toward unregulated sites that offer none of the protections the regulated framework provides. The Exchequer will not see a windfall, and the industry will not see recovery until the basic commercial imbalance created by the Budget is addressed.”
“The UK once stood as the global benchmark for regulated online gambling. It is now moving in the opposite direction, and unless there is a meaningful reconsideration of the new tax framework, the market will continue to retreat while operators, capital and talent seek stability elsewhere. Ireland is emerging as one of the immediate beneficiaries, and others will follow, because the industry will always gravitate to jurisdictions that balance consumer protection with economic reality. On Black Wednesday, that balance was lost.”
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Land-based and horse racing welcome exemption The UK Budget has brought dismay for UK betting companies, although the horseracing industry welcomed being included in a list of sports that were exempt from a new online sports betting duty of 25 per cent, which will be applicable to sports. Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) is set to increase…
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