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About Heads Will Roll
Atucha praises the regulation and the regulators themselves for making entry into the market easy, as well as allowing them to be competitive against illegal operators. But the market hasn’t been without its challenges.
A 1% selective consumption tax (ISC) on the value of every online bet has been in force since 1 July 2025, after the original policy was scrapped from proposed regulations in July 2021.
Atucha warns that regulations are often perceived as operator-friendly at the start before governments begin looking to squeeze licensed sectors, likening the process to “boiling a frog”. He has observed similar scenarios in other LatAm markets, with tax increases occurring in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico in the last couple of years.
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Analysts remain bullish on the operator’s future following its H1 earnings report. A Goodbody note dated 13 August hailed “another positive update, with H1 adjusted EBITDA landing comfortably ahead of expectations”.
UK&I continues to be a “standout performance” said the note, as Entain sits comfortably ahead of its peers and appears to be seizing market share, amid fallout from the UK’s remote gaming duty tax hike in April.
In a 14 August note from UBS, the investment bank reiterated its buy rating for Entain. “Overall, we believe Entain shares offer the highest theoretical upside potential within the European gaming sector, albeit with a risk profile that remains elevated relative to peers,” the note went on to say.
How to play Heads Will Roll
“Our investment is going into regulated markets, and yes over time we will likely consider pulling out of certain markets. I think Playtech has done a very good job, [regulated revenues] are more than 85%.”
Meanwhile its B2C revenue, which took a significant hit last year as it offloaded the majority of its B2C operations, including Snaitech and Happy Bet, declined 22% to €32 million.
This segment is predominantly made up of Sun Bingo in the UK, a white label brand which Playtech said it was reviewing in March, due to the impact of the UK Remote Gaming Duty hike earlier this year.
