bet365 to cut 340 roles as tax and regulatory costs bite

The operator puts the reduction at around 3% of its workforce, with 300 of the 340 roles going at its Stoke-on-Trent headquarters.

Britain’s biggest gambling firms have spent 2026 shrinking, and until now, the pressure has shown up mainly as high street shop closures. bet365 confirmed on 8 September 2026 that it will cut approximately 340 roles across its European offices.

Key findings

• bet365 will cut approximately 340 roles, with 300 at its Stoke-on-Trent headquarters and 40 across Gibraltar and Malta.
• The company puts the reduction at around 3% of its workforce and will begin with voluntary redundancies.
• Remote Gaming Duty rose from 21% to 40% on 1 April 2026, and a new 25% remote betting rate follows on 1 April 2027.
• bet365 is the fifth large UK operator to announce cuts or closures this year, after Evoke, Entain, Betfred and Flutter.
• The BGC counts 540 announced shop closures and around 4,500 announced job losses across the sector since the November 2025 Budget. 

What bet365 has confirmed

Around 300 of the roles will go at the company’s Stoke-on-Trent headquarters, which employs about 5,500 people. The remaining 40 are at its Gibraltar and Malta offices. bet365 employs roughly 10,000 people globally and puts the reduction at around 3% of its workforce.

The company said it will start with a voluntary redundancy programme and that affected staff have already been informed. A bet365 spokesperson said:

‘As an international business, we continually review and assess our operations to ensure the business’ long-term future. We’re currently facing a highly competitive trading environment, plus increased regulatory and tax-related costs.’

The tax changes behind the decision

The Autumn 2025 Budget delivered the largest overhaul of UK gambling duty in years. Remote Gaming Duty, which applies to online casino and slots, rose from 21% to 40% for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2026, a 19 percentage point rise, or roughly 90% in relative terms.

A separate 25% rate for remote betting was introduced within General Betting Duty and takes effect on 1 April 2027, up from 15%. Remote bets on UK horseracing stay at 15%, as do bets placed at self-service terminals in licensed premises. Duty on land-based betting was left unchanged, and bingo duty was abolished from 1 April 2026. HM Treasury expects the package to raise over £1 billion a year.

That structure matters for bet365 specifically. As an online-only operator, it has no retail estate to shrink in response to the online duty rise, and the 2027 remote betting increase will land directly on its sportsbook. 

The 40% rate has already shown up in almost every major UK brand’s monthly performance. Gambling Commission operating licence fees also rise by 25% from 1 October 2026.

The fifth major operator to announce reductions

bet365 joins four other large UK operators that have cut headcount or closed shops this year.

• Evoke, which owns William Hill and 888, confirmed around 270 shop closures in its 2025 annual results in April, having told staff in March it planned to close about 200.
• Entain announced around 500 job cuts globally in July, roughly 2% of its workforce, affecting corporate, product and technology functions. 
• Betfred opened a consultation on 31 July to close 132 shops and cut more than 600 roles. 
• Flutter Entertainment confirmed on 3 September that up to 100 Paddy Power shops across the UK and Ireland are under review, with approximately 400 roles potentially at risk.

The Betting and Gaming Council said in August that operators had announced 540 shop closures and around 4,500 job losses since the Autumn Budget was delivered on 26 November 2025. It expects those figures to pass 600 closures and 5,000 job losses by the end of 2026. 

Reaction from the trade body and Stoke-on-Trent

Commenting on why there must be no further tax rises, BGC stated: 

‘The sector repeatedly warned that higher taxes would lead to job losses, less investment and damage to successful British businesses, and sadly that is exactly what we are now seeing. Bet365 is one of Stoke-on-Trent’s biggest employers and a major British success story. The loss of hundreds of jobs will be deeply felt by workers, their families and the wider local economy.’

The trade body highlighted that Britain’s regulated betting and gaming industry supports tens of thousands of jobs and contributes billions to the economy. 

BGC edged the Government to ‘rule out any further tax rises on the sector. Ministers should instead pursue an evidence-led approach which protects jobs, investment and the regulated market, rather than handing an advantage to the unsafe, unregulated illegal gambling market.”

Gareth Snell, Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, said the job losses ‘should serve as a warning to the regulators and the Treasury,’ describing the roles as ‘well-paid jobs in an area of the country that needs investment’.

The disputed job forecasts

The cuts have revived a dispute that ran through last autumn’s Budget debate. In October 2025, the BGC published Ernst & Young analysis estimating that IPPR’s tax proposals would cost 40,000 jobs and £3.1 billion in gross value added.

IPPR rejected that figure. In a note published on 5 November 2025, Professor Ashwin Kumar wrote that the estimates were ‘seriously flawed’, arguing that the BGC’s publicity relied on a high-elasticity scenario in which the elasticities ‘were developed in discussion with the BGC,’ and that the modelling assumed job losses would fall in proportion to reduced stakes without accounting for online gaming employing fewer people than retail betting.

The 40,000 figure applied to IPPR’s own proposals, which called for a 50% rate on online gaming. The government settled on 40%. Announced job losses across the sector currently stand at under 5,000. The tax rise that was modelled is not the one that passed, so the figures are not directly comparable. 

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