Entain pulls the plug on 140 markets

One of the biggest gambling companies in the world, Entain Plc, has been going through a lot lately. The behemoth closed an investigation into operations conducted years prior that served the company with a £615mn bill from the HM Revenue & Customs in the United Kingdom. Entain’s boss, Jettey Nygaard-Andersen, has quit, and a new activist investor has been promoted to a non-executive pew on the Board of Directors in a bid to quash dissent and start fresh.

The Financial Times has reported, citing internal documents, that the company is also withdrawing from 140 unregulated markets where it has lingering operations as it seeks to streamline its operations and prevent further brush-ups with authorities. Entain succeeded its more boisterous and adventurous sibling, GVC Holdings, vowing to clean up its act, and this is finally happening in the fullest four years after the fact more or less.

Although the figure may look somewhat big, the publication argues that Entain is simply fine-tuning and withdrawing from places such as Antarctica and Vatican City, making sure that, bizarre as this may sound, its offer is not available in those jurisdictions.

Other jurisdictions only have a minor population, such as the United States Minor Outlying Islands, Pitcairn Islands, and others, but Entain is adamant about its commitment. Yet, the company first promised to ensure a smooth exit from unregulated gambling markets back in 2020, and it actually did, leading to 100 withdrawals at the time.

Guided withdrawals continued throughout 2021 and 2023, but as regulatory scrutiny has begun to mount around the world, Entain has been asking and rightly, so it seems "what if" questions that have prompted it to be far more diligent, as Financial Times’s reporting indicates.

Although Entain may seem to be jumping the gun, its activist investors, shareholders, and management team are seeing the value in leaving no stone unturned and ensuring long-term sustainability by not letting today’s sins become tomorrow’s financial penalties.

There has been a fair deal of reprobation coming from investors, as well, with Corvex Management and Eminence Capital pummeling the gambling giant for underdelivering in value and not making full use of the brand’s stock and its potential.

Entain though is setting a path that others will undoubtedly follow. Ensuring that unregulated markets are not part of a gambling company’s mix is an important milestone that only a few companies may boast about at best, if any British.

Although the bulk of revenue in Entain is clearly derived from regulated markets, those seemingly small anomalies in its portfolio could upset the apple cart. Entain will not allow that.

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