Entain Group To Exit All Non-Regulated Markets
The Entain Group is about to exit all non-regulated gambling markets. This has been announced by the international gambling provider. It is not clear whether this will affect the New Zealand market as online casinos that are operated offshore are allowed.
In 2020, Entain already stated that it only wanted to generate income from regulated countries from the end of 2023. Yesterday, the international gambling company announced that it would accelerate its departure from all countries that have not regulated online gambling.
In addition, the company announced that this particularly includes countries that have no clear path to regulation. The exit from non-regulated markets has been announced as part of an overall strategy that focuses solely on legal markets. It is still active in a number of non-regulated countries, but this should change in the short term.
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Uncertainty about Brazil
In recent years, Entain has increasingly withdrawn their services from non-regulated countries. In some other countries where games of chance have not yet been legalised, Entain did remain active. The most striking example of this is Brazil. That is not yet a regulated gambling market, but Entain does offer various gambling brands in the South American country such as Bwin, PartyCasino, and PartyPoker. Whether it will go offline in Brazil has not yet been confirmed. Online gambling is currently prohibited in Brazil. However, sports betting is widely accessible and there is also a lot of sports sponsorship.
Regulation seemed close in Brazil despite the opposition of then-incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro. The regulation of sports betting and online casino products in the South American nation eventually could not count on approval by the president and the Brazilian Senate. Bolsonaro lost the elections at the end of last year to Lula da Silva, who has been president of the country with 216 million inhabitants since January 1, 2023. Lula has not made any announcements about possible regulation of gambling in Brazil since his appointment at the beginning of this year. The new president’s priority does not seem to be on regulating gambling.
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“As part of the deep and far-reaching transformation program Entain has been through in recent years, we made the decision in 2020 to only operate in regulated markets. Today’s announcement is therefore a continuation of that strategy and should be taken as a clear demonstration of Entain’s commitment to the highest standards of corporate social responsibility, governance, sustainability and player safety.”
Barry Gibson, CEO Entain Group
The CEO of Entain adds to this:
“We have stated before that we would exit any market that was unable to regulate at a sufficient pace or to the right standards, and we acted decisively to do so. We are proud to lead our industry as the only global operator with an approach of operating exclusively in licensed markets.”
Barry Gibson, CEO Entain Group
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Entain Now Regulated in 31 Countries
All in all, Entain currently holds a gambling licence in 31 countries. The gaming company is internationally active with gaming brands such as Ladbrokes, PartyCasino, partypoker, and bwin with which it has licences in Great Britain, France, Canada, and Malta, amongst others. According to the company itself, the departure from unregulated countries will not have much impact on Entain’s global revenue stream. Entain previously reported that since the end of 2021, about 99% of revenues have already come from regulated countries. Brazil was already included in these figures because Entain at that time expected that games of chance would be regulated in the South American superpower.
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