H2 Capital’s Josh Hodgson set the scene at the SBC Summit in Lisbon last Wednesday, where the backdrop for a panel discussion was the UK’s remote gaming tax, which rose from 21% to 40% on 1 April.
Tier one operators already hold around two-thirds of the UK market, Hodgson said, and that share could climb to as much as 80%. Is this, he asked, the moment when “scale and balance-sheet strength become the decisive factor”?
Richard Clarke, managing director at Flutter-owned brands Paddy Power and Betfair painted a serious picture: “We’re expecting a £500 million impact from next year. That impact has already started to come through this year, so it has to be managed, and we’re working on that.”
