Four years ago, Entain arrived in Central and Eastern Europe with the swagger of a company buying the future. It paid roughly €690 million [$787 million today] for 75% of Croatia’s SuperSport in 2022, and £750 million [$1.0 billion today] for STS, Poland’s sports-betting champion, in 2023. It folded both into a joint venture with Czech firm EMMA Capital called Entain CEE. Mikolaj Cymerman, the unit’s head of corporate development, called the strategy a home for regional “local heroes”.
“The long-term vision is to be in every single one of those markets,” he said of the dozen countries then on Entain’s wish-list.
That vision has been shelved. On 25 June Entain agreed to sell a 20% stake in Entain CEE back to EMMA Capital for around €425 million [$485 million], the first instalment of a planned full exit.
