Bet365 will cut about 340 jobs across its European offices, with most of the losses at its Stoke-on-Trent headquarters. The company said around 300 roles will go in Stoke and a further 40 in Gibraltar and Malta, equal to about 3% of its workforce.
The bookmaker said it employs roughly 10,000 people worldwide and about 5,500 in Stoke alone. According to the BBC, it will begin with a voluntary redundancy programme, and affected staff have already been told.
The company said colleagues were its priority and that it was exploring all avenues to reduce the number of redundancies. It described the move as part of a business restructure intended to secure its long-term future.
Bet365 attributed the cuts to a highly competitive trading environment, plus higher regulatory and tax-related costs.
The tax backdrop is the government’s overhaul of gambling duties after the autumn 2025 Budget. Remote Gaming Duty rose from 21% to 40% in April, and a new 25% rate for remote betting will take effect from 1 April 2027.
Online bets on UK horseracing stay at 15%, land-based betting duties were left unchanged and bingo duty was abolished from April. The government’s response to its consultation said the package raises over £1 billion a year, while the Commons Library estimated the measures will raise £810 million in 2026/27 and £1.16 billion in 2030/31.
The wider sector has already been warning about the effect of the Budget changes. In August, the Betting and Gaming Council said operators had announced 540 shop closures and about 4,500 job losses since the Budget, and expected those figures to pass 600 closures and 5,000 job losses by the end of 2026.
That trade body has argued there should be no further tax rises, while IPPR has rejected industry-backed claims that tax changes could cost 40,000 jobs.
