Bet365 cuts 340 roles after Labour’s gambling tax rise

Bet365 is cutting about 340 jobs, roughly 3% of its workforce, in the first significant redundancy round at the company Denise Coates built into the largest privately owned gambling business in Britain.

Up to 300 roles go at the headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent, where the company employs about 5,500 people, with a further 40 affected in Gibraltar and Malta. A spokesman said Bet365 faces a highly competitive trading environment alongside increased regulatory and tax-related costs, and is restructuring some of its locations this year. It plans a voluntary redundancy programme first and says it is exploring all avenues to reduce compulsory losses.

The tax changes behind it are substantial. Chancellor Rachel Reeves raised the levy on online casinos and digital slot machines from 21% to 40%, and duty on most online sports betting is due to rise from 15% to 25% from 2027.

Coates paid herself £104 million in the year to the end of March 2025, an increase of 8% on the previous year. Her family’s wealth has been estimated at close to £10 billion.

She built the company from a portable cabin. Coates bought the domain bet365.com in 2000 and launched the business the following year with a £15 million loan secured against her family’s betting shops, having previously run the chain her father Peter Coates founded. She remains joint chief executive and the company has never listed, which is why her pay is disclosed in filings rather than set by a remuneration committee answering to outside shareholders.

The wider industry has been shedding staff since the 2025 budget. The Betting and Gaming Council counts about 4,500 jobs lost across the sector since then, alongside hundreds of high street bookmakers. Entain, which owns Ladbrokes and Coral, announced 500 redundancies earlier this summer, and William Hill confirmed the closure of around 270 shops this year.

There is a political history to it. Peter Coates and companies linked to Bet365 were regular donors to the Labour Party until 2015, giving a total of about £490,000, and he donated £25,000 to Keir Starmer’s office in 2020. The funding lapsed during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

The party they backed has since raised gambling taxes twice.