The topic of tax has dominated betting and gaming discourse this year, with various debates around increased duties in France, the Netherlands, Brazil and the UK. We take a look back at some of the key perspectives on this heated topic in 2025.
In the UK, the government settled on an increase in online taxes of 40% from April 2026 and 25% on retail from April 2027, while in the Netherlands the rate for online betting is set to go up from 34.2% to 37.8%, to name two of the biggest examples. So what did the industry think?
Joanne Whittaker, Betfred
Joanne Whittaker, CEO of Betfred, talked us through the company’s perspective on the UK betting tax debate SBC News in the midst of the heated debate and with just a few weeks left to go before Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, unveiled her budget.
“We will always put the customer at the forefront and will continue to invest in that, but the hard economics, the costs of the high street, the taxes up for debate at the moment – we have to look at the other economics of that,” Whittaker told us.
Betfred is one of the UK’s retail giants, with a huge high street presence of well over 1,300 shops, putting alongside Ladbrokes Coral and Evoke’s William Hill as one of the biggest players in high street betting. In the run up to the budget, it seemed that the government’s plans could put this to an end.
“We will always be passionate retailers and we will continue to invest in our retail estate, but it is difficult and it is on our mind. It is part of our board discussions regularly, how do we manage it and what do we do?”
Pontus Lindwall, Betsson AB
The UK was hardly the only market to see a debate around taxation this year, as the topic dominated conversation throughout much of Europe. A company with a huge footprint across various markets which found itself navigating the rapidly shifting tax conditions was Betsson.
Speaking to SBC just after the company published its Q3 results, Betsson AB CEO, Pontus Lindwall, expressed hope that the Dutch tax rates would eventually normalise, but also reflected that governments like that of the Netherlands should examine low player channelisation rates – and where these come from.
“When you see decreasing channelisation, you have to do something as a politician. You have to look at the regulations. You have to look at the cause,” he said.
“Regulators need to recognise that there is a problem. They already did in their statement, so I’m still optimistic. But if you want to take care of the customers, the industry has to be within the regulated market.”
Sam Sadi, LiveScore
Speaking to SBC in Lisbon, Sam Sadi, CEO of LiveScore Group, gave us his first hand experience of dealing with tax burdens in both the Netherlands and the UK. The company was active in the Netherlands for many years but decided to call time after the hefty tax bill made operations there no longer worth it.
“I think what the Netherlands has done to regulate the industry and then, within two years, increase taxes substantially but also increase regulatory and compliance costs in such a manner that all your investment plans and projections have been made obsolete, is very unusual.”
Speaking to SBC shortly before the UK budget announcement of 26 November, Sadi made some projections that would ultimately ring true, particularly around marketing. After the budget announcement, various firms mapped out plans to cut marketing budgets to manage their expenses.
“That would mean we spend less on marketing, or we have to cut costs, and that means we employ less,” Sadi told us prior to the announcement. “These are all known impacts of what happens when you increase taxes on any industry, and I think the approach of legislators to industries such as online gambling has been that taxation doesn’t have these impacts.”
Maarten Haijer, EGBA
Taxation has not been the only topic of discussion in the Netherlands, but is rather something that has added to the industry’s frustrations with the government’s attitudes towards it and how it is regulated.
As noted by Betsson’s Lindwall, channelisation rates in the Netherlands have suffered. And in the view of Maarten Haijer, President of the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA), deposit limits have also played their part.
He explained: “By introducing the deposit limits, which for people on the outside might sound nice or logical, the real effect is that people that play more – that you probably want to actually protect more than people that don’t play or play very little – go to the black market.”