The Ladbrokes and Coral operator recently announced a 20% initial sale of its CEE division – which includes its Polish STS and Croatian SuperSport brands – for an initial £366m to its local JV partner EMMA Capital.
It comes after the recent Remote Gaming Duty and General Betting Duty hikes included in the November Budget, which changed the calculation for many UK-facing gaming operators.
In a note published today (30 June), analyst Andrew Tam at Rothschild & Co Redburn highlighted the CEE sale implies an Enterprise Value of £1.83bn and reflects a 9.3 EBITDA multiple – or 45% above the multiple Entain is trading at.
He wrote: “CEE first, Italy next? By virtue of the structured put/call options between Entain and EMMA Capital, and the more standalone nature of the CEE business, it naturally became the easiest part of Entain to divest.
“In our view, Entain’s Italian assets would be highly coveted by both financial and strategic buyers. An Italian divestment would represent the next leg of the ongoing consolidation of the online gambling market in Italy. We see potential for a further £1.2-1.6bn of capital to be unlocked, once again at similarly attractive multiples (8-9x).”
Entain could slash debt
Tam highlighted Entain is a podium operator in Italy with an approximate 8% market share through its Eurobet and Gioco Digitale brands. It sits behind Lottomatica and Flutter and lacks the scale of its competitors.
If the pending CEE divestment, alongside a possible future Italy sale are achieved, the analyst said Entain has a path to aggressively cut its net debt to just £1.5bn, a number that would shrink over time after a £219m deferred prosecution agreement in the UK is paid off.
The analyst argued that this would help the 50% BetMGM stake to be properly valued by investors.
“BetMGM remains the main prize within Entain,” he added. “An ongoing divestment programme would unlock significant capital and cut Entain’s leverage to the bottom end of management’s targeted 2-3x range earlier than expected.
“With BetMGM a bigger portion of the remaining Entain portfolio, investors are more likely to ascribe value to it. Meanwhile, a smaller and less complex Entain is equally more digestible.”
Dingnews.com 01/07/2026