Hacksaw Group has moved into prediction markets with the launch of a B2B platform that lets operators offer peer-to-peer event trading under their own brands. The Nasdaq Stockholm-listed supplier said on 15 October that the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) had approved an extension of its existing B2B critical gaming supply licence to add Type 3 gaming services, which authorises it to provide peer-to-peer prediction market services under the Maltese framework.

Hacksaw previously held Type 1 authorisation, which covers casino-style games of chance against the house. Type 3 is the MGA category for games where players compete against each other and the operator takes a commission, the same classification used for poker networks and betting exchanges.

How the platform works

According to the company’s announcement, operators keep ownership of their brands, customer relationships and front-end experience, while Hacksaw supplies the underlying technology and infrastructure. The aim is to spare operators the cost of building and maintaining a prediction market product themselves.

The platform includes what Hacksaw calls a connected volume framework, which pools peer-to-peer participation across its operator network. Liquidity is the central problem for any new exchange-style product, and Hacksaw said the shared pool gives operators access to broader capacity from launch rather than leaving each brand to build its own.

The release did not name launch partners or target jurisdictions. Hacksaw said its existing customers include some of the largest private and state-owned iGaming operators across multiple markets, and cited a Bernstein estimate that annual prediction market trading volumes could reach around $1trn by 2030.

“We believe our existing platform, distribution capabilities and operator relationships position us exceptionally well,” said Ana Vrabic Verdir, group chief executive of Hacksaw Group. Marcus Cordes, operational CEO of Hacksaw Gaming, added: “We have created a solution that enables operators to access prediction market capabilities efficiently and at scale.”

Growth moderates in Q3

The launch comes days after Hacksaw published a preliminary update for the third quarter. The company expects revenue of €57.5m to €58.5m for the three months to 30 September, up about 11% to 12% from €52.0m a year earlier. Adjusted operating profit is expected at €48m to €49m, against €42.1m, with an adjusted EBIT margin of about 83%.

Hacksaw said growth had moderated during the period because of softer market conditions and game performance below that of recent quarters, adding that results in its content business naturally vary from period to period. Its long-term financial targets are unchanged, and the full interim report is due on 3 November.

The preliminary figures leave the prediction markets launch as the clearest new growth line Hacksaw can point to when it reports. The company has spent the past year widening its distribution, recently going live with Sazka Hry in the Czech Republic and extending its partnership with bet365 into Spain.

A crowded field

Hacksaw is the latest established gambling supplier to push into a sector that has grown rapidly in the US through Kalshi and Polymarket, where the legal fight between federally regulated event contracts and state gambling law continues to escalate. Outside the US, operators have so far approached the product through existing betting exchange licences. Matchbook, for example, has begun rolling out prediction markets in the UK.

By routing the product through an MGA peer-to-peer licence and selling it on a white-label basis, Hacksaw is betting that regulated European operators will want prediction markets without the build cost or the US regulatory exposure. How quickly operators sign up, and in which markets regulators accept the product as a form of licensed betting, will determine whether the diversification offsets the slowdown in its core games business.

Entain has reported a 2% rise in group net gaming revenue (NGR) for the third quarter, with a strong performance in its home market of the UK and Ireland cushioning the impact of a collapse in Brazil and a run of customer-friendly football results. The FTSE-listed group reiterated its full-year guidance in a trading update published on 15 October, though it again pointed to the lower end of its EBITDA range.

The update covers the three months from 1 July to 30 September 2026. All figures are on a constant currency basis and exclude Entain CEE, which the group now reports as a discontinued operation.

Gaming carries the quarter

Online NGR rose 3% in the quarter. Online gaming grew 8%, while online sports revenue fell 3% as results went against the house. Entain said football outcomes in August and September more than offset a strong sports margin in July, leaving a sports margin headwind of roughly 1 to 2 percentage points. It estimated that adverse results knocked about 4% off Q3 online growth.

Retail NGR fell 2% despite a 2% increase in volumes, again reflecting sports results.

The UK and Ireland was the standout. Total UK&I NGR rose 8%, which Entain described as ahead of expectations, and UK&I online NGR climbed 14%, with gaming up 17%, sports up 3% and volumes up 15%. The group said this showed continued market share gains. UK&I retail grew 3% on a like-for-like basis.

Brazil drags on international

International NGR fell 4%, with online down 3% and retail down 12%. Brazil was the main drag: NGR there fell 36% in the quarter, which Entain attributed to disciplined marketing in an increasingly difficult market even before the immediate online gambling ban announced on 25 September. Excluding Brazil, international online NGR rose 1% and group online NGR rose 5%, taking year-to-date online growth excluding Brazil to 8%.

Elsewhere, Australian online NGR rose 1%, in line with expectations, while Italy fell 6% as strong volume growth of 9% was undone by a 3.1 percentage point drop in sports margin. New Zealand, Spain and Canada all delivered double-digit online growth.

Entain CEE, now held for sale, posted flat NGR, with double-digit online growth in Poland offset by poor sports results in Croatia. The divestment of an initial 20% stake remains on track to close in the fourth quarter.

Guidance held, tax warning issued

Entain reiterated the FY26 guidance it gave on 28 September, which assumes the Brazilian ban stays in place for the rest of the year. It expects online NGR growth of 4% to 6%, or the top end of 5% to 7% excluding Brazil. Underlying EBITDA, excluding parent fees, is expected at the lower end of a £910m to £960m range, with online EBITDA margin at the lower end of 21% to 22%.

BetMGM, its US joint venture with MGM Resorts, reconfirmed FY26 net revenue guidance of $2.9bn to $3.1bn and adjusted EBITDA of $300m to $350m, both towards the lower end. Entain still expects to generate £500m of annual adjusted cash flow in 2028, including its remaining 47.5% minority stake in Entain CEE.

Chief executive Stella David used the update to lobby the government ahead of the UK Budget. “We strongly urge the UK Government to carefully consider any further gambling tax increases which would threaten the viability of many shops, jobs and livelihoods,” she said.

Her comments add to a wider industry campaign against a possible increase in machine games duty, with the Betting and Gaming Council warning this week that doubling the levy could cost 16,000 jobs. Entain said the potential impact of forthcoming tax and regulatory changes remains unknown, leaving the Budget as the next major test for its UK retail estate.

PointsBet Holdings has warned that its first-half revenue will fall by about 16%, with the Australian-listed bookmaker blaming tighter compliance controls on its most valuable customers and a run of poor results on AFL betting. The company, which is majority owned by Japan’s MIXI, told the Australian Securities Exchange on 13 October that it expects group revenue of approximately A$113m for H1 FY27, down from roughly A$135m in the prior corresponding period.

The half covers the six months from 1 April to 30 September 2026. PointsBet also guided to a Normalised EBITDA loss of between A$6m and A$8m for the period, according to its trading update. Full H1 FY27 results are due on 30 October 2026.

Australia drives the decline

According to the filing, the fall in group revenue was attributable entirely to the Australian business. PointsBet said the result reflected a continuation of two themes it set out at its FY26 annual general meeting in August.

The first is what the company described as the continued strengthening of its compliance standards. It reported a sustained trend of double-digit declines in turnover and revenue against the prior period throughout the half from its highest-value client cohort, which it attributed to proactive compliance actions. PointsBet said it believed these were important decisions to make given an increasingly complex regulatory environment in Australia.

The second is a deliberate push to grow mass-market sports actives, a strategy the company acknowledged can produce short-term volatility in net win margins. PointsBet said it recorded consistent gains in mass-market sports actives, turnover and structural net win margin against the prior period, but these were eroded by negative variance in actual net win margin across the half. It singled out adverse results on key sports in August and September, primarily AFL.

The update did not break out segment revenue for Australia or Canada, and gave no prior-period EBITDA comparison for the April to September 2025 window. Those figures are expected with the half-year accounts at the end of the month.

Alberta still to come

The trading update made no reference to Canada beyond confirming the decline was Australian. At the August AGM, Group CEO Andrew Catterall said PointsBet had migrated its Canadian iGaming platform to Bede in Q1 FY27 and unified its marketing model across both markets. “The combination of these two choices to migrate to Bede and to unify our Marketing model will enable TAM expansion with an efficient entry into the newly regulated province of Alberta, planned for H2 FY27,” he told shareholders, according to the AGM address.

H2 FY27 runs from October 2026 to March 2027, meaning Alberta, where PointsBet opened customer pre-registration in February 2026, has yet to contribute to group revenue. Canada has been the group’s growth engine: in the nine months to 31 March 2026, Canadian revenue rose 13% to A$34.6m, with iGaming net win up 28%, while Australia generated A$152.0m.

MIXI era reporting

The H1 FY27 update is the first full-period market update since PointsBet changed its financial year-end from 30 June to 31 March to align with MIXI, which holds a 66.4% controlling stake following its takeover in 2025. Its FY26 annual report therefore covered only the nine months from July 2025 to March 2026, a period in which group revenue was A$186.6m and Normalised EBITDA was a loss of A$0.8m.

Chairman Brett Paton told the AGM that FY26 had been “a year of significant transition” for the business, covering the move to MIXI ownership, the change in reporting cycle and the appointment of Catterall as Group CEO in February 2026, replacing co-founder Sam Swanell. The company has not provided full-year FY27 guidance.

Trade outlets including SBC News and iGaming Next reported the revenue warning, with the latter noting that the expected EBITDA loss compares unfavourably with the small loss posted across FY26.

What happens next

The warning lands as Australian wagering operators prepare for the federal gambling advertising reform package recently passed by Parliament. Catterall said at the AGM that the post-reform operating model for licensed operators would become “even more complicated and more expensive”, and urged the government to ensure agencies can block illegal offshore operators.

For PointsBet, the 30 October results will show how much of the H1 slide came from the high-value cohort versus AFL results, and whether Canadian growth on the Bede platform is holding up. The timing of the Alberta launch within H2 FY27 is likely to be the key question for investors, as the company leans on Canada to offset a shrinking Australian top line.