Betfred generated turnover of £995.6m in the 52 weeks to 29 March 2026, according to its latest accounts filed at Companies House, with its online business now accounting for close to half of the group’s revenue.

Retail contributed 55% of turnover in the period, down from 61% a year earlier, with online making up the remaining 45%. The shift continues a long-running rebalancing for the family-owned bookmaker, which built its business on the high street.

The group traces its roots to a single shop opened by brothers Fred and Peter Done in Salford in 1967, and it remains privately controlled by the Done family. It grew into one of the largest retail estates in British betting, adding the Tote in 2011, and has since built out its online sportsbook and casino to compete with the listed groups that dominate UK digital betting.

A change of year-end

The headline numbers are not directly comparable with the prior set of accounts. Betfred moved its year-end from September to March, so the comparative period covers 78 weeks to 30 March 2025. On a like-for-like 12-month basis, group turnover rose by £23.3m, according to the filing as reported by the trade press. Management attributed part of the growth to higher marketing spend aimed at increasing market share and attracting new customers.

Gross profit for the year came in at £719.9m. Operating profit was £74.1m after a one-off £4.6m charge for aborted acquisition costs, and EBITDA was £140.6m. Profit after tax was £39.6m, as reported by SBC News.

Exceptional charges totalled £7.1m, including the aborted deal and £801,000 of closure costs for a foreign subsidiary linked to the US business the group wound down in 2023-24. Betfred had earlier sold its Spanish online business, booking a £1.6m profit on the disposal.

Costs and headcount

Employee costs rose by £19.2m on a like-for-like basis, driven largely by minimum wage increases. Employee numbers edged down to 7,795 from 7,872. The group’s tax charge fell to £24.4m from £59.8m in the longer prior period.

Betfred again declined to provide a geographical breakdown of earnings, with directors stating that doing so would be “severely prejudicial to the interests of the group”.

Tax pressure ahead

The accounts close just before the rise in Remote Gaming Duty to 40%, which took effect in April 2026, so the hit to the online business is not yet reflected in the numbers. The remote betting rate of General Betting Duty is due to rise in April 2027.

The bigger risk for Betfred sits in its shops. Founder Fred Done has been one of the most vocal opponents of a proposed doubling of Machine Games Duty, telling the Financial Times that such a rise would lead the business to close 495 shops within a year, costing 2,575 jobs. In August, Betfred said it was consulting on the possible closure of up to 132 UK shops as part of its response to the tax changes already announced.

The Betting and Gaming Council has warned this week that raising MGD to 40% could cost up to 16,000 jobs across the sector. With retail still producing the majority of Betfred’s turnover, the outcome of the Budget will weigh heavily on whether the online shift accelerates by choice or by force.

Google will allow certified online gambling advertisers to run campaigns in YouTube’s Masthead, the premium placement at the top of the YouTube home feed, from 21 October 2026.

The change was set out in a Google Ads policy notice posted on 7 October. It extends an allowance that already covered sports betting, opening the slot to online gambling operators that hold certification under Google’s Gambling and games policy.

Who qualifies

Eligibility rests on certification. Operators must be certified for the relevant market, and every ad must still comply with the wider Gambling and games policy as well as local legal, jurisdictional and age restrictions.

The notice explicitly excludes advertisers in Google’s online gambling-promoting content category that are not subject to mandatory state or national gambling registration. In practice that shuts out affiliates, comparison sites and other promotional publishers that send traffic to operators without holding an operating licence themselves, even when the operator they promote is certified.

Google has not listed the countries in which the Masthead change applies. Trade press analysis of the notice has pointed out that earlier announcements on gambling ads in Google TV and Masthead placements named specific markets, while this one does not. Masthead creative is also reviewed individually, so certification alone does not guarantee approval.

Certification itself is country by country. Google requires gambling advertisers to show they hold the appropriate licence from the regulator in each market they target, and to restrict ads to those jurisdictions. That means the Masthead opening will only matter in regulated markets where Google already accepts online gambling ads, and only for operators that have completed the process there.

Part of a wider recalibration

Google’s standard policy has long barred gambling promotion in a handful of formats, including Gmail ads, Shopping ads and Masthead placements. The company has spent 2026 tightening the certification rules that sit underneath its gambling ad policy, starting in March with new requirements for online gambling advertisers and extending them across categories in September.

The Masthead change runs the other way, adding inventory for operators that have cleared those tighter checks. It gives licensed brands access to one of the most visible and expensive placements in digital advertising.

Timing against tighter ad rules

The move arrives as gambling advertising faces mounting restrictions in several of the markets where operators would most want to use it. Denmark has tabled a whistle-to-whistle ban on gambling ads during live sport alongside curbs on affiliate marketing. France has added new sign-off requirements for gambling ad campaigns, and in the UK a House of Lords committee has called for a ban on gambling advertising, a recommendation the industry has challenged.

Platform policy is also under pressure from regulators and industry bodies focused on the black market. In the Netherlands, the Dutch online gambling association VNLOK has taken Meta to court over ads for illegal gambling, while Nordic operator Paf has launched a pilot with Meta aimed at curbing unlicensed gambling promotion.

By tying Masthead access to formal certification and excluding unregistered promoters, Google’s change is likely to favour the largest licensed brands with the budgets to buy premium reach. Operators will be watching for confirmation of which markets are covered once the policy takes effect on 21 October.

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has stepped up its campaign against a further rise in UK gambling taxes, warning that doubling Machine Games Duty (MGD) to 40% at the forthcoming Budget could cost up to 16,000 jobs.

In a statement published on 13 October, the trade body cited EY modelling showing that the increase would put almost 1,500 betting shops and as many as 34 casinos at risk, while leaving the Treasury up to £124m worse off as venues close and the tax base shrinks.

Betting shops and young workers

The BGC said betting shops support more than 36,000 jobs, with over 80% of them outside London. It said the workforce skews young: 19% of betting shop employees are under 25, against 11% across the wider economy, and 51% are under 35, compared with 35% nationally. Half of the workforce is female.

Of the jobs it says are at risk, 27% are in the North of England, rising to nearly 40% when Scotland is included.

“Britain’s betting shops support more than 36,000 jobs, and more than eight in ten of them are outside London,” said BGC chief executive Grainne Hurst. “Our message to the Chancellor is simple: rule out any increase in Machine Games Duty.”

Casinos warn of closures

The intervention followed a separate BGC statement on 12 October focused on land-based casinos. It said a 40% MGD rate would put up to 3,800 casino jobs at risk and could lead some operators to consider closing as much as a third of their estates. Half of the threatened closures would be in the North of England and Scotland.

The BGC said casinos directly employ more than 10,000 people, receive 14 million visits a year and contribute £515m in taxes. More than £50m of planned investment could be cancelled or scaled back if taxes rise, it added. Hurst described the proposal as “an existential threat to casinos across Britain”.

Where the proposal came from

The idea of doubling the duty on Category B gaming machines was put forward by the Social Market Foundation, which estimated it could raise between £275m and £458m a year in additional revenue. The industry disputes that estimate, arguing that closures would erode the yield.

The warnings land on a sector still absorbing the last round of increases. Remote Gaming Duty rose to 40% in April 2026, and the remote betting rate of General Betting Duty is due to rise in April 2027. Betfred founder Fred Done has said doubling MGD would force the closure of hundreds of the bookmaker’s shops, and a report by consultancy Regulus has argued the hike would put £92m of horseracing income at risk because of the sport’s reliance on betting shop turnover.

The BGC said the regulated industry as a whole supports 109,000 jobs, contributes £6.8bn to the UK economy and pays more than £4bn a year in tax.

What happens next

The Treasury has not confirmed whether MGD is under review, and the BGC’s figures come from modelling the industry commissioned. With the Budget approaching, the sector’s lobbying is now focused squarely on retail, after a year in which online operators bore the brunt of the tax changes. Whether the Chancellor treats machines as the next source of revenue will shape the size of the British high street estate for years to come.