Entain’s Italy Business Moves Into Sale Focus After CEE Deal
Entain has started to simplify its portfolio. The Ladbrokes and Coral owner agreed to sell an initial 20% stake in its Central and Eastern Europe business to EMMA Capital for €425m, or about £366m.
Pressure on the Balance Sheet
The agreement covers a unit built around STS in Poland and SuperSport in Croatia. The company’s stake in the joint venture in CEE will be decreased from 67.5% to 47.5%. The stake of EMMA Capital will change from 22.5% to 42.5%.
The deal is viewed by Andrew Tam, the analyst from Rothschild & Co Redburn, as another valuation metric. According to Tam’s calculation, the deal corresponds to £1.83 billion of enterprise value and 9.3x EBITDA.
Italy Becomes the Next Candidate
The next asset that might come into the picture is the one from Italy. This company runs its business there through Eurobet and Gioco Digitale. Tam believes the Italian business could attract interest from investment firms and gambling operators looking for scale in Europe.
Tam’s valuation of this particular transaction comes to somewhere between £1.2 billion and £1.6 billion. That assumes a valuation of around 8x to 9x EBITDA.
Entain has about 8% of the Italian market and sits behind Lottomatica and Flutter. This makes the unit meaningful, but still smaller than the country’s leading operators.
UK Tax Changes Add Urgency
The sale process is linked to pressure at home. The British government increased Remote Gaming Duty from 21% to 40% from 1 April 2026. A new 25% General Betting Duty rate for most remote betting profits will apply from 1 April 2027, with UK horseracing and some retail-linked bets excluded.
These changes have led UK-focused businesses to reassess their expenses and capital management. Entain finished the year 2025 with adjusted net debt of £3.64bn, which makes the disposal process part of the balance sheet equation.
According to Tam, the CEE exit and a possible Italy sale could reduce Entain’s net debt to around £1.5bn. That could make BetMGM easier for investors to value.
A Test of Entain’s Reshaping Plan
No Italy sale has been announced. The point is that Entain now has a disposal template and a clear financial reason to use it again.
The Italian business sits in a regulated market with strong local leaders and room for consolidation. If Entain secures a strong multiple there, the group would gain debt relief without selling BetMGM or its core UK brands. Italy now looks like the next test of how far management is ready to reshape the company.