Entain Regulatory News (ENT)

5 December 2023

Entain plc

("Company" and, together with its subsidiaries, "Group")

Final Approval of Deferred Prosecution Agreement

Entain plc (LSE: ENT), the global sports betting and gaming group, announces that it has today entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), with the approval of Dame Victoria Sharp, President of the King's Bench Division at the Royal Courts of Justice sitting as the Crown Court at Southwark. 

The DPA relates to alleged offences under Section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010 and, in particular, a failure by the Company to have adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery in relation to its legacy Turkish-facing business. The Turkish-facing business was sold by a former management team in 2017.

The DPA, which comes into effect on today's date, fully resolves HMRC's investigation insofar as it concerns the Company and the Group.

As previously announced, under the terms of the DPA (which are in line with the provision taken on 10 August 2023), the Company has agreed to pay a financial penalty plus disgorgement of profits totalling £585 million, to make a charitable donation of £20 million and to pay a contribution of £10 million to HMRC's and the CPS's costs. The financial penalty, disgorgement of profits and the charitable donation will be paid in instalments over the term of the DPA, which will be four years from today's date. 

The Court has applied the full discount generally available to the financial penalty in recognition of the Company's "exemplary" co-operation with HMRC and the CPS.

Since the conduct giving rise to the DPA, the Group has undertaken a comprehensive review of its anti-bribery policies and procedures and has taken decisive action to significantly strengthen its wider compliance programme and related controls. Recognition of the significant improvements made by the Company is an integral feature of achieving a DPA.

Barry Gibson, Chairman said:

"This is the final step in a process that has hung over our business since HMRC launched its investigation into a business that was sold by a former management team six years ago. We have cooperated extensively and proactively at every stage of the process which, I am pleased to say, has been recognised by the Court. Entain has now fundamentally and profoundly changed. We can now concentrate on the future."

A summary of the Court's Judgment will shortly be made available on our website at https://www.entaingroup.com/investor-relations/regulatory-news/.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of English law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. The person responsible for releasing this announcement on behalf of the Company is Simon Zinger, General Counsel. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

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About Entain plc

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Entain plc (LSE: ENT) is a FTSE100 company and is one of the world's largest sports betting and gaming groups, operating both online and in the retail sector. The Group owns a comprehensive portfolio of established brands; Sports brands include BetCity, bwin, Coral, Crystalbet, Eurobet, Ladbrokes, Neds, Sportingbet, Sports Interaction, STS, SuperSport and TAB NZ; Gaming brands include Foxy Bingo, Gala, GiocoDigitale, Ninja Casino, Optibet, Partypoker and PartyCasino. The Group owns proprietary technology across all its core product verticals and in addition to its B2C operations provides services to a number of third-party customers on a B2B basis.

The Group has a 50/50 joint venture, BetMGM, a leader in sports betting and iGaming in the US. Entain provides the technology and capabilities which power BetMGM as well as exclusive games and products, specially developed at its in-house gaming studios. The Group is tax resident in the UK and is the only global operator to exclusively operate in domestically regulated or regulating markets operating in over 40 territories.

Entain is a leader in ESG, a member of FTSE4Good, the DJSI and is AA rated by MSCI. The Group has set a science-based target, committing to be carbon net zero by 2035 and through the Entain Foundation supports a variety of initiatives, focusing on safer gambling, grassroots sport, diversity in technology and community projects. For more information see the Group's website: www.entaingroup.com