Betfred announced its turnover for the financial year 2025/26 reached £995.6 million, according to its latest filing with Companies House. This figure represents a significant decrease from £1.5 billion recorded in the previous period. However, the two reporting periods are not directly comparable. The recent report covers 52 weeks ending on 29 March 2026, whereas the previous period covered 78 weeks ending on 30 March 2025, following the company's change of year-end date from September to March last year.
In this latest report, retail operations contributed 55% to the total turnover, while online operations accounted for 45%. Last year's figures showed a greater reliance on retail, which constituted 61% of overall turnover, indicating a narrowing gap between the two sectors.
Adjusting for comparability, Betfred reported a like-for-like increase of £23.3 million in group turnover for this period. The company cited a rise in marketing expenses aimed at increasing market share and attracting new customers as a contributing factor.
For the 52-week period, Betfred's gross profit was £719.9 million, and operating profit stood at £74.1 million. This figure included a one-off charge of £4.6 million related to aborted acquisition costs. The company's EBITDA was reported at £140.6 million.
Management decided not to disclose a geographical breakdown of earnings, citing concerns that this could harm the group’s interests. Regarding expenses, Betfred reported exceptional charges of £7.1 million for the year, which included costs from an aborted acquisition and an £801,000 charge associated with winding down its US operations, which occurred during the 2023-24 financial year.
Furthermore, Betfred confirmed the sale of its Spanish online business in 2024, resulting in a profit of £1.6 million. Employee costs rose by £19.2 million on a like-for-like basis, largely due to increased national minimum wage regulations, despite a slight reduction in the workforce from 7,872 to 7,795 employees.
The report also indicated that Betfred's tax contributions for the 2025/26 period were lower than in the previous year, with a tax bill of £24.4 million compared to £59.8 million previously. However, the report did include unrecognized deferred tax assets totaling up to £7 million.
Betfred's founder, Fred Done, has expressed concerns about the anticipated impacts of various tax increases on UK gambling, including the remote betting tax slated for April 2027 and a potential rise in Machine Gaming Duty, which may be revealed in the upcoming autumn budget. Done warned the Financial Times that a doubling of MGD could force Betfred to close 495 shops within a year, resulting in 2,575 job losses and approximately £67 million in lost tax revenue for the government.
In August, the company stated it might shut down up to 132 betting shops in the UK in response to increasing concerns over gambling tax hikes.
