Entain Starts Phased Exit From Central Europe With €425m EMMA Capital Deal

Entain has confirmed it will begin winding down its Central and Eastern Europe business, agreeing on June 25 to sell a 20% stake in Entain CEE to its joint venture partner EMMA Capital for about €425m (roughly $463m). The FTSE 100 operator framed the sale as the opening move in a full exit from a region it entered less than four years ago, with proceeds earmarked for debt reduction at a group carrying net borrowings of about £3.64bn (roughly $4.9bn).

The structure pays Entain €395m (about $431m) on completion, with a further sum due in early 2027 tied to Entain CEE's full-year 2026 performance, bringing total consideration to roughly €425m. That values the unit at an enterprise value of €2.1bn (about £1.9bn, or $2.3bn), or around 10 times EBITDA. Completion is expected in Q4 2026, subject to regulatory clearance. At that point Entain's holding drops from 67.5% to 47.5%, EMMA Capital's rises from 22.5% to 42.5%, and the Juroszek family keeps its 10% but assigns its voting rights to EMMA, handing the partner majority control of the joint venture.

How Entain built CEE, and why it is selling

Entain CEE was assembled in two steps. In November 2022 the joint venture bought a 75% stake in SuperSport, the Croatian sportsbook market leader. In August 2023 it acquired STS Holding, Poland's largest betting operator, in a deal that valued STS at roughly £750m (about $1bn) and was funded in part by a £600m bookbuild. The combined unit posted FY25 net gaming revenue of £522m (about $703m), up 7% year on year, and EBITDA of £184m (about $248m), also up 7%, with Entain claiming the number one position in both Croatia and Poland.

The retreat is driven by money and by shareholder politics. Entain reported a £680m (about $916m) loss after tax for FY2025, weighed down by a £488m pre-emptive impairment tied to the UK raising Remote Gaming Duty to 40% from April 1, 2026, a change the company estimates adds roughly €234m to annual costs. Net proceeds from the CEE sale go toward cutting debt that nearly matches the group's own market capitalisation, a move expected to save around £20m a year in interest. Entain says the eventual full exit should pull reported leverage below three times, with surplus capital returned to shareholders.

The STS bookbuild also became a lightning rod. US investor Ricky Sandler, who held about 2.1% of Entain through his Eminence Capital fund, publicly criticised the £600m financing. Sandler joined Entain's board as a non-executive director in January 2024, but earlier this year Eminence shut down after 27 years and he exited both the board and a 6.5% stake. CEE returns have since softened: the Q1 2026 statement showed CEE net gaming revenue down 6%, with retail revenue off 30% and online down 1%.

"Our initial divestment is a decisive first step towards Entain fully exiting Entain CEE and reflects our ongoing focus on maximising value for shareholders," CEO Stella David said. "This enables us to unlock the value created by our Croatian and Polish businesses and demonstrates our robust capital allocation discipline." She added that Entain "remains well positioned to be a long-term industry winner."

What it means for the industry

The transaction is broadly neutral to earnings per share and adjusted cashflow, but it reshapes the group's reported profitability. Once the deal completes, Entain CEE will no longer be fully consolidated. Entain cut its FY26 online EBITDA margin guidance to 21% to 22%, down from the 23% to 24% guided in March when CEE was still included. Online NGR growth guidance held at 5% to 7% in constant currency, and the group said it remains aligned with consensus of £1.13bn (about $1.52bn) in underlying EBITDA across 11 analyst estimates, while keeping its target of £500m in annual adjusted cashflow by 2028.

For the wider sector, the deal reads as another large operator narrowing to core regulated markets under cost pressure rather than chasing scale. The same UK tax squeeze pushing Entain out of the Balkans is reordering domestic priorities across the market, the backdrop to the regulator and operators jointly pressuring big tech over black-market gambling ads. Retrenchment is visible elsewhere too, from a rival pulling out of Ireland ahead of new licensing to activist-driven board upheaval at other listed operators. Bragg shareholders, for example, recently voted their CEO off the board as the stock fell. The precedent worth watching is Entain's own US joint venture with MGM, where the parties spent years debating control and exit terms; that history shows a "phased" handoff to a partner can stretch well beyond the headline first step.

Affiliates and B2B suppliers tied to SuperSport and STS now face a slow ownership change rather than a clean break, with EMMA taking operational control and Entain still holding a near-half stake into 2027 and beyond. Further detail is due with interim results on August 13. Entain shares rose about 3.6% on the news to £5.74, though they remain down 25.5% for the year to date.