Britain's high street bookmakers are being squeezed from both ends — and Betfred has just become the clearest casualty. The operator is shutting 132 shops and cutting roughly 600 jobs, pointing squarely at the tax bill.
Key takeaways
- 132 shops earmarked for closure — just over 10% of the estate — with about 600 jobs affected
- Betfred will be left with 1,094 shops and around 6,800 UK staff, down from a 2017 peak of 1,680
- Remote gaming duty jumped from 21% to 40% on 1 April 2026; a 25% general betting duty follows next year
- Entain, Evoke and Paddy Power have all trimmed retail or headcount in the past year
- Chairman Fred Done warned in late 2025 that rising duties could threaten the whole shop network
Betfred has opened a consultation with staff over plans to close 132 betting shops across the United Kingdom, a restructuring expected to cost around 600 jobs. The sites on the list represent slightly more than a tenth of the bookmaker's retail network, making this one of the sharpest cuts to its high street presence in years.
Once the programme completes, Betfred will run 1,094 shops and employ roughly 6,800 people in the UK. That is a long way from 2017, when the chain topped out at 1,680 locations — a decline of nearly 600 sites over less than a decade.
"No Choice", Says the CEO
Management framed the decision as the product of several cost pressures landing at once: gambling tax increases, a heavier employment cost base, and a generally uncertain economy.
"It is with deep regret that we have today started a consultation with colleagues working in more than 130 of our shops regarding a proposal to close those locations. We have tried hard to protect all our sites and the colleagues who work in them, but the combined impact of higher employer National Insurance contributions, wage inflation, increases in gambling taxes and wider economic uncertainty has left us with no choice."
— Jo Whittaker, Chief Executive, Betfred (statement cited by Sky News)
Whittaker added that the immediate focus is on supporting affected staff while continuing to serve customers through the remaining estate.
The trigger sits in last year's budget measures. From 1 April 2026, remote gaming duty nearly doubled, climbing from 21% to 40%. A new 25% general betting duty rate is scheduled to follow next year, carved out to exclude self-service betting terminals, spread betting, pool betting and horse racing. Separate reporting has also flagged a 25% online sports betting duty arriving in 2027 for sports other than racing.
A Sector-Wide Retreat From the High Street
Betfred is far from an outlier. The retail contraction has been running across the whole UK market as costs mount:
- Entain cut roughly 500 roles this month — about 2% of its workforce — having already warned that higher taxes could hit investment and force closures across its estate of some 2,300 outlets.
- Evoke, owner of William Hill and 888, shut shops and stripped costs in January to absorb the budget's tax changes.
- Paddy Power, part of Flutter Entertainment, announced 57 closures across the UK and Ireland last October, putting around 250 jobs at risk.
Alongside taxation, operators have kept up their criticism of the Gambling Commission's affordability checks, arguing the requirements dampen betting activity with knock-on effects for connected industries — horse racing chief among them.
The Warning Was Already on Record
None of this arrived unannounced. In late 2025, Betfred co-founder and chairman Fred Done cautioned that further increases in gambling duty could eventually put the viability of the company's entire UK shop network in question. Eight months on, a tenth of that network is being consulted out of existence.
Founded in Warrington in 1967 by brothers Fred and Peter Done, Betfred grew into one of Britain's biggest bookmakers; the latest Sunday Times Rich List puts the brothers' combined wealth at £3.61 billion. That scale has not insulated the business from the arithmetic now reshaping the sector: as duties rise and margins compress, the betting shop is becoming the first line item operators are willing to cut.
