LONDON, April 14, 2026, 22:04 BST
LiveScore Group, which owns both LiveScore Bet and Virgin Bet, reported a sharp jump in annual turnover, topping 200 million pounds for the first time, filings in the UK show. Despite leaving the Netherlands, robust demand in its core markets kept revenue moving higher. For the year ended March 31, 2025, turnover was up 15.3% to £206.3 million. Operating loss was slashed to £26.7 million, down from £50.7 million a year earlier.
This comes at a rough moment. The company’s filing arrives just days after Britain hiked Remote Gaming Duty—online casino tax—from 21% to 40% as of April 1. Last year, LiveScore pulled in roughly 85% of revenue from the UK, and about 90% of its turnover was tied to consumer betting and gaming brands. Now, the big question: can that pace of growth survive a sharply heavier tax bill?
UK revenue was up 26%, reaching £175.6 million. Consumer gambling brought in £185.1 million, an 18.3% increase, while software development surged 50% to £2.1 million. But advertising slipped 9.5%, ending at £19.1 million.
Gross profit climbed to £157.9 million. EBITDA loss shrank—coming in at £15.2 million, compared with £38.8 million a year earlier. Net loss also improved, now £28.6 million versus £48.9 million. The accounts highlighted that LiveScore’s results were driven by “gross profit increase that outpaced ongoing significant investment” in both marketing and brand. NEXT.io
The Dutch exit played a key role in that overhaul. LiveScore pulled out of the Netherlands in November 2024, following a jump in betting and lottery tax rates—first from 30.5% up to 37.8%—and stricter advertising regulations that drove up costs for operators. “No longer viable commercially,” Chief Executive Sam Sadi said at the time. business.gov.nl
Strip out the Dutch unit and group revenue jumped 20.9% to £194 million. Still, revenue elsewhere in Europe dropped around 29%. Sadi called the pullout “validated” back in November, saying “a lot of capital was wasted” chasing profits in that market. NEXT.io
Trade outlet EGR, pulling from the filing, noted LiveScore’s confidence in the business’s “sufficient resilience” to handle the UK’s increased tax load. That optimism could be put to the test sooner rather than later: iGaming Business quoted Regulus Partners, who estimate the higher duty might tack on an extra £20 million to £25 million in UK tax costs before offsets. The government’s broader gambling tax changes, meanwhile, are projected to bring in over £1 billion per year. EGR North America
LiveScore is pushing into new territory. On March 30, Virgin Bet made its debut in South Africa—marking the brand’s first step outside the UK. The move leans on the group’s Nigerian operations as LiveScore seeks growth opportunities outside its European base.
Other operators are pulling back, too. Entain puts the hit from the UK tax overhaul at roughly £200 million in extra yearly expenses. Evoke’s CEO Per Widerstrom, following the budget, warned of a “significant reduction in investment into the UK”—and the company later shuttered betting shops. Flutter, for its part, sees the same tax rules trimming adjusted EBITDA by around $320 million in 2026, before any offsets. Reuters
Alun Bowden, senior vice president for strategic insight at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, projects that 10.3% of the UK online gambling market will exit by 2028—and he puts LiveScore in the second tier, not among the market’s top names. There’s still a shot at more market share if some smaller players pull back. But that also underscores just how packed the market’s middle tier is.
Still, there’s no guarantee LiveScore’s rebound will hold. Revenue outside the UK slipped 14% to £14.4 million; Regulus flagged possible “softness in Nigeria” as a factor. South Africa, a recent entry, hasn’t been around long enough to gauge whether international gains can really balance out slower UK momentum or rising domestic taxes. Jack Cummings at Berenberg, for his part, notes that smaller, UK-centric firms face a bigger hit from the new tax than the industry’s giants. iGB
