About this app
About 888Starz
Betfred’s retail business still heavily depends on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) and in-shop gambling. Despite the maximum stake limit being cut to £2 in 2019, FOBTs account for roughly half of Betfred’s shop profits. Done emphasised that without these machines, retail betting wass “impossible”.
According to Done, such a tax rise would lead Betfred to close 495 of its shops within a year, resulting in the loss of 2,575 jobs and roughly £67 million in foregone tax revenue for the Exchequer.
Betfred has already shuttered 132 outlets this year, following last year’s RGD increase.
How to play 888Starz
“If a customer finds black market sites that have all their preferred betting and gaming options, convenience dictates they will transfer a broad range of their expenditure there. Consumer recycling means that banning or restricting key products has a broader distortive impact on the entire market,” the report noted.
Notably for highly engaging verticals light online slots, if players are receiving a smaller-than-expected RTP (return to player), or bonuses have been restricted, they could again transition to an illegal offering where there are no such restrictions.
As has been flagged in previous reports, Regulus highlighted that the top 1% of active customers accounts for almost 50% of black market revenue across Europe. This follows a similar trend across licensed gambling as the report highlights “online gambling is a consumer discretionary expenditure item. This means a large proportion of expenditure is concentrated into a relatively small number of players.”
About 888Starz
In 2025, Playtech agreed a partnership to provide a platform for the launch of Brazilian state-owned bank Caixa’s betting operations.
Weizer previously said the Caixa tender could be “one of the most significant opportunities for Playtech for the coming years”.
However, due to its role as a a state-owned bank, and ongoing scrutiny around betting in Brazil, Caixa has come under political pressure, and its launch in the market has been postponed on several occasions despite it having paid the BRL30 million ($5.9 million) licence fee.