Investment Giant Black Rock Increases Entain Ownership Stake in Bullish Industry Update

Black Rock, the global asset manager with stock holdings in the likes of Apple, Amazon and Nvidia, has increased its ownership stake in Entain.

The American firm has upped its holding in the Coral and Ladbrokes owner to 5%, suggesting a certain bullishness in the gambling sector in the UK, Europe and further afield.

And the timing is of interest too, given that Entain will reveal their quarterly earnings for Q2 on Thursday.

Rock On

It’s something of an about-turn from Black Rock, who had actually cut their ownership stake in the gambling giants as recently as June.

But their investment team clearly sees a reason for renewed optimism in the sector, despite the regulatory headwinds and tax pressures in the UK that has seen mass betting shop closures and redundancies.

Indeed, Entain themselves have announced that they will be cutting 2% of their entire global workforce in the months ahead, with around 500 jobs lost in all – cost cutting and moves to ‘improve operational agility’ were cited as the reasons.

A surprise notification has been made by the London Stock Exchange, who revealed that Black Rock had acquired a 0.95% share in Entain last week – taking them past the 5% mark.

No reason was offered for the transaction as part of the official press filing, but the assumption would be that Black Rock is optimistic about Entain’s performance and future opportunities – despite evidence to the contrary.

The challenging conditions facing the UK gambling sector have had a detrimental impact on Entain’s share price, which has fallen by more than 70% since 2021.

This year alone, nearly 30% has been wiped off the company’s value as the fall-out from the Gambling Tax raid begins to hit home.

However, Entain’s performance in the first quarter of 2026 was solid enough, with a 3% gain in net gaming revenue (NGR) year-on-year – including a 13% rise in online NGR in the UK and Ireland.

Entain CEO Stella David said at the time:

“Our sharper focus and optimisation initiatives reinforce our conviction in delivering sustainable growth and improving cash generation. Entain remains well positioned to be a long-term industry winner.”

International Affairs

While the question marks about the long-term viability of the UK gambling sector remain, the landscape is mixed for Entain internationally as well.

They had hoped to make inroads into the American market via their BetMGM proposition, in which they own a 50/50 share with MGM Resorts.

But the effective duopoly of FanDuel and DraftKings in the US, who account for around 70% of market share between them, has prevented BetMGM from making major strides – hence the pessimistic earnings call made by shareholders regarding BetMGM’s Q2 performance in 2026.

Entain has begun to retreat from other overseas territories, selling a 20% stake in its operations in central and eastern Europe to EMMA Capital back in June.

It’s notable too that the firm’s job cuts are global, rather than simply reserved for their UK infrastructure. Staff in operations and technology roles, primarily, will be redeployed or made redundant as Entain leverages AI and other technological advancements to reduce the number of manual work processes.

Once the Gambling Tax hike had been confirmed in November last year, Entain insiders embarked on a mission to uncover further cost savings – the decision to pull its sponsorship of the Cheltenham Festival and other sporting events were one such measure.

Another banking powerhouse, JP Morgan, dramatically slashed their stake holding in Entain to below 3% back in May. Will it be they, or Black Rock, that is proven correct in the months and years ahead?