Wild Heart

What is Wild Heart?

Entain highlighted that 11 of 20 Premier League clubs currently hold sponsorship or advertising arrangements with gambling operators lacking a Gambling Commission license—up from government estimates of eight clubs during the 2025/26 season.

“The government made clear in February that it would bring in a ban and it should do so immediately,” said Entain CEO Stella David, noting that clubs entering new agreements had already been warned. “Inconvenience is not an excuse for inaction.”

Entain cited third-party analysis forecasting that bets placed by UK consumers with unlicensed operators could skyrocket from £17 billion ($22.8 billion) in 2025 to more than £33 billion ($44.2 billion) by 2028 if left unchecked.

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The ruling preserved a revenue measure the city says was designed to bring in up to €1 million according to the court’s own summary.

Andreas Braun, owner of four arcades in Wiesbaden, filed an objection and constitutional complaint against the tax rate in April last year according to local reporting. He argued that the tax rise had provided a ‘strangling’ effect to business and that it consumed operator profits.

According to a high court ruling from over a decade ago, the tax rise cannot be allowed to rise to the point of ‘consuming livelihoods’. 

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“Operators failing compliance checks is never a good look,” he says. Campaigners often claim that financial sanctions are priced in and that the Commission should revoke more licences, although Waugh does not believe operators view settlements merely as a cost of doing business.

Nor are regulatory breaches unique to gambling. Waugh notes that Tesco was fined more than £8 million for food hygiene failings in 2021, without parliamentarians demanding that it should be prevented from selling cornflakes.

“There are valid arguments to be made in relation to raising the barriers to licensing, but this may come at a cost of diminishing competition and entrepreneurship,” he says.