Ladbrokes Ireland moves from red to black in 2025 but wider pressures remain visible

Ladbrokes’ Irish unit remains in an unenviable position despite turning a €1.3m (£1.1m) loss in 2024 into a profit of €300,000 for 2025. The company, which operates Entain shops across Ireland, is currently making a concentrated effort at cost-cutting if its Companies Registration Office (CRO) statement is anything to go by. Staff costs dropped from €15.4m to €14.2m year-on-year as the company shedded some of its workforce, decreasing its monthly headcount from 542 to 526. Operating expenses as a whole fell to €21.5m (2024: €25.2m), though revenue also dipped with costs, taking a near 10% hit YoY from €36.8m to €33.2m. Entain continues to back Ladbrokes Ireland Ladbrokes Ireland remains a going concern, but can rely on financial backing from the wider Entain Group to maintain that status, with Entain confirming that it will not demand immediate repayment of the €6.4m owed to group entities. It had entered into a net liability position in 2023 following the impairment of its fixed assets. Entain has also stated that it will “continue to make available such funds as are needed by the company, until at least 12 months from the date of approval of the financial statements and for the foreseeable future”. Independent auditors from KPMG reviewed Ladbrokes Ireland accounts and verified that they comply fully with Irish law and the FRS 101 Reduced Disclosure Framework. However, its financial lifeline via Entain comes as its parent group finds itself in the midst of a plethora of headwinds in its home market of the UK and elsewhere, such as a burdensome new tax regime in the former. Earlier this year, the LSE-listed, FTSE 250 business made the decision to close 39 of its Ladbrokes shops in Ireland, representing 37% of its entire retail portfolio in the country. It attributed this to “sustained cost pressures, long‑term changes in customer behaviour and the growing competitive threat from the unlicensed market”, but this move could reflect dramatically in the subsidiary’s 2026 results. The closures also explicitly show just how much Ladbrokes’ Irish retail empire has declined over the last decade. Reports from 2017 state it had 143 branches across the country at that point. The latest shuttering will bring its total shops across Ireland to somewhere in the mid-60s. Ladbrokes Ireland still has a lifeline via the support of Entain, but net current liabilities up from €8.9m in 2024 to €11.1m 2025 come alongside a number of other pressures. This includes a drastic reduction in its retail empire, the loss of appetite for retail gambling, tax pressures suffered by the wider Entain business so far in 2026, and an overall 45% drop in that company’s share price year-to-date. However, Entain has proven its resilience multiple times in the past, and proven its ability to absorb regulatory changes – such as the new regime which has come into effect in Ireland – and cut costs. And while Ladbrokes’ Irish retail presence may have diminished, it remains a well known brand through horse racing sponsorships and its online proposition is the fourth biggest in the country by online traffic, according to Blask.