Shamrock Quest

What is Shamrock Quest?

Entain said at the time: “As part of our ongoing focus on enhancing Entain’s operational efficiency and agility, we have begun implementing organisational changes which will regrettably impact a number of roles across the group over the months ahead.”  

Entain cut down its Ladbrokes retail estate in Ireland by over a third in April, amid reports it had withdrawn from discussions to sell its entire Ladbrokes retail estate in the market.

Last week, Bet365 also cut more than 300 jobs in response to the UK’s tax increase.

How to play Shamrock Quest

“In my experience, where compliance concerns can be satisfactorily addressed without suspending an operator’s licence, the Commission may allow the operator to implement remedial measures or an action plan while continuing to trade,” says Richard Williams, partner at Keystone Law, speaking before the news of the collapse of the businesses.

“The fact that suspension has been considered necessary in this case therefore indicates that the Commission presently considers the issues sufficiently significant to justify preventing the operators from continuing to offer gambling while its reviews are ongoing.”

For any consumer-facing businesses, a suspension is likely existential and such appears to have been the case here. But wider implications have to be considered before the two sites are binned forever.

What is Shamrock Quest?

Bengtsson said the split between casino and sports betting for SunBet was roughly 90% to 10% in favour of casino, with Sun International “under-indexing on sportsbook”.

But Sun International views that as an opportunity, with Bengtsson stating: “We think the market overall is probably somewhere around 35%-40% sportsbook.

“So that is the delta we have to close by delivering a better product and better operational intensity in our sports business.”