The company
The Entain Group is a publicly traded company originally founded in Luxembourg as Gaming VC Holdings in 2004. After acquiring Sportingbet (2012), Bwin (2016) & Ladbrokes Coral (2017) the company is known as Entain since 2020. In 2022 it acquired the Dutch brand Betcity.
They are tax resident in the UK and their head office is on the Isle of Man. The group is listed on the London Stock exchange and part of the “footsie” (FTSE 100) index.
A total of more than 25,000 employees working in over 20 offices around the world and operating 24 brands makes Entain one of the largest players in the iGaming industry. Their offer includes sportsbook, (live) casino, bingo and poker, with brands like Coral and Ladbrokes also operating offline with >2500 physical betting shops.
The NGR (net gross revenue= income – payments (winnings) over 2021 came to € 4.7 billion with an operating income of € 580 million.
Sustainability
Entain’s view on business is that “the most sustainable business in our industry will be the most successful business in our industry”, and they are committed to:
- Only operate in regulated markets in the future (currently 99%)
- Providing the safest gaming environment for players
- Pursue the “highest level of Corporate Governance”
- Invest in people and communities
However, they start their ESG report with the line:
“At Entain, everything we do is for the good of entertainment”
Let’s see how “the good of entertainment” relates to “sustainable business”.
Environmental
Energy & Emissions
Entain has only recently started making serious work on the “green” part of sustainability. In the period covered in this report, Entains’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were independently verified for the first time and they scored a ‘D’ for their first disclosure by means of the CDP Climate Change questionnaire.
Earlier, in 2018 they set a goal of reducing emissions per employee by 15% by the end of 2021. That this goal of less than 4% per year was little ambitious can be seen by the fact that more than double this (33%) was reached earlier than planned in 2020. This has led them to bring forward their goal of becoming carbon neutral by ‘no later than’ 2035. Although they rightfully point out this is 15 years before the target agreed upon in the Paris Agreement, the Paris Agreement is far less ambitious than it could and should be.
From 2022 their targets for further reductions will be set based on the “Science Based Target initiative”. And in the meantime they have invested in GHG offsets by means of funding the planting of half a million mangrove trees, which they expect to balance their emissions by 2032.
All in all the environmental performance indicators are hard to interpret due to both the effects of the pandemic as well as new reporting standards and techniques used.
We are curious to see what and how progress was made over the last year, although lockdowns and remote work will still have had their effects on the numbers for this company which operates a large number of physical betting locations.
Water & Waste
As Entain has reopened their shops and offices, a new recycling program was rolled out for all shops and a 120-strong Green Ambassadors team will come up with practical means to improve ‘environmental efficiency’ in the offices.
As they recognize that the employees have a great impact on reaching their goals an e-learning module about reducing environmental footprints was offered to all colleagues, at the time of reporting 65% had completed it.
Social
When it comes to the social aspect of sustainability within an organisation, we make a distinction between internal and external aspects. On one side we have the employees, suppliers and similar stakeholders, on the other side we have the players and the (local) community in which the business operates.
For both internal and external social effects, we should always keep in mind what is or should be considered normal. More often than not, even the minimum effort of being compliant is being presented as an achievement, which is nothing more than green-washing.
Internal
Entain has a colleague well being program ‘Well-Me’ as well as a global Employee Assistance Programme which helps employees with personal problems that might affect their performance, health and wellbeing.
These programmes that were launched in 2019, focus on mental, emotional en physical wellbeing and in 2020 has been extended to also cover employees immediate family.
Measures like these have led to 87% of the employees feeling that Entain genuinely cares about them and 78% would recommend it as a place to work.
With regards to inclusiveness, Entain ranked first in the All-in Diversity Charter’s All-Index. However we must mention that there is still a lot of progress to be made with regards to gender diversity and gender pay gap.
On the board and senior management levels only 30 and 23% respectively are female and the mean hourly pay and bonus differences are in the double digits. With exception of mean bonus, which went from 83% to a 19% difference, progress over the past 3 years seems rather slow, with the median hourly pay gap even increasing.
External
With regards to the player, Entain’s ‘Changing for the Bettor’ and ARC (Advanced Responsibility and Care) programmes are aimed at ‘the highest possible levels of protection and safety of the players. The success of these programmes are directly tied to the group’s annual bonus scheme.
Noteworthy is that during the Q2 lockdown TV adverts have been removed from TV in order to protect players. Also, Entain is aiming to operate only in regulated markets by 2023.
To support the (local) communities in which Entain operates they offer support via the Entain Foundation. The foundation focuses on:
- Research, education and treatment (RET) with regards to “safer betting and gaming”
- Promotion of grassroots sport
- Diversity and technology
For this a budget of € 120 million over the next five years has been allocated.
Governance
As mentioned above, Entain is focussed on offering their services only in regulated markets by 2023. These are markets which the government or other organisations have a higher level of oversight and control.
Furthermore bonus schemes are tied to performance with regards to safer betting and gaming and 1% of GGY (gross gaming yield) will be used to fund Research, Education and Treatment by 2022.
Conclusions & Rating
Entain seems to take sustainability seriously by implementing a solid framework and reporting against the SABC Index for ESG reporting. In the current report many things have been reported for the first time, providing a solid base for comparison in the future.
Although we believe that better never stops and goals can always be more ambitious, Entain is doing a good job setting and reporting about their targets and objectives with regard to ESG.
Find out how Entain compares to 4 other operators
