‘We’re on the journey’ – Entain not expecting speedy AUSTRAC resolution

Ten months on from learning that it was the centre of an enforcement action from Australian financial regulator AUSTRAC over historic anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism funding issues, Entain doesn’t expect a quick resolution to the case.

The cloud of the action, with potential fines in the hundreds of millions of dollars, has hung over Entain’s Australian and New Zealand operations throughout 2025, amid significant changes in the senior executive ranks.

Global chief executive Stella David was asked for an update on the compliance issue during an investors’ call this week.     

“On AUSTRAC, I mean, it’s a journey that we’re on. I think the first thing I’d say, we’re very pleased with the programme of compliance we have in place in Australia now. I think we’re probably market-leading, which I think is a great point,” she said.

“In terms of the historical challenges that we have with AUSTRAC, clearly, there is a journey that we are on with them.”

David said there were two aspects of the process operating in parallel, as the parent company of the Ladbrokes and Neds brands seeks to resolve with AUSTRAC.

“There is a process which is the legal process, which ends up, potentially, with us working this out in court, but there’s also the other programme that goes on in parallel, which is the mediation process, which we are obviously engaged in,” she said.

“This will take as long as it takes to get to the right point. There’s no point in us trying to rush a process which has a cadence that we need to work within.”

“We’re comfortable that we are engaging proactively, leaning into it, and we have a very good compliance programme in place now.”

Andrew Vouris has assumed the Australasian chief executive’s seat from Dean Shannon, who departed in June. The AUSTRAC issue is a significant challenge, but Entain also reported that its net gaming revenue was down six per cent over the past quarter compared to last year.

David described the revenue drop as “unbelievably negative for the operators, but joyous for the customers”.

“Sports margins, sometimes the customer wins big, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s just statistically an inevitability.”

Rob Wood, Entain’s global chief financial officer, said the stabilisation of turnover was a positive to take away from the latest results.

“What’s important is volumes. And in Australia, we were a shade positive in Q3. And that’s really how we see the market going forwards. Low single digits positive is our best guess of what we see from a volume perspective in Australia in 2026,” he said.

“Perhaps what we’d also say, we’ve got a new CEO in Australia. He’s doing loads of great initiatives in the pipeline. So, we’re really excited about what he’s achieving in his plans in Australia.

“And then neighbouring New Zealand is continuing to go well. So we delivered over 20 per cent growth in NGR in Q3 in online, and we look forward to iGaming coming as well, which could be a nice fillet for us in the latter part of 2026.”