A tax tribunal ruling worth £13.2 million, a £2.24 billion trade show acquisition, and a $170 million sports-technology disposal landed within days of each other this week - three unconnected deals that together sketch the pressures now bearing down on the gambling and gaming industry, from tax authorities to private equity to shifting sponsorship budgets.
Jumpman's tribunal win reopens the free spins tax question
The Upper Tribunal has ruled that Jumpman Gaming owes no remote gaming duty on free spins awarded through its Mega Reel welcome promotion, overturning a First-tier Tribunal decision from 2025 and wiping out HMRC assessments of roughly £13.2 million covering July 2018 to December 2022. The dispute hinged on a narrow but consequential reading of the phrase "the gaming" in the Finance Act 2014. HMRC argued the duty exemption applied only to spins traced back to an earlier freeplay session; Jumpman argued it covered remote gaming more broadly. The tribunal favoured Jumpman, partly because HMRC's interpretation would have required operators to trace a single free spin back through potentially dozens of prior plays - an administratively unworkable standard.
Law firm CMS has suggested that if HMRC does not successfully appeal, other operators that were assessed on always-free promotional games may have grounds to seek repayment or have their own assessments withdrawn. That makes this more than a single-company tax dispute: it is a precedent that could ripple through how the industry structures and reports promotional gaming across the board, at a moment when remote gaming duty itself has already climbed from 21% to 40% as of April 2026.
Informa's £2.24 billion bet on exhibitions and gaming
Informa has agreed to acquire Clarion Events, organiser of the ICE trade show, from Blackstone in a deal valued at £2.24 billion on an enterprise basis. Announced on 6 October, the acquisition is expected to close towards the end of Q4 2026, subject to regulatory clearance, and will be funded through cash, acquisition financing and an equity placing and retail offer of around £940 million. Informa has placed gaming alongside electronics and defence and security as one of three high-growth categories the deal delivers, and Clarion's chief executive, Lisa Hannant, is staying on.
The timing matters for the industry calendar: the next edition of ICE is scheduled for Fira Barcelona Gran Via from 18 to 20 January 2027, after the deal's expected completion. For an events business that sits at the centre of how operators, suppliers and regulators network and showcase technology, new ownership under a listed exhibitions group signals consolidation in an industry services layer that rarely attracts this much capital.
Sponsorship retreat exposes rising costs in racing
Bookmaker sponsorship of British horseracing fell 17% year on year between 1 January and 28 September 2026, according to Racing Post analysis cited in industry reporting. bet365 alone recorded a 77% drop in race sponsorships, attributing the pullback to a highly competitive market and rising regulatory and tax costs. All-weather racing absorbed the heaviest impact, with bookmaker-sponsored races falling to 58.2% from 73.3% a year earlier.
That retreat coincides with the jump in remote gaming duty and reports that Chancellor John Healey is weighing a further rise in machine games duty at the 28 October Budget. Regulus Partners estimates doubling machine games duty to 40% could cost British racing £92 million annually - and Betfred has signalled it would end its sponsorship of the five British Classics if that increase goes ahead. The pattern across these figures is consistent: as duty rates rise, discretionary marketing spend, including sponsorship that has long underpinned racing's commercial model, is among the first casualties.
Sportradar sheds Atrium Sports to sharpen its focus
Sportradar has agreed to sell Atrium Sports, which operates the Synergy Sports coaching and scouting business, to Teamworks Innovations for $170 million in cash. Signed on 6 October and announced the following day, the deal is expected to close in Q4 2026, with Sportradar retaining certain underlying technology - including automated video production cameras and graphics systems - that supports its core operations. Chief executive Carsten Koerl framed the disposal as a move to concentrate on betting, gaming and media priorities while strengthening the balance sheet.
Markets reacted modestly: Sportradar shares closed 0.99% lower at $12.06 on 7 October, leaving the stock down 45.13% since the start of 2026. The divestment underscores a broader trend among sports-data and technology providers to narrow their scope around betting-facing products as competition and compliance costs intensify across adjacent markets.