A UK challenger bookmaker is rumoured to be mulling over a London IPO amid what has been a dismal time for industry operators on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
BetGoodwin, the online brand of heritage betting group Goodwin Racing, officially launched in 2022 – 25 years after the wider business established its telephone betting operation.
Just over four years on from that online launch, BetGoodwin is listed as the 74th-largest operator in the UK and the 66th-largest in Ireland, according to the Blask Index.
Liquid cash reserves grew by over 122% to £6.08m at Goodwin Racing in 2024. Sky News has reported that BetGoodwin is looking for a flotation on London’s Junior AIM Market which would value the company at around £80m.
The outlet also reported that it understands BetGoodwin has called on independent UK investment bank Allenby Capital to assist in the potential IPO.
BetGoodwin declined to comment on the matter when contacted by SBC News.
UK giants’ torrid 2026 on the LSE
It comes at a surprising time, given the misfortunes or differing priorities of many of the UK’s major listed gambling companies in 2026.
Flutter Entertainment, the biggest online operator worldwide, ditched its London listing entirely as it switched to become solely-listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
This was the culmination of Flutter’s shift towards US markets over several years. However, it also came amid a huge drop off in the multinational’s share price.
In the last 12 months of its listing on the LSE (31 July 2025 – 31 July 2026), Flutter shares fell from £228.60 to £75.88. Its fortunes have not improved much since leaving the UK exchange, now sitting at $77.48 – or £57.87 – on the NYSE at the time of writing.
Meanwhile, Entain – the biggest gambling company still listed on the LSE – has seen its stock drop by over 40% so far in 2026 to £4.54 at the time of writing. September saw the bookmaker relegated from the FTSE 100 to the FTSE 250 after a six-year stint on the LSE’s most prestigious index.
The Rank Group has seen its share price slide by 16% so far this year to around 80p, while evoke, the owner of William Hill and 888, is the only outlier.
That business has experienced a near-90% uplift in share price in 2026, but this is down to the fact that it has been acquired by Bally’s Intralot and will soon delist from the LSE.
The company had also been part of the group suffering on the markets, having hit lows of around 20p this year. Its stock is now trading at approximately 42p – 10p off the 52p-per-share deal agreed with Bally’s Intralot.
Since rebranding from 888 Holdings to evoke, the company’s stock has more than halved in price.
This barren run of form from some of the biggest operators in the country make a potential BetGoodwin flotation even more puzzling – though for the LSE, the news of a multi-million pound British firm eyeing up a listing is likely positive.
Tax rises pose further question marks
In last year’s Autumn Budget, it was announced that Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) would increase from 21%-40% in April 2026, and General Betting Duty (GBD) would rise from 15%-25% in April 2027.
With this year’s Budget now just a week away, it has been heavily rumoured that another tax increase will hit the sector – on Machine Games Duty (MGD).
BetGoodwin’s listing is no guarantee, and one source told Sky News that the current owners – the father-and-son team of Chief Executive Julian Head and Chief Operating Officer Ben Head – would look to sell down roughly 20% of their interest.
But the markets have not been kind to gambling operators in the UK – or listed bookmakers anywhere for that matter – in recent times. These further challenges posed by tax rises have exacerbated that.
There has also been somewhat of a mass exodus from the LSE in the last couple of years. Alongside Flutter, the stock exchange has lost the likes of Hargreaves Lansdown, TUI, Just Eat, Deliveroo, Darktrace and Ferguson Enterprises.
It makes reports of a gambling operator selecting to float on a stock market, and that selected stock market being London’s, all the more intriguing.
