Ladbrokes and William Hill Hold Stakes in Supplier That Provided Content to Offshore Casinos

^{Bookmakers Ladbrokes and William Hill and Betfred owner Fred Done}

Major UK bookmakers Ladbrokes and William Hill, along with Betfred owner Fred Done, own stakes in a company that supplied content to a network of offshore gambling operators, The Guardian reports, citing documents from the Casino Secrets* leak.

The company in question is Sports Information Services (SIS), which provides bookmakers with live sports broadcasts and data used to take and settle bets. Ladbrokes owns 23% of SIS, William Hill nearly 20%, and Fred Done 8%.

In 2022, SIS signed a deal with Santeda, a major network of Curaçao-licensed online casinos. The network’s websites do not hold a UK gambling licence, although they were previously found to have accepted customers from Britain, including self-excluded players.

Under the agreement, SIS supplied content to Santeda in return for a share of the network’s revenue generated from player losses. The deal was set to run for two years and renew automatically unless either party chose to terminate it.

It is unclear how much SIS earned from Santeda or whether the agreement is still in force. SIS did not say whether the contract had been terminated.

Since the deal was signed, SIS has paid at least £37 million (≈$48.9 million) in dividends to shareholders, including £30 million (≈$39.6 million) in 2023. According to The Guardian’s calculations, Ladbrokes received around £8.5 million (≈$11.2 million), William Hill more than £7 million (≈$9.25 million), and Fred Done nearly £3 million (≈$3.96 million).

It is not known what proportion of those payments, if any, was linked specifically to the Santeda contract. According to The Guardian’s sources, the bookmakers themselves were unaware of SIS’s agreement with the online casino network. At the same time, representatives of all three brands have repeatedly warned UK authorities about the risks posed by the illegal gambling market.

Ladbrokes owner Entain said SIS decides for itself which clients it works with. After information about Santeda became public, Entain raised concerns with SIS.

^{* Casino Secrets is an investigation based on leaked documents from Curaçao’s gambling regulator that were obtained by German hacker Lilith Wittmann.}