Great Blue

About Great Blue

“We have tried hard to protect all our sites and the colleagues who work in them, but the combined impact of higher employer National Insurance contributions, wage inflation, increases in gambling taxes and wider economic uncertainty has left us with no choice,” said Chief Executive Jo Whittaker in a statement to iGB at the time the closures were announced.

Evoke also closed 200 of its William Hill stores in April of this year for the same reason.

Stella David, CEO of Entain, has also warned against the potential rise of MGD to Entain’s operations, forecasting a increamse of £100 million in operational costs, if the policy were to go through. 

What is Great Blue?

One Foundation’s operating licence was suspended for six days after the DIA identified accounting failures relating to gambling proceeds, as well as a failure to surrender a licence for one of its pokies venues when required by law.

The DIA also issued new financial guidance for class 4 operators, with the aim of providing greater clarity on their accounting requirements and an explanation of their obligations.

The department said the guidance had been designed to “improve consistency across the sector and help prevent similar issues from occurring in future”.

How to play Great Blue

The first time I walked into an iGaming conference was daunting. I knew next to no-one in the industry and, as far as I knew, no one knew me. I was an outsider in every sense, representing an unknown product in an industry I believed would be resistant to change.

While this initially seemed terrifying, I quickly discovered that this outsider status was a gift. It has allowed me to view the industry through fresh eyes. I do not have any preconceptions about companies or products. This has become my superpower, allowing me to analyse the industry without bias and, hopefully, help shape its future.

iGaming was not the industry I set out to work in. Before 2021, I worked in finance and business – agro companies, management consultancy and investment funds, none of which were remotely linked to the industry.