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How to play Ellens Fortune
Fred Done, the 83-year-old founder of Betfred and Britain’s highest-paying taxpayer this year, has issued a stark warning about the impact of further tax increases on the gambling industry.
In an interview with the Financial Times over the weekend, Done cautioned that additional tax hikes could result in widespread betting shop closures, harm related sectors such as horse racing and accelerate the decline of the high street.
Betfred currently operates approximately 1,094 retail shops across the UK. Done highlighted the concrete risks of Machine Gaming Duty – taxes on gambling machines – doubling from 20% to 40%, a move reportedly under consideration by Chancellor John Healey ahead of the Autumn Budget.
About Ellens Fortune
For the gaming industry, the marked economic shift over the course of 2026 and a return to an elevated interest-rate environment after years of post-Covid easing could dissipate some of the optimism that prevailed at the onset of this year.
Many top gaming stocks have underperformed relative to the broader market in recent years, and most of the M&A activity has been facilitated by private equity and other institutions that can more readily capitalise on depressed valuations. There had been hope that rates would start to fall and help alleviate those pressures.
“Publicly traded valuations are a reflection of the current interest rate environment,” Chad Beynon, lead gaming analyst for Macquarie, told iGB. “Whether it’s a long-term financial model on a growth company, you’re going to discount that back at a higher rate, or if it’s just a standard four-wall business, the cash flows in a higher interest rate environment are worth less.”
What is Ellens Fortune?
Darwin Gaming is the latest partner to join Yggdrasil’s YG Masters program for third-party gaming content creators. As a YG Masters studio, Darwin will develop, deploy and distribute its games using Yggdrasil’s technology and extensive network of operator partners.
The Masters program is powered by Yggdrasil’s ground-breaking Game Adaptation Tools & Interface (GATI) technology. GATI is a preconfigured, regulation-ready development toolkit enabling partners to efficiently create and distribute games globally with Yggdrasil. GATI and Masters is attracting many third-party studios aiming to increase game throughput, reach and ROI.
Malta-based Darwin Gaming was founded in 2020, leveraging on extensive previous experience in the gambling industry, with the aim of evolving mobile gaming entertainment and a philosophy to provide high-quality games with a simple approach.
