igamingbusiness. com
FEATURE
Is the UK still attractive to listed operators?
Consolidation has left the UK with few listed gaming companies. Nicole Macedo considers how regulatory uncertainty, economic trends and the allure of US equity have propelled this trend
T he UK’ s public equity market has shrunk in the last 10 years. Up to 45 companies left the UK market last year, and with live bids ongoing for a further 15 at the end of Q1 2025, this trend looks set to continue.
“ There are fewer listed companies, and the companies that remain are of lower value,” says Ivor Jones, equity analyst for Peel Hunt. This rate of departure has accelerated further recently, with the London Stock Exchange( LSE) now estimated to account for just 3 % of the global equity market. According to Statista, in February this year just 1,660 companies were trading on the LSE, a number that saw it fail to make a list of the 10 largest exchanges in a 2025 breakdown published by Visual Capitalist. Twenty years ago, the figure stood at 2,916.“ The UK is a small market and a small share of total equity value, and that has put pressure on valuations,” Jones notes.“ UK investors have been seeing higher interest rates available if they’ ve got cash to invest, or higher interest rates making their mortgages more expensive. They’ ve been selling UK equity, and they’ ve been turning it into something else. So there’ s been a constant outflow.”
UK fund managers have been selling off domestic public equity holdings in response to investors redeeming their money, and this has contributed to valuations remaining low.
The gaming sector has largely mirrored wider public market shrinkage, with consolidation leading to fewer listed names over time. Notably, Betfair Group was delisted from the LSE in 2016 after merging with Paddy Power, and GVC absorbed Ladbrokes Coral, after the two merged in 2017.
In the same year, 32Red was bought by Kindred Group and subsequently disappeared from the LSE. And then Evoke, known previously as 888, bought William Hill in 2021 resulting in yet another name leaving the London exchange.
Jones believes this wave of consolidation-driven M & A by listed incumbents in the UK is largely behind us.“ There’ s still M & A happening to some extent along the fringes of the
34 • ISSUE 138 • iGB L! VE 2025