Following one hundred units through the chain
The clearest way to understand the value chain is to follow money through it. Take a hundred units of net gaming revenue at a typical mature European operator with a mixed sports and casino product, licensed in regulated markets, and trace where it goes. The percentages are illustrative ranges, not any company's accounts, and they move with market, product mix and scale; the shape is what matters.
Gaming tax: 20 to 25. Charged on gross gaming revenue or gross profit in most regimes, and some companies and contracts define NGR after it has been deducted, so check the definition before comparing. In a high-tax market it is more: Britain raised Remote Gaming Duty on online gaming profits from 21% to 40% from 1 April 2026, with a new 25% rate for remote betting from 1 April 2027. In a licensing hub it is less. Usually one of the two largest lines, and the one the operator controls least.
Marketing: 20 to 35. Affiliates (CPA and revenue share), paid media, sponsorship, brand, CRM. Higher in growth markets, lower in mature ones with a retained base. The line operators control most and cut first.
Content and data: 10 to 15. Revenue share to game and live casino studios (a percentage of the GGR their products generate), sports data and odds feeds, and aggregator margins. Higher for casino-led operators (live casino is expensive content), lower for sports-led ones with in-house trading.
Platform and technology: 5 to 10. Platform fees or the cost of the in-house stack, hosting, security, product development.
Payments and verification: 3 to 6. Processing fees, chargebacks, KYC checks, geolocation.
Compliance, licensing and levies: 3 to 6. The compliance organisation, licence fees per market, certification, research and treatment levies, and the occasional settlement.
Customer service and operations: 3 to 6. Support in every language, VIP management, trading and risk staff.
Overhead: 3 to 6. Management, finance, people, offices.
EBITDA: 15 to 30. What remains. Mature, well-run operators sit in the upper half of the range: Entain reported an online underlying EBITDA margin of 25.7% for 2025. Launch-market operators are negative: BetMGM, Entain's US joint venture, went from an EBITDA loss in 2024 to $220m of EBITDA in 2025.
The same hundred units at a supplier look different: a leading live casino or slot studio might spend 30 to 40 on development, studios and people, 10 on sales and certification, and keep 50 or more, because its revenue is a share of many operators' GGR and its costs do not scale with them. Evolution, the live casino supplier, reported an adjusted EBITDA margin of 66.1% for 2025.
Why suppliers are valued more highly
Investors have tended to pay higher multiples for leading suppliers' earnings than for operators' earnings, for reasons the chain explains:
Diversification. A supplier's revenue comes from many operators in many markets; an operator's from its own customers in its own markets. A tax rise in one country hurts the supplier's share of one operator's revenue and the operator's whole business. Evolution had about 870 operator customers at the end of 2025, and its five largest accounted for about 39% of net revenues.
Margin structure. Suppliers with fixed costs and near-zero marginal costs expand margins as they grow; operators pay tax and marketing on every unit.
Regulatory exposure. Operators carry the obligations to players and most of the enforcement risk when they fail. Suppliers are licensed and not immune: in December 2024 the Gambling Commission began a review of Evolution's British operating licence, which the company said might lead to sanctions or penalties. But the player-facing duties sit with the operator.
Capital intensity. A studio needs a team; an operator entering a market needs a licence fee, a marketing budget and years of losses.
Pricing power. The studios operators cannot do without and the data companies with league rights set their own terms; operators compete on a commodity product.
The exception proves the rule: suppliers whose distribution depends on a few operators, or whose product is commoditised (payments, generic platforms, small studios), are valued like the operators they serve.
The tax wedge
Gaming tax deserves its own note because it reshapes the chain. When a state raises tax on GGR, the operator's margin falls first, and then the operator renegotiates: lower revenue share with studios and platforms, lower affiliate commissions, less marketing. After Britain's rise was announced, Entain took a £488m impairment related to the UK tax increases and said it expected to offset about a quarter of the extra tax in 2026 and over half from 2027 through group-wide optimisation. Suppliers feel a tax rise later, as their operators' contracts come up for renegotiation. Turnover taxes are worse, because they take a share of every stake whatever the margin: Germany charges 5.3% of the amount staked on sports bets and on virtual slot machines. They squeeze low-margin products (sports singles, exchanges) hardest and push the product mix toward products taxed on gross revenue, which changes which suppliers earn.
Conversely, when a market opens, the whole chain earns at once: operators enter, suppliers certify, affiliates rank, data companies sell feeds. That is why the industry has watched Brazil, whose licensed betting market began on 1 January 2025, Alberta, whose regulated iGaming market launched on 13 July 2026, and the US states so closely, and why suppliers report "regulated market revenue" as a headline metric: Evolution put the share of its net revenues from regulated markets at 47% in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Where value is created versus captured
The chain creates value in three places: the player experience (product, brand, service), the risk management (pricing, fraud, compliance) and the content. It captures value where the leverage is: with rights holders, hit-makers, scale players and, above everyone, the state. A studio that makes a great game creates value; whether it captures it depends on distribution. An operator that acquires a customer creates value; whether it captures it depends on tax, retention and the supplier contracts.
The practical implication for anyone negotiating in the chain: know where your counterparty's margin comes from and where it is under pressure, because that is what they will defend.
Reading a results announcement with the chain in mind
An operator reporting rising NGR and falling EBITDA has often had a tax rise or a marketing war; the supplier lines will follow. A studio reporting rising revenue and rising margin has probably added regulated markets or a hit title. A data company reporting rising revenue and falling margin may have renewed a rights deal at a higher price. An affiliate reporting falling revenue on flat traffic may have had commissions cut or a search update. The Reading iGaming Financial Results course goes line by line; the value chain is the reason the lines move together.
The next lesson looks at how the chain differs by region and product, and the one after at how companies move across its layers.