SIS, Part-Owned by Ladbrokes, William Hill and Fred Done, Had a Deal With Santeda, the Guardian Reports

A contract from the Casino Secrets leak shows the racing pictures and data supplier agreed in 2022 to serve Santeda's brands for a share of their revenue, according to the Guardian. Its owners include bookmakers that have repeatedly warned about the illegal market, and Entain says it has raised its concerns with SIS.

• The Guardian reported on 1 October that a file from the Casino Secrets leak shows Sports Information Services (SIS) signed a deal in 2022 to supply Santeda's offshore casino network with live racing, greyhound and esports content and betting data
• SIS is more than half owned by Ladbrokes, William Hill and Betfred owner Fred Done, according to the Guardian, which estimates from Companies House filings that SIS has paid its shareholders at least £37 million in dividends since the deal was signed
• Under the contract SIS took a percentage of revenue from losing bets on Santeda's brands, the Guardian reports; NEXT.io puts the share at 18% of gross gaming revenue for racing and 13% for esports
• The contract does not permit SIS data to be used in the UK, but the Guardian says it appears to show SIS supplied Santeda websites that its earlier investigation found illegally targeting UK customers; SIS declined to say whether the deal has ended
• Entain says it is not party to SIS's commercial arrangements and has raised its concerns; the companies are understood to have been unaware of the deal, and Evoke and Fred Done had not commented

A Contract in the Curaçao Files Leads Back to Britain's Biggest Bookmakers

The Guardian's Casino Secrets reporting has reached Britain's licensed industry. On Thursday 1 October, its gambling reporter Rob Davies reported that one file leaked from the Curaçao gaming regulator's licensing portal shows Santeda signed a deal in 2022 with Sports Information Services (SIS), the UK-based supplier of live horse racing, greyhound and esports content and the data used to settle bets. SIS is part-owned by Ladbrokes, William Hill and Fred Done, the owner of Betfred, which the Guardian says collectively own more than 50% of it.

Santeda's network has been accused of illegally targeting vulnerable gamblers in the UK and has been fined in Spain for operating without a licence, according to the Guardian. Its Curaçao licence does not permit it to operate in most major regulated markets, including the UK and the US. In April, the Guardian and Investigate Europe reported that Santeda's casinos appeared to target UK gamblers who were trying to quit, without a Gambling Commission licence.

What the Contract Says, According to the Guardian and NEXT.io

According to the Guardian, SIS agreed to supply Santeda websites with its content and data for two years, under a contract that renewed automatically unless either side ended it, and received a percentage of revenues from losing bets placed through Santeda's brands. NEXT.io, which reported the same contract on Thursday, said SIS was entitled to an 18% share of gross gaming revenue on racing products and 13% on esports, and that the brands covered included MyStake, Rolletto, Locasbet and GoldenBet.

The contract does not permit the use of SIS data in the UK, the Guardian reports, and NEXT.io says the list of markets in which the brands could show SIS content excludes the UK. But the Guardian says the contract appears to show SIS supplied information to multiple Santeda websites that its previous investigation found were illegally targeting UK customers, including with promotional material apparently aimed at people trying to stop gambling. NEXT.io says it has seen evidence that the SIS racing feed could be viewed on Santeda brands from a UK IP address as recently as this spring. It is not clear whether the contract is still active, or how much SIS earned from it. SIS declined to tell the Guardian whether it had been terminated.

The Dividends and the Shareholders' Public Positions

Companies House filings suggest SIS's shareholders have received at least £37 million in dividends since the deal was signed, including £30 million in 2023, the Guardian reports. On its reading of the stakes, Ladbrokes, owned by Entain, holds 23% and received about £8.5 million; William Hill, owned by Evoke, holds nearly 20% and received more than £7 million; and Done, who is also an SIS director, holds 8% and received nearly £3 million. NEXT.io puts the stakes at 23.4% for Entain, 19.5% for Evoke and 13.5% for Betfred, the Tote and Done together.

The Guardian sets those payments against the three groups' public warnings about the illegal market. Entain chief executive Stella David has criticised Premier League clubs for "complicity" in fuelling illicit operators, after Entain counted 11 of the 20 clubs carrying an unlicensed gambling sponsor. Evoke blamed the illicit market for weak online revenues earlier this year, and Done has warned that higher machine duty would drive customers to sites that pay no tax, according to the Guardian.

The Responses

The companies are understood to have been unaware of the deal when it was signed, the Guardian reports, and industry sources said the shareholders could not have known because of controls that stop them seeing commercially sensitive information about rivals; one source said they were "furious" with SIS. Entain said it was "not a party to the commercial or customer arrangements SIS decides to strike. Now that this relationship has come to light, we take it very seriously and have raised our concerns to SIS". It told NEXT.io it supports "robust enforcement against unlicensed operators".

An SIS spokesperson said all of its customers agree to "only offer SIS products where it is legal to do so and where they have the necessary regulatory licences", and that where SIS finds those terms are not being followed "it takes corrective action to enforce the position, up to and including suspension or termination of contracts". The Guardian said it had approached Evoke and Fred Done for comment; NEXT.io said Evoke and Betfred declined to comment. The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) told NEXT.io that SIS is not a member and that its commercial relationships are a matter for SIS.

Matt Zarb-Cousin, director of the gambling-blocking company Gamban and a long-standing reform campaigner, told the Guardian that the same firms warning about the illicit market "are profiting from it", and that the industry "needs to get its own house in order by cutting all ties with it".

The Governance Defence Is Real, and It Is Also the Problem

The shareholders' answer is credible on its own terms. SIS supplies its own owners and their rivals, so competition law requires that shareholders do not see its customer contracts, and nothing reported shows that Ladbrokes, William Hill or Done knew of the Santeda deal. But the arrangement means bookmakers can collect dividends from a supplier whose customer list they cannot see, and the BGC's illegal market message, including its warning that unlicensed bookmakers will take £800 million in Premier League bets this season, rests on licensed operators standing apart from that market. A clause barring UK use does not settle the point if the content was, as NEXT.io says, viewable from Britain.

The Supply Chain Is Where the Illegal Market Is Fed

The Gambling Commission warned business-to-business suppliers in January 2025 that licensed games were appearing on unlicensed sites aimed at British players, told them to monitor their partners and end relationships where non-compliance occurs, and said negligent licensees could put their own licences at risk. Racing pictures and settlement data are as essential to an offshore sportsbook as games are to a casino. The question for SIS is not whether its contract forbade UK use, which the Guardian says it did, but what it did to check, and whether it acted as Santeda became what NEXT.io calls the face of the UK's black market.

The illegal market argument is the industry's strongest card in the duty fight. The Santeda contract gives its critics a counter, and SIS's silence on whether the deal has ended keeps it in play.