The markets that the gambling company is planning to leave are ones it says it can no longer see a path to ‘domestic regulation’ in.

At the end of 2020, Entain initially announced it would be aiming to have all of its income come from regulated markets by the end of 2023.

However, now the group has sped up that process and believes the exit will have little to no impact on its financial projections for this year; meanwhile, it also stated that it will remain in a few unregulated markets, where it believes national regulation will be achieved in the near future.

Barry Gibson, Entain’s Chair, commented on the exit: “As part of the profound and far-reaching transformation programme that Entain has undergone in the last few years, we took the decision in 2020 to only operate in nationally regulated markets.

“Today’s announcement is, therefore, a continuation of that strategy and should be taken as a clear demonstration of Entain’s commitment to the highest standards of corporate responsibility, governance, sustainability and player safety.

“We stated at the outset we would exit any market that wasn’t able to regulate at sufficient pace or to the right standards, and we have acted decisively to do so. We are proud to be leading our industry as the only global operator taking this approach of solely operating in markets where there is domestic licensing.”

The news comes shortly following Entain’s completion of its $450m BetCity acquisition.