Ladbrokes and Coral owner to pay £585m over bribery allegations

Gambling giant Entain owns both Ladbrokes and Coral

Gambling giant Entain will pay HMRC £585m to settle over bribery allegations relating to a Turkish firm that it previously owned.

The settlement was approved by the Royal Courts of Justice in a hearing on Tuesday.

Entain, which owns Ladbrokes, will also make a charitable donation of £20m and pay towards the costs of the case.

Its chairman added that the group had "profoundly changed" since the sale.

The payments are part of a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), that will be made in instalments over the next four years.

The agreement allows a prosecution to be suspended for a defined period provided the organisation meets certain specified conditions.

DPAs can be used for fraud, bribery and other economic crime. They apply to organisations, never individuals. The DPA is one of the biggest corporate criminal settlements ever reached in the UK and the first for the CPS.

Entain will also make a contribution of £10m towards the costs incurred by HMRC and the Crown Prosecution Service during the case.

The investigation by HMRC involved a Turkish-facing company that was sold by the Group in 2017. The probe involved the activities of former employees and former third party suppliers.

In particular, it was looking at allegations that Entain, which was then known as GVC, failed to have adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery.

Since then, Entain says the group has undertaken a comprehensive review of its anti-bribery policies and procedures.

In a statement, Barry Gibson, Entain's chairman, said: "This is the final step in a process that has hung over our business since HMRC launched its investigation into a business that was sold by a former management team six years ago."

"We have co-operated extensively and proactively at every stage of the process which, I am pleased to say, has been recognised by the Court," he added.

"Entain has now fundamentally and profoundly changed. We can now concentrate on the future."