Entain Enters Free To Play Market Before New Premier League Season

Entain has thrust itself into the vibrant free-to-play games arena ahead of the new Premier League season through the launch of Seven.

The Free-to-Play market has been gathering pace in the UK over the past few years. Now, the Ladbrokes and Coral owner is pinning its hopes on Seven, a new squad-style fantasy game designed to boost user engagement and appeal to a bigger audience.

Trying to stand out in a crowded market

Revered UK football betting sites worth their salt won’t rest on their laurels. Free-to-play predictor games, more specifically, have garnered plenty of interest over the past few years. BetMGM, for example, runs Golden Goals, a predictor game where players correctly guessing six scores can win up to £250,000, and free bet rewards are stumped up.

Sky Bet also has a long-running free-to-play predictor game entitled Super 6, which runs similarly to BetMGM. Players can win up to £100,000 during the week or £250,000 at the weekend, and it gets the competitive juices flowing.

But Entain are looking to provide a fresh spin on things through Seven. During each gameweek, players can choose a squad of seven footballers, and when a player scores the first or last goal of a game, rewards are made available for three successful picks. Unlike its competitors, Seven therefore isn’t a straight knockout-style game where users are eliminated after one wrong pick.

Featuring live updates and rolling selection deadlines, Entain is hoping to make its mark and stand out in a crowded market. Prizes of a £100,000 jackpot or smaller free bet amounts will also be made available to entice players.

Building on World Cup momentum

During the 2026 World Cup, Entain identified a new set of betting trends. They discovered bettors were more attracted to individual player markets, and research carried out by the gambling giant illustrated that goalscorer betting volumes more than quadrupled compared to the previous World Cup.

Entain is looking to enhance its product and it has a clear demographic in mind for Seven, which is players aged 25-35. It is thought that should Seven prove successful, the game could partner with other brands, such as Bwin or be introduced across other sports.

Tax burdens weigh heavy

Given betting companies are reducing their marketing spends, there is no escaping the fact that the new UK gambling tax regime is proving burdensome. In the Budget speech last year, it was confirmed that remote gaming duty paid on online casino bets would soar from 21% of gross gambling yield (GGY) to 40%, while duty paid on online sports bets will rise from 15% to 25% next year, with horseracing exempt.

Last week, Entain revealed they were cutting up to 500 jobs as part of an efficiency programme, even though the company’s CEO, Stella David, was previously adamant that it wasn’t linked to taxes. Added to that, Entain has been pulling back its influence in central and eastern Europe by selling off Entain CEE to EMMA Capital, underlining the challenges faced.

Accelerating innovation

Although cost-cutting has been a theme, the rollout of Seven underlines Entain’s commitment to move the needle and this was pointed out by Beejay Patel, the company’s UK Managing Director.

He said: “Seven is a great example of how Entain can innovate at pace. By empowering a team to think differently and move quickly, we have built a genuinely distinctive product that broadens our portfolio and showcases the strength of innovation culture.”