Anaconda Uncoiled

About Anaconda Uncoiled

It has been a challenging few years for Entain, having cycled through four CEOs in short succession. In November 2023 Entain agreed to pay a financial penalty totalling £585 million, plus a £20 million charitable donation and £10 million in Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and HMRC costs. This related to a bribery case initiated by the CPS into the company’s historic operations in Turkey.

Troubles continued as it faced declining growth within its digital business. Reports of failed integrations amid a frenzy of acquisitions further dampened Entain’s reputation and the operator subsequently committed to a major turnaround effort to cut costs and return its digital business to growth.

Efforts to update its legacy tech were also set in motion, and short-lived CEO Gavin Isaacs told iGB at ICE in January 2025 that his biggest challenge in the role was to modernise its core platform.

How to play Anaconda Uncoiled

As Merkur’s acquisition of Casigrangi would grant indirect control over SFC, French regulations require Merkur to launch a simplified mandatory tender offer for the remaining SFC shares it does not already hold. 

This tender offer will be at the same price of €6.19 per share.

If successful, Merkur intends to pursue a squeeze-out process, compelling minority shareholders to sell their shares, and subsequently delist SFC from Euronext Paris. 

How to play Anaconda Uncoiled

The report highlighted the intense workload by estimating that a manager looking after 250 players would have roughly 100 seconds to commit to each player each day if their time was split equally. Data quality and fragmentation were also issues. 

Grygorenko emphasised that prioritisation was the key to adapting these portfolio sizes. 

“[At] above roughly 150 players per manager, personal knowledge stops scaling. The fix is not fewer players or more managers – it is showing each manager which few accounts actually need them today,” she added.