Entain has asked Sports Information Services to explain a reported commercial agreement with Santeda, an offshore gambling network. Industry reports say the deal was signed in 2022 and may have remained active as recently as 2026. Its current status has not been confirmed.

SBC News reported on October 5, 2026, that Entain was “surprised and disappointed” by the disclosure and had raised the matter with the SIS board. No final finding by the Gambling Commission or another regulator has been reported.

The dispute is not only about one reported contract. It tests how far regulated betting operators should look into the suppliers connected to their business.

Why SIS ownership matters

SIS supplies live sports pictures, data and commentary to betting businesses. Its ownership links give the dispute added weight.

  • Entain holds a reported 23.4% stake in SIS.
  • evoke holds 19.5%.
  • Betfred and The Tote together hold a further 13.5%.

According to SBC News, Entain and Betfred were not understood to have known about the reported arrangement. Entain said its minority shareholding does not make it a party to SIS commercial or customer agreements. The company also said its opposition to illegal gambling remains unchanged.

A shareholder may not approve every supplier contract, but the episode exposes a difficult compliance question. Should ownership, procurement and due diligence checks extend through commercially independent suppliers?

What the reported documents show

CDC Gaming reported on October 1, 2026, that leaked regulatory documents from Curaçao indicated SIS signed a business-to-business deal with Santeda in 2022. The report said the relationship may have continued into 2026, but did not establish whether it remains active.

The reports describe Santeda as a black-market or unlicensed operator in relation to the British market. That is a reported characterisation, not a final British regulatory decision against SIS.

The available accounts also do not establish that Entain, Betfred, evoke or The Tote supplied gambling facilities to Santeda.

Where the regulatory line sits

The Gambling Commission licenses businesses that provide gambling to consumers in Great Britain, covering England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland operates under a separate legal framework.

The Commission’s betting guidance says licensed businesses must comply with the Gambling Act 2005, licence conditions and codes of practice, along with related anti-money-laundering requirements.

  • Keeping crime out of gambling.
  • Ensuring betting is conducted fairly and openly.
  • Meeting the conditions attached to the relevant operating licence.

Those rules do not automatically make every supplier dispute an operator breach. Any enforcement decision would depend on the facts, the parties involved, the services supplied and the duties attached to the relevant licence.

What happens next

Entain’s intervention puts pressure on the SIS board to explain the agreement, its duration and the checks applied before and during the relationship. SIS, evoke and The Tote were approached for comment in the SBC News report.

For Britain’s licensed sportsbooks, the wider issue is governance. Operators have spent 2026 warning about the risks posed by offshore gambling. The reported SIS arrangement now tests whether those warnings are matched by supplier controls inside the regulated betting chain.

No final regulatory conclusion has been reported. Until the agreement’s status and scope are established, the confirmed picture remains limited to the reported documents, Entain’s response and the ownership links between SIS and major British betting companies.