SIS, the racing live feed supplier majority-owned by some of the UK’s biggest licensed bookmakers, has sparked a significant rift with shareholders over a deal with a black-market operator.
The supplier signed a B2B contract with Santeda, the parent company of MyStake, in 2022, and the arrangement may still have been active as recently as this year, according to leaked regulatory documents from Curaçao.
Entain, which owns a 23.4% stake in SIS, was reportedly left surprised and disappointed by the revelation, given its public positioning against unlicensed operators.
The news lands at a particularly uncomfortable moment, with major UK operators having ramped up their rhetoric against the black market throughout 2026 via the Betting & Gaming Council trade body.
SIS counts some of the fiercest critics of unlicensed gambling among its shareholders, making the Santeda deal all the more striking to those inside the industry.
Alongside Entain, SIS is 19.5% owned by William Hill operator evoke, while Betfred owner Fred Done and The Tote collectively hold a 13.5% stake in the business.
The remaining shares are held by financial investors Caledonia and Catalyst Media Group, rounding out an ownership structure dominated by established, licensed British bookmakers.
The contract in question was legally binding and signed by SIS CFO Nigel Stocks and Santeda CEO Onise Chimakhidze, committing SIS to supply its product to a range of unlicensed B2C brands.
Those brands included MyStake, Rolletto, Locasbet, and GoldenBet, with additional brands subject to later written agreement between the two parties.
Some campaigners have pointed to arrangements like this one as evidence that the licensed industry has not always practised what it preaches when it comes to tackling black-market gambling.
The BGC and its members have made combating unlicensed operators a central plank of their public messaging, making the SIS-Santeda contract difficult to reconcile with that stated position.
The episode raises broader questions about the extent to which licensed operators and their associated businesses vet the clients and partners further down the supply chain.
For Entain in particular, the situation presents a reputational challenge given how prominently the company has featured in the industry’s anti-black-market campaigns in recent months.
