Corporate crime in sport: £615 million penalty imposed on a sports gaming company for failing to prevent bribery

In our previous LawInSport article1, Jim Sturman KC and I analysed how the recalibration of the corporate criminal attribution test, enacted in the Economic Crime & Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (the 2023 Act), could impact on the world of sport.

The potential for that impact has since been brought into sharp focus by a recent case2 linked directly to the sports industry, which resulted in Entain plc (Entain), a sports gaming business, paying a £615 million financial penalty.

To update on this development, this article will review and analyse:

• The Entain case;
• What the position might have been, had the 2023 Act been in force; and
• Pointers for the future.