News UK is planning to bring the Sun Bets brand back to the UK as early next year, EGR can exclusively reveal.

EGR understands the media giant has tapped Playtech to support the relaunch of Sun Bets, with the bookmaker set to potentially go live before the Cheltenham Festival in March 2026.

Playtech already acts as a supplier for News UK’s other brand-led gambling venture, Sun Bingo.

As per Playtech’s H1 2025 report, Sun Bingo and other B2C revenue hit €33.2m, down 17% year on year from €39.9m.

The supplier said the revenue hit was due to “enhanced regulatory requirements introduced in H2 2024”. Adjusted EBITDA for the division slipped to €800,000 from €2.3m.

TalkSPORT, also owned by News UK, announced the launch of talkSPORT Bet three years ago. The brand is live with BVGroup, the parent company of BetVictor, on a white-label basis.

BVGroup’s B2B technology also powers Global’s Heart Bingo and Smooth Spins, as well as Parimatch and Betano in the UK.

Sun Bets was originally launched in August 2016 via a joint venture between News UK and Australian operator Tabcorp.

At the time of the deal being announced, Playtech also provided the casino and live casino product to Sun Bets.

However, the venture was shut down in 2018 due to poor performance. Australian giant Tabcorp paid £39.5m to exit the venture and reported an overall loss of £51.4m against Sun Bets for 2018.

In April of that year, the Gambling Commission imposed an £84,000 penalty on Sun Bets and carried out a licence review over the infamous ‘Piegate’ stunt.

The bookmaker offered 8/1 odds for then-Sutton United goalkeeper Wayne Shaw to eat a pie in the dugout during a televised FA Cup home tie against Arsenal, which he then did.

The Commission’s review also found that 100 self-excluded individuals had opened duplicate accounts with Sun Bets to continue gambling.

The Sun Bets website remains live at the time of writing, although it is not functional.

Instead, the reads: “It’s full-time for Sun Bets. Sun Bets has now closed but you can still get your game on with our range of other products.”

The portal provides links to other Sun-branded ventures, including Sun Bingo and its fantasy football game, Dream Team.

Playtech declined to comment. A spokesperson from News UK said: “We don’t comment on market speculation.”

The post Exclusive: Sun Bets planning to relaunch in 2026 first appeared on EGR Intel.