William Hill could close 200 betting shops as gambling industry faces mounting tax pressure October 12, 2025 William Hill is eyeing shutting 200 of its UK betting shops as parent company Evoke looks to steady its heavily indebted balance sheet ahead of a potential tax raid in next month’s budget. The move comes as the Gambling Commission and Treasury consider tougher rules and levies for the gambling sector, which has already been [...]
UK businesses wasting millions on ChatGPT-style AI tools October 10, 2025 Companies could be wasting millions on AI tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Claude as they rush to boost productivity. MIT’s State of AI in Business 2025 study found that while employees in over 90 per cent of companies regularly use personal AI tools, only 40 per cent of organisations have official LLM subscriptions. Despite [...]
Google could be forced to change search in the UK October 10, 2025 Google may be forced to make changes to how its search engine operates in the UK after the competition watchdog granted it ‘strategic market status’ under the country’s new digital markets regime. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirmed the designation on Friday, giving it new powers to impose rules on Google’s search and advertising [...]
What an AI bubble could mean for Reeves October 10, 2025 The traditional ministerial photo-op of walking around a construction site clad in a high-vis jacket and a hard hat usually takes place at a factory or housing site. But last month, chancellor Rachel Reeves donned fluorescent yellow for a different facility – a huge data centre built to power the UK’s digital economy through AI. [...]
Channel 4 named fastest growing streamer amid Netflix’s UK surge October 10, 2025 Channel 4 has emerged as the UK’s fastest-growing major streaming platform, City AM can reveal, beating multiple audience records in September and strengthening its digital hand with a new deal designed to rival the reach of Netflix and Disney+. The broadcaster’s streaming minutes jumped 36 per cent year-on-year, according to new BARB data, the biggest [...]
St James Place warns self-employed to act now as digital tax deadline looms October 9, 2025 Financial giant urges landlords and sole traders to prepare for new digital filing rules amid slow national take-up. St James’s Place has urged hundreds of thousands of sole traders and landlords to prepare now for the rollout of Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income tax, warning that leaving it too late could risk fines and [...]
JP Morgan warns on AI bubble amid Bank of England caution October 9, 2025 JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon has joined the chorus of warnings over an AI-driven market boom that some fear could go the way of the dot-com crash. Speaking from Bournemouth, where the bank announced a £350m investment in its local campus, Dimon described himself as “far more worried than others” about a serious market correction [...]
Natwest hires top tech talent amid UK innovation push October 9, 2025 NatWest had doubled down on its support for the UK’s high-growth and innovation economy with two senior strategic hires in its newly formed venture banking team. Greg Brown has joined as head of venture capital coverage, and Kim Martin has stepped in as head of venture and growth finance, reflecting the bank’s renewed push to [...]
Musk’s ‘affordable’ Tesla model still packs a punchy price October 8, 2025 Tesla has unveiled cheaper versions of its Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles, but with starting prices still hovering near $40,000 (£29,820) investors and analysts say the cars fall short of chief executive Elon Musk’s promise of a truly mass-market EV. The new Model 3 Standard starts at $36,990, while the Model Y Standard [...]
Spotify’s integration into ChatGPT may not be a bad thing October 8, 2025 Spotify’s new partnership with OpenAI brings its music and podcast recommendations inside its LLM bot, ChatGPT, helping its users to discover and queue new music through conversations, rather than search. Listeners will be able to link their Spotify to ChatGPT, asking it to find anything from a specific playlist to a podcast topic. Across 145 [...]
