The launch is Entain’s clearest push yet into free-to-play as a route to younger, digitally native fans aged 25 to 35, a group it believes existing games have failed to serve
Entain launched Seven in the UK today (11 August), a free-to-play app that asks players to pick a squad of seven footballers each game week and rewards them when their picks score the first or last goal in their matches.
Players choose three forwards and four players from other positions, and three or more successful picks unlock prizes, including a £100,000 jackpot every week. The app sits alongside Ladbrokes, Entain’s flagship UK brand, and will add leagues and social features from October.
The launch is Entain’s clearest push yet into free-to-play as a route to younger, digitally native fans aged 25 to 35, a group it believes existing games have failed to serve. Seven was built inside Angstrom, Entain’s sports modelling and analytics arm, designed to feed new customers toward Ladbrokes.
Ross Jarvis, director of strategy at Angstrom, said the team spotted a gap between the commitment demanded by fantasy football and the throwaway nature of prediction games.
Jarvis said: “What’s that middle line between needing a second full-time job to play and do well at Fantasy Premier League, and games that are just two minutes of wasted time? We wanted to find that five to 10 minute game in the middle, one that taps into the weekend rituals football fans already have.”
Betting on player-led fandom
Jarvis added that rival products had suffered from a lack of investment.
He said: “A lot of the games out there were either redos of games which already existed, or they were baked into one of the gambling operators themselves, which puts guardrails around how much real innovation you can have.”
The launch follows the 2026 FIFA World Cup, during which anytime goalscorer betting across Entain’s brands more than quadrupled, a trend the operator linked to growing interest in individual players.
Jarvis said the format was built for fans who watch football in short clips rather than full matches.
He said: “Even if you join the game at 75 minutes and you’ve got a player in that match, you’ve still got about 15 minutes where, if that player scores the last goal, that’s all that matters to you.”
Bejay Patel, UK managing director at Entain, said the app showed the group’s ability to move quickly.
Patel said: “Seven is a great example of how Entain can innovate at pace. By empowering a dedicated team to think differently and move quickly, we have built a genuinely distinctive product that broadens our portfolio.”
Entain is starting Seven around the Premier League, but Jarvis said the format was built to travel to other leagues and sports, perhaps even one day in the US.
Jarvis continued: “If you think about a sport like NFL, it’s perfectly suited to this mechanic. We’re averaging about 2.8 goals a game in the Premier League, but when you transport that onto NFL, potentially it’s even more exciting, with an average of about 5.56 touchdowns a game.”