As the UK government’s annual Budget was announced on 26 November, shares in IG Group rocketed, closing up more than 10% on the day.
Since then, the group’s shares have stayed around £11.40, recovering to a level they last held in mid-September this year.
Speaking to TradeInformer, Ben Williams, an analyst at Shore Capital, acknowledged the surge was “remarkable”, and attributed the gains to feared changes to the UK’s tax treatment of spread betting turning out to be overblown.
IG Group’s annual report, published on 12 August, suggested that the group saw such changes as being likely and was anticipating an impact on its after-tax earnings.
It said: “The UK government is consulting on reforms to the betting duty regime with the new rate applicable to IG expected to be significantly higher than the current 3% required on client spread betting losses.“
Spread betting is currently tax-free for the majority of UK residents. As of the end of May, London-listed IG Group paid a relatively small amount in costs, £7.1m, in betting duty and financial transaction taxes, according to its annual results for the 2025 financial year.
In its annual report, the group noted it had met with HM Treasury and HMRC and submitted a written response, arguing that financial spread betting was fundamentally different from online gambling. It added that the outcome of the consultation was expected at the time of the annual Budget.
CMC Markets, another UK-listed spread betting provider, has also benefitted – to a lesser extent – with its share price rising 4.6% on the Budget day, though this has since fallen back down to its pre-Budget level of around £2.88.
The more subdued reaction might partly be because the broker already saw a stonking 40% surge in its share price earlier in November, following the release of its strong half-year financial results.
