Flutter and its betting brands commit £8m to charity in 2023

Flutter has revealed that its UK and Ireland division has contributed up to £8m in charitable initiatives this year.

The news follows its three betting brands, Paddy Power, Sky Betting & Gaming (SBG) and Betfair, each forming new partnerships in recent weeks. 

Meanwhile, a further £250,000 has been raised through fundraising events for its two Charities of the Year. The activities form part of Flutter’s wider global pledge to Do More for the communities in which it operates as part of the Group’s sustainability strategy – the Positive Impact Plan. 

Ian Brown, CEO of Flutter UKI, commented: “I am really proud of the progress the UKI division has made this year to Do More for our communities as part of Flutter Group’s Positive Impact Plan. 

“Our market-leading brands have each launched creative and impactful campaigns that directly support the causes that are close to our customers and our colleagues.”

In detail, Paddy Power announced that it will be donating up to £1m to Prostate Cancer UK as part of its title sponsorship of the 2023 PDC World Darts Championship, which begins this month.

This story gained popularity through a clever hoax which saw the bookmaker announce that it was turning the treble 20 green for the competition.

Prior to this, Betfair’s ‘Serial Winners Fund’ campaign announced last month will see the operator support both the Injured Jockeys Fund and the Irish Injured Jockeys with an initial donation of £100,000, and a further £5,000 for every winner jockey Rachel Blackmore rides between Betfair Chase Day and the Randox Grand National. 

Finally, earlier in November, Sky Bet launched its £6m ‘Building Foundations Fund’ in partnership with the EFL, which now represents the largest multi-year, sponsor-backed fund that is dedicated solely to community activity.

This will give the 72 EFL clubs a chance to bid for grants of up to £100,000 to invest in ongoing programmes or to develop new initiatives. Sky Bet will invest £1m per year into the fund starting from the current 2023/2024 season.

“Across Flutter, we hold ourselves to the highest standards in the industry, and we are passionate about making a lasting positive impact,” Brown continued.

Overall, the aim of the aforementioned Do More initiative is to improve the lives of 10 million people by 2030, leveraging Flutter’s scale and the ‘collective passion’ of its colleagues across three main areas of Sport & Play, Health and Wellbeing, and Tech4Good.

Flutter also held its inaugural Charity Ball in Dublin in September in support of BUMBLEance, the Children’s Ambulance Service of Ireland, and its Annual Charity Gala in Leeds in November in support of the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund in Yorkshire. Flutter UKI donated £240,000 between the two charities and raised a further £250,000 across both events. 

Meanwhile, other donations across the year totalled £330,000, which included the re-launch of Cash4Clubs which provides small grants to local community sports clubs across the UK and Ireland.