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Flutter Entertainment Plc celebrates ‘excellent Q2 trading’, as leadership raises its full-year fiscal guidance for its US business and the wider Group (excluding US) performance.
Publishing its Q2 accounts, the NYSE-listed gambling group highlighted that it “outperformed all market consensus”, generating corporate revenues of $3.6bn, up 20% on 2023 comparatives of $3bn.
Headline growth was underpinned by Flutter’s portfolio of global brands, servicing a customer base of average monthly players of 14.3 million, up 17% on like-for-like 2023 AMPs of 12.2 million.
Leadership praised the “disciplined growth in the US” and record Q2 activity across its UK and international brands, as net profits tripled to $297m (Q2 2023: $64m).
The net income result was maintained despite Q2 accounts registering “non-cash impacts of $147m on acquired intangibles amortisation charge, and a $91m fair value gain on Fox Option liability.”
Period trading saw Group EBITDA increase by 17% to $738m (Q2 2023: $633m), as Flutter concluded a transformative period for its business, migrating its primary listing onto the NYSE on 31 May 2024.
Group CEO, Peter Jackson, commented on the Q2 results: “Flutter delivered another strong quarter, beating consensus and increasing our revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance as we continued to capitalise on our global scale and the Flutter Edge.”
“We achieved important milestones during Q2, as the NYSE became our primary listing, and we moved our operational headquarters to New York. This reflects the importance of the US market to Flutter and our view that the US is the natural home for our business.”
FanDuel Stamps US Leadership Position
Stateside, FanDuel registered a 17% increase in AMPs to 3.7 million (+27%), as US income rose by 39% to $1.52bn (Q2 2023: $1.09bn). Of significance, period trading saw FanDuel surpass the $1bn mark in sportsbook revenues alone.
Leadership underscored FanDuel’s dominant position, achieving “Q2 2024’s total online gross gaming revenue (GGR) market share of 38%, including a sportsbook GGR share of 47%, net gaming revenue share (NGR) of 51%, and iGaming GGR share of 25%.”
US growth prospects are underpinned by the completion of FanDuel Casino’s migration to proprietary systems to optimise its US iGaming offering, which generated Q2 revenues of $357m.
FanDuel’s accelerated growth sees Flutter increase its US revenue guidance by 3% to $6.2bn, alongside an adjusted EBITDA increase of 4% to $740m. The revised US guidance accounts for “the estimated H2 gross impact of $50m, $40m net of mitigation, from the Illinois gaming tax increase.”
“Our US performance was excellent in new and existing states, reflecting our disciplined approach to customer acquisition and our best-in-class product, which offers our sportsbook customers the best pricing in the market,” Peter Jackson commented on US trading.
“We continue to make improvements to our proprietary product offering, which drove the proportion of live betting handle to be more than 400 basis points higher than last year during the NBA playoffs. We also increased our MLB parlay penetration. The returns we are seeing give us the confidence to continue driving customer acquisition in the second half, building a bigger business, which bodes well for 2025 and beyond.”
Euro Highs for UKI brands
Outside of the US, growth was maintained by Flutter’s UK & Ireland unit, generating Q2 revenues of $928m, up 18% on 2023 comparatives of $789m.
Period trading saw UKI’s brands benefit from strong UEFA Euro wagering activities, as 2.8m customers wagered on the tournament, helping sportsbook revenues increase by 12% to $451m.
Euro trading saw “Sky Bet launch QuickBuild, a more intuitive Same Game Parlay experience, while Paddy Power doubled the volume of sportsbook stakes on player markets during the Euros compared to the 2022 World Cup, aided by the launch of Super Sub in March.”
Period trading saw Flutter capture strong cross-sell and live gaming opportunities, helping UKI iGaming revenues increase by 25% to $423m.
Group accounts detailed that the UKI unit generated Flutter’s highest adjusted EBITDA contribution of £293m (+18%), with results on an operating margin of 31.6%.
Flutter Edge bolsters International Unit
Elsewhere, Flutter’s International unit (excluding the US, UKI, and Australia) registered an 11% increase in revenues to $807m (Q2 2023: $726m) and adjusted EBITDA of $156m (Q2 2023: $145m).
International results were bolstered by “the addition of MaxBet in Q1, which added $52m, or two percentage points, to Group revenue growth year-on-year.”
Leadership underlined that it continues to leverage Flutter Edge capabilities to outperform local market rivals and bolster the International unit’s Consolidate and Invest strategy, detailing Q2 growth in the markets of Georgia (+20%), Spain (+11%), and Brazil (+11%).
However, International unit results were dragged down by a “revenue decline of 8% in India due to the previously communicated tax changes introduced in Q4 2023. In Turkey, revenue was 35% higher on a constant currency basis, but declined by 13% on a reported basis.”
Excluding US activities, leadership enhanced the wider group’s full-year guidance by 4% to $478m, with targets accounting for a margin reduction expected from Australian revenue declines, which for Q2 stood at $349m (-10%).
Closing Q2 accounts, CEO Peter Jackson concluded: “The returns we are seeing give us the confidence to continue driving customer acquisition in the second half, building a bigger business, which bodes well for 2025 and beyond.”
“We look forward to setting out this growth potential in more detail, and the capital allocation opportunities that will unlock, at our Flutter Investor Day in New York on September 25. Outside of the US, we delivered an engaging offering during the European Football Championships, as over four million customers placed a bet on the tournament, with results during the tournament being very favourable for us.”
“We enhanced our Same Game Parlay experience in the UK and Ireland with the addition of QuickBuild, and launched a first-to-market version in Italy. We also expanded our iGaming portfolio with new exclusive content, driving market share gains.”
