The business is currently in pole position in the UK via its Sky Bet, Paddy Power and Betfair brands, with a market share of around 39% and 22% in sports betting and iGaming respectively.
But Jackson, who will leave his post at the end of next month to be replaced by Dan Taylor, told the audience of an Oppenheimer fireside chat that the tax rises in the UK give Flutter “a really good opportunity to substantially increase market share”.
This further emphasised the woes that the company has undergone in the last 12 months, with its share price having fallen 65% during that period.
However, Flutter, like many other top tier betting brands in the UK, has noted that opportunities lie ahead in what has been a turbulent time for the country’s betting industry that has contained many headwinds.
Naturally, the immediate reaction post-November budget from the vast majority of the companies in the sector was negative. Many PLCs have been bracing for the impact the 21% to 40% RGD tax increase and pending 15% to 25% GBD rise would have on bottom lines.
But after deliberation, it seemed the leaders of the pack began to find silver linings in the costly clouds – one of those being a chance to take market share from smaller operators.
Jackson’s comments underpin that the sharks are circling UK waters.
“Those long tail operators are going to be under a lot of pressure, both from a regulatory [standpoint] and from the tax increase,” Jackson said.
“I think there’s an opportunity for us to use our scale as the market leader to better navigate these tax changes – we’ve got a very sustainable and clear plan to mitigate the tax changes.
“We’re going to keep our foot down hard on the marketing and generosity side and we have other ways that we can help mitigate some of the increase in costs.
“I think we will deliver those first order cost savings and we expect to see some significant growth and benefits come to us. I think the team is doing a great job in the UK – we’ve migrated the Sky business over to the core operating platform, and so we’re now starting to see the sequential improvements you’d expect to see coming out of that significant shift.”
As touched on briefly already, it is not exactly plain sailing at Flutter at the moment.
Alongside that hefty $296m net loss – a $333m drop from Q2 2025’s $37m profit – came a plummeting EBITDA figure of $508m, which was a 45% decrease year-on-year.
Flutter has options
International seems to be doing a bit of heavy lifting as Flutter continues to undergo its sportsbook improvement plan and invest heavily in its primary US operations.
That is not to say international comes without its burdens – costs of acquisitions in Brazil, Italy and Serbia have hit margins in recent years, but it looks like at least some of those investments are coming to fruition.
Chief Financial Officer, Rob Coldrake, was particularly glowing in his review of Flutter’s Brazilian operations.
“We’ve been making really good progress in Brazil, although the overall market in Brazil has been slightly dampened by some recent regulatory changes, that I think people are aware of, in the market,” he affirmed.
Coldrake made clear that Brazil is not the only international market driving growth for Flutter.
He continued: “I think our Italian business is performing particularly strongly. We’ve continued to grow our number one position there, and that’s even in light of slightly slower growth in our SNAI business that we acquired last year, as we’ve migrated it onto the Sisal platform.
“If you look at the growth across Italy and also in Turkey, the growth has been phenomenal. There’s high inflation in Turkey but our growth has been 40% plus, and it’s been outstripping inflation there.
“Our CEE business, which we don’t talk about very much, has been growing phenomenally well too.”
Is a businesswide reevaluation needed?
So it seems that, despite such a heavy US push and FanDuel’s strong position there, Flutter is seeing growth opportunities in various other markets that are, in ways, outperforming the US.
Incoming CEO Taylor actually heads up Flutter International as CEO.
With Taylor at the helm from the beginning of October, it’d be slightly naive to suggest that a business evaluation and re-shift towards international operations – away from the US – could be on the cards soon.
Despite tough times, and unless there’s a drastic, drastic change, revenue will still arrive in bucketloads for Flutter – it came in at $4.326bn in the quarter alone, a quarter which has been heavily scrutinised due to the decline in share price and profit, as discussed above.
But there’s no doubt the business needs a period of stability, and it may just have to take a breather from a clear US-focused strategy to find the key to re-unlocking the growth it enjoyed since its pre-2019 days as Paddy Power Betfair.
There’s evidently a myriad of opportunities Stateside, but, to make clear, Flutter found ample success in its home market of the UK long before that.
It may do well to look back there as well as at other avenues, because growth does clearly exist away from the US, and leadership heavily acknowledged that when addressing their audience.
Jackson reiterates Flutter optimism from UK tax rise as he nears departure
You’ve shared it!
Peter Jackson, outgoing Chief Executive Officer of Flutter Entertainment, has reiterated that the multinational is looking to stamp further authority on the UK market, sending a stark reminder to UK mid-tier operators.
The business is currently in pole position in the UK via its Sky Bet, Paddy Power and Betfair brands, with a market share of around 39% and 22% in sports betting and iGaming respectively.
But Jackson, who will leave his post at the end of next month to be replaced by Dan Taylor, told the audience of an Oppenheimer fireside chat that the tax rises in the UK give Flutter “a really good opportunity to substantially increase market share”.
Sorry Mr Jackson
News of Jackson’s departure came alongside an underwhelming Q2 results announcement for Flutter, which reported a $296m net loss.
This further emphasised the woes that the company has undergone in the last 12 months, with its share price having fallen 65% during that period.
However, Flutter, like many other top tier betting brands in the UK, has noted that opportunities lie ahead in what has been a turbulent time for the country’s betting industry that has contained many headwinds.
Naturally, the immediate reaction post-November budget from the vast majority of the companies in the sector was negative. Many PLCs have been bracing for the impact the 21% to 40% RGD tax increase and pending 15% to 25% GBD rise would have on bottom lines.
But after deliberation, it seemed the leaders of the pack began to find silver linings in the costly clouds – one of those being a chance to take market share from smaller operators.
Jackson’s comments underpin that the sharks are circling UK waters.
“Those long tail operators are going to be under a lot of pressure, both from a regulatory [standpoint] and from the tax increase,” Jackson said.
“I think there’s an opportunity for us to use our scale as the market leader to better navigate these tax changes – we’ve got a very sustainable and clear plan to mitigate the tax changes.
“We’re going to keep our foot down hard on the marketing and generosity side and we have other ways that we can help mitigate some of the increase in costs.
“I think we will deliver those first order cost savings and we expect to see some significant growth and benefits come to us. I think the team is doing a great job in the UK – we’ve migrated the Sky business over to the core operating platform, and so we’re now starting to see the sequential improvements you’d expect to see coming out of that significant shift.”
As touched on briefly already, it is not exactly plain sailing at Flutter at the moment.
Alongside that hefty $296m net loss – a $333m drop from Q2 2025’s $37m profit – came a plummeting EBITDA figure of $508m, which was a 45% decrease year-on-year.
Flutter has options
International seems to be doing a bit of heavy lifting as Flutter continues to undergo its sportsbook improvement plan and invest heavily in its primary US operations.
That is not to say international comes without its burdens – costs of acquisitions in Brazil, Italy and Serbia have hit margins in recent years, but it looks like at least some of those investments are coming to fruition.
The acquisition of Betnacional operator NSX Group to scale in Brazil has proven particularly beneficial, as revenue from the country increased 62% YoY to $72m.
Chief Financial Officer, Rob Coldrake, was particularly glowing in his review of Flutter’s Brazilian operations.
“We’ve been making really good progress in Brazil, although the overall market in Brazil has been slightly dampened by some recent regulatory changes, that I think people are aware of, in the market,” he affirmed.
“We think there’s huge growth opportunities [in Brazil] going forwards.”
Coldrake made clear that Brazil is not the only international market driving growth for Flutter.
He continued: “I think our Italian business is performing particularly strongly. We’ve continued to grow our number one position there, and that’s even in light of slightly slower growth in our SNAI business that we acquired last year, as we’ve migrated it onto the Sisal platform.
“If you look at the growth across Italy and also in Turkey, the growth has been phenomenal. There’s high inflation in Turkey but our growth has been 40% plus, and it’s been outstripping inflation there.
“Our CEE business, which we don’t talk about very much, has been growing phenomenally well too.”
Is a businesswide reevaluation needed?
So it seems that, despite such a heavy US push and FanDuel’s strong position there, Flutter is seeing growth opportunities in various other markets that are, in ways, outperforming the US.
Incoming CEO Taylor actually heads up Flutter International as CEO.
With Taylor at the helm from the beginning of October, it’d be slightly naive to suggest that a business evaluation and re-shift towards international operations – away from the US – could be on the cards soon.
Despite tough times, and unless there’s a drastic, drastic change, revenue will still arrive in bucketloads for Flutter – it came in at $4.326bn in the quarter alone, a quarter which has been heavily scrutinised due to the decline in share price and profit, as discussed above.
But there’s no doubt the business needs a period of stability, and it may just have to take a breather from a clear US-focused strategy to find the key to re-unlocking the growth it enjoyed since its pre-2019 days as Paddy Power Betfair.
There’s evidently a myriad of opportunities Stateside, but, to make clear, Flutter found ample success in its home market of the UK long before that.
It may do well to look back there as well as at other avenues, because growth does clearly exist away from the US, and leadership heavily acknowledged that when addressing their audience.