Flutter awards £130m UK advertising account to EssenceMediacom

Flutter Entertainment has appointed EssenceMediacom, the flagship media planning and buying agency of WPP Plc, to manage its entire UK advertising account.

The FTSE100 gambling group maintains a prior relationship with Mediacom, the agency that consolidated the Paddy Power and Betfair advertising accounts in 2016 as part of the group’s +£100m post-merger synergies strategy.

Subsequent M&As undertaken by Flutter saw Mediacom take control of the Sky Betting and Gaming (Sky Bet) and PokerStars UK advertising accounts in 2019.

Last summer, Group M, the investment arm of WPP, ordered the advertising group to consolidate its business by merging its two leading media agencies to form EssenceMedia.com.

Flutter has charged EssenceMediacom with handling its £130m UK adspend account, taking control of the media planning for its UK brands of Betfair, Paddy Power, Sky Bet and Tombola.

Set to be launched in January 2023, EssenceMediacom is a +10,000 staffed advertising agency, expert in handling multi-million advertising accounts for mass market clients such as Google, NBC Universal, Mars and PlayStation.

“EssenceMediacom will champion creative innovation to find new sources of growth from Flutter’s new and existing audiences,” read Flutter’s statement.

“We’re constantly looking to find new opportunities to entertain our loyal customers and new audiences, and we’re really excited by the vision EssenceMediacom set out, reimagining our entire setup and approach to campaigns, from the audiences and planning process down to the way we brief.”