Flutter CEO concedes UK market share growth could become "more difficult" next year 

Flutter CEO Peter Jackson has conceded that he anticipates a difficult task when it comes to increasing the operator’s market share in the UK and Ireland (UKI) next year. 

Jackson spoke on Flutter’s Q3 earnings call after the operator’s UKI division noted a year-on-year (YoY) revenue rise of 18% to $846m (£664.6m).

The operator oversees a number of brands within the market, including Sky Bet, Paddy Power, tombola and Betfair, with revenue increases in both sports betting and online casino. 

Sports betting revenue was up 9% to $356m, with the arm driven by Euro 2024, while igaming revenue soared 29% to $454m.

Management also pointed to a 13% rise in average monthly players, with a 17% spike in the metric for igaming powered by “continuous product improvements being delivered across the igaming portfolio and strong cross-sell from sportsbook”.

Jackson declared he was “very pleased with the market share we continue to take” in the UKI but he did caveat that continued growth may not come at the same pace.

The CEO pointed to other major firms beginning to lap safer gambling measures that had been implemented, with Flutter one of the first firms to do so.

He said: “Clearly, as we get into 2025, we’ll start to annualise some of the changes that we know our competitors have made and I think it will become more difficult to grow market share at the same rate, although we shouldn’t underestimate how strong our product is in the market at the moment.

“I think that’s something we are really benefitting from, as well as the changes that we made to move early from a safer gambling perspective.” 

CFO Rob Coldrake also gave his stance on the company’s wider UKI efforts, as he insisted the operator has plenty of momentum heading into the new year. 

He said: “One thing that continues to perform extremely well in the UK is the gaming business, we’re up 29% overall there, but all brands were very strong again, which was very helpful for the result.” 

On the same call, analysts also took the opportunity to press both Jackson and Coldrake on their thoughts regarding the Labour government electing not to raise gaming duties as part of its first Budget since coming to power in the summer.

This was despite swathes of speculation suggesting the government was planning to heed advice from think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) to raise remote gaming duty from 21% to 50%, as well as doubling general betting duty to 30%. 

The Guardian had also reported the Treasury had explored a proposal from the Social Market Foundation which suggested hiking remote gaming duty to 42%. The initial report at the start of October sent London-listed operators’ shares sliding.

However, Reeves’ 168-page Budget did include two bullet points referencing a consultation regarding changing the current three-tax structure into a single tax, set to take place next year. That plan had previously been outlined by the Conservative government and then-Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

Pressed for comment on the recent Budget update, Jackson remarked: “I think it’s worth reminding that given our significant scale, we’re better placed to absorb any tax changes relative to the market and other competitors. 

“What the new government in the UK have effectively done has said they’re going to carry on with the work the preceding government were doing, which was to look at consolidating various tax rates in the UK. 

“They’re now consulting about that, so we’ll continue to engage with them.” 

Flutter’s London-listed shares are up 6.5% at the time of writing, with its primary listing now in New York.