Flutter lauds FanDuel business’ growth as sportsbook market share exceed 50%

FanDuel parent company Flutter Entertainment has applauded the performance of its US market-leading brand as H1 2022 revenue rose 50% year-on-year while its sportsbook total market share hit 51%.

FanDuel accounted for 97% of Flutter’s total US revenue and 80% of the adjusted EBITDA of the division during the H1 period. The arm generated £1bn in revenue and an EBITDA loss of £132m over the same period.

The FTSE 100 operator highlighted efficient customer acquisition coupled with both good customer economics and operating efficiencies as driving strong performance in the US business, yet the cost of its New York sportsbook launch offset these gains over the H1 period.

According to figures provided by the firm, FanDuel now has a 51% share of the online sportsbook market in the US and an overall combined market share (inclusive of igaming) of 36%.

US sports revenue grew by 58% during H1, with sportsbook revenue increasing by 91%, driven by a year on year doubling of staking to $14.2bn.

FanDuel also benefitted from launches in five US states as well as Canada, and a full six-months of revenue from Michigan and Virginia, which launched part way during Q1 2021.

US: FanDuel is clear number one operator in US Source: Flutter H1 2022 investor presentation

Gaming revenue was 31% higher driven by an increase in AMPs (active monthly players) of 40% and the full six months of revenue from the three additional gaming states launched in the prior year: Michigan (Q1 2021), West Virginia (Q2 2021), and Connecticut (Q4 2021).

Speaking as part of Flutter Entertainment’s H1 2022 financial results, group CEO Peter Jackson said he was “very pleased” with how the business performed, insisting that it was maintaining the same marketing strategy despite the stiffer contribution from the rest of the market.

“We’ve been very disciplined ever since we started FanDuel, and going through the journey into sports betting, ensuring that we acquired customers with the right ratio between the acquisition costs to lifetime values, and that’s something that we’ve done with every NFL season.

“That’s something we’ll do this year as well, this year will be a little bit more unusual because we have the midterm elections in America, which will have an impact on the advertising market, but we’ve pre-bought a lot of our advertising positions.

“We’re excited to continue to take our great product to the market and we’re very pleased with the way in which we’re continuing to grow in in all of the states across the US,” Jackson added.

US: customer cohorts create virtuous cycle of value creation- Source: Flutter Entertainment

Expanding on this, Jackson suggested FanDuel would “lean in hard” during H2 because of the returns generated through active customer acquisition and the abundant opportunities seen during H1.

“Competitors may not have the advantages that we have in terms of being able to monetize customers as effectively and are having to pay higher acquisition costs because they don’t have our DFS base to cross-sell into,” Jackson explained.

“The start of the NFL season is such an important customer acquisition point in the year for US sports betting, so we still expect there to be a very competitive start of season.

“While people may have pulled back to an extent in Q2, we certainly expect and our planning that it will be a highly competitive start to the NFL season.

“I think it will be every single year. We have to be very clear, we’ve got to win again, and we’re going to earn the right to win.

Jackson continued: “We shouldn’t be in any way complacent by a very strong Q2 performance, and we’ve got to be really focused on winning again at the start of season and NFL because I’m sure everybody will come out with guns blazing again.

“We need to stay pretty focused on that at this point from a team perspective, having said that we’ve got a great plan for the start of NFL,” he added.