Record Super Bowl and number of monthly players at gambling giant as US deregulation increases
The company behind betting brands Betfair, Paddy Power, PokerStars and Tombola broke new records amid deregulation in the US.
The FTSE 100 constituent company and world’s largest listed gambling company, Flutter, had a record Super Bowl and its highest number of average monthly players in the final quarter of 2022, its preliminary results for the year said.
There were 12.1 million average monthly players from October to December last year.
The trend has continued into 2023, the results showed with the company acquiring more than 1.2 million customers so far this year.
Many US states have liberalised their gambling laws and an estimated $16bn (£13.35bn) was spent on Super Bowl gambling, outpacing the previous record from the year before.
Since Super Bowl 2021, new betting markets opened in Kansas, Ohio, Maryland and Massachusetts where either in person or mobile sports betting – or a combination of both – was introduced.
The increased customer numbers and Super Bowl performance came thanks to “leveraging our number one FanDuel brand”, the results read.
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Similarly, the World Cup drove “strong” average monthly users in the UK and Irish market which, Flutter said, partly offset safer gambling initiatives.
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Internationally – outside of the US – Flutter faces “regulatory headwinds” but the business said it is pleased with its performance.
A much-delayed review of the UK’s £10bn gambling industry could arrive by the end of this month. Expected in the gambling white paper is a levy to fund health initiatives and tighter financial checks for customers.
The document had already been held up in Downing Street because of senior Tories opposing regulations on businesses before it was delayed due to the Conservative leadership election.
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Flutter hopes to cement its position in the US by also listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
Shareholders had been consulted as part of the process. In Thursday’s results Flutter said it reached a preliminary view “that an additional US listing of Flutter’s ordinary shares will yield a number of long-term strategic and capital market benefits”.
It’s just the latest company to consider moving part or all of is shares to New York.
Speaking on the Ian King Live show, the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange said more could be done to make London an attractive financial centre and there there are “questions as to how pensions should be managed in this country and if they’re being managed in an appropriate way”.
But David Schwimmer also said some firms will simply move to the US as that is where their business is and that London is “the most international financial centre in the world”.
