Gambling company Flutter on Tuesday predicted a near threefold increase in profit this year in the US states where it operates, highlighting the Ireland-based group’s upbeat expectations for growth.
The owner of US online betting platform FanDuel said it expected this year to generate $1.4bn of adjusted core profit in the US states that it entered before 2022 — including New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Illinois — compared to $507mn in 2024. This would represent 44 per cent of predicted group profit in 2025.
Flutter, which switched its primary listing from London to New York last year, expects adjusted group core profit of $3.2bn in 2025, which would be a 34 per cent increase compared to 2024. Revenue is predicted to rise by 13 per cent to $15.9bn.
The company reported net profit of $162mn for 2024, compared to a loss of $1.2bn in 2023, which had been driven by impairment charges on one of its online casino brands. Revenues rose 19 per cent to $14bn last year.
Legal sports betting in the US has been growing rapidly since 2018 when the Supreme Court struck down a federal law that had banned such wagering across most of the country.
“We see strong growth in the revenues . . . and margins in existing [US] states [where Flutter operates],” chief executive Peter Jackson told the Financial Times.
He added that Flutter was growing its customer base in the US, but it also had a “cohort of customers who we have on the books, spending more money with us year-over-year”.
Flutter expects to incur costs of $90mn this year in the US as it launches in more states — including Missouri — but Jackson said the company would secure payback on those expenses within two years.
In January, Flutter warned of a hit to its profits in 2024 from a hot streak of winning bets by US customers on American football.
It said the 2024-25 NFL American football season had so far been the most “customer friendly” since the launch of online sports betting, with the highest rate of favourites winning in nearly 20 years.
Jackson said on Tuesday that bookmakers had to accept that sports results were “inherently volatile”, but added that Flutter’s global diversification, including its focus on the English Premier League, had helped the company offset the negative US impact.
In the fourth quarter, despite the NFL results, Flutter’s US revenue was up 14 per cent compared to one year earlier, with the company making money on other sporting events.