Paddy Power owner scores US revenue boost
THE owner of Paddy Power and Betfair has charged through to deliver a touchdown in the US, with a 45% boost in revenue there in the first quarter.
Flutter’s US sales rose from £288 million to £429 million in the first three months of the year with a 43% rise in average monthly players to 2.36 million.
Gambling stakes in the territory, where Flutter owns platform FanDuel, more than doubled to £5.7 billion on the back of big ticket events including the Super Bowl, which saw the company enjoy its best ever day for new sign-ups.
The group itself recorded revenue growth of 6%, rising £1.49 billion to £1.57 billion in the first quarter of 2022.
Growth came from “recreational player momentum” as average monthly players grew by 15% to 8.85 million.
In the UK and Ireland, Flutter reported a 15% rise in average monthly players 3.63 million but revenue slipped 20% to £453 million as the end of pandemic restrictions led to weaker demand for recreational games and sports betting.
Peter Jackson, CEO of Flutter Entertainment, said: “The frequency with which customers are engaging on the [online] platform in what we would describe as the ‘ covid unwind’, where with the UK in lockdown customers increased their frequency of engagement, that’s now moderated and come back again to the levels that we had seen previously pre-Covid.”
Addressing the ongoing cost of living crisis in the UK and how it could affect the business, Jackson added: “There’s no doubt that the cost of living will impact customers’ expenditure. There’s significant increases that customers are having to stomach around energy and a number of other items, and the extent to which that impacts our business, we’ll have to see.”
Flutter shares were up more than 5% in early trading today
Success in the US market may help quell a proxy rebellion brewing among shareholders regarding a proposed 26% basic salary hike for Jackson and a 20% increase to chief financial officer Jonathan Hill.