Online sports betting and gaming company Flutter Entertainment has raised its full-year financial forecast after the group (now listed on the New York Stock Exchange) "performed beyond all market expectations" in the second quarter. Revenue was $3.6 billion, up 20% year-over-year, with the average monthly number of players increasing by 17%, reaching 14.3 million.
Despite a non-cash impact of $147 million due to the amortization of intangible assets acquired, Flutter's Fox Option liabilities generated a fair value gain of $91 million, but net profit still increased from $64 million in the second quarter of 2023 to $297 million. The group's EBITDA grew by 17%, reaching $738 million.
FanDuel's revenue in the US grew by 39%, reaching $1.52 billion. Flutter stated that this brand accounted for 38% of the total online gaming revenue (GGR), with a 51% share of net gaming revenue and a 25% share of igaming GGR. It highlighted FanDuel Casino's migration to a proprietary system. Its second-quarter revenue reached $357 million.
In the UK and Ireland, revenue was $928 million, up 18% year-over-year, thanks to strong trading for the 2024 European Championship. Sports betting revenue increased by 12%, reaching $451 million. This quarter, Sky Bet launched QuickBuild, a "more intuitive same-game multi-bet experience," while Paddy Power benefited from the launch of Super Sub in March. Igaming revenue in the UK and Ireland grew by 25%, reaching $423 million.
Flutter's international division reported revenue of $807 million, an increase of 11%, thanks to the addition of Serbia's MaxBet, which added two percentage points to the annual revenue growth. Particularly strong revenue growth was seen in Georgia (+20%), Spain (+11%), and Brazil (+11%), while revenue in India fell by 8% due to tax changes in the fourth quarter of 2023. In Turkey, revenue grew by 35% in fixed currency terms, but reported revenue fell by 13% due to currency depreciation.
Group CEO Peter Jackson stated: "Flutter has achieved another strong performance this quarter, exceeding expectations, with both revenue and adjusted EBITDA forecasts raised as we continue to leverage our global scale and Flutter Edge.
"We reached significant milestones in the second quarter, with the New York Stock Exchange becoming our primary listing location, and we relocated our operational headquarters to New York. This reflects the importance of the US market to Flutter and our belief that the US is the natural home for our business."
He added: "Our performance in both new and existing states in the US has been outstanding, reflecting our rigorous approach to customer acquisition and top-tier products, offering the most competitive prices in the market for our sports betting customers.
"We continue to improve our proprietary products, which resulted in a live betting ratio during the NBA playoffs that was over 400 basis points higher than last year. We also increased our MLB multi-bet penetration. The returns we are seeing give us confidence to continue driving customer acquisition in the second half of the year, building a bigger business, which bodes well for 2025 and beyond."
Jackson concluded: "We look forward to elaborating on this growth potential and the capital allocation opportunities to be unlocked at Flutter's Investor Day in New York on September 25."
