Betfair owner Flutter shares dive despite US growth
Like Tyson Fury knocking out Deontay Wilder, Betfair-owner Flutter Entertainment faced its own beating yesterday on the London Stock Exchange following its full year results.
Despite monthly players growing 23 per cent to 7.6 million and an immense market share in the US, investors were far from impressed by the London-listed company’s announcement.
Chief financial officer Jonathan Hill called 2021 a “tale of three quarters and one quarter”, referring to the challenging final quarter for Flutter. He explained that whilst it viewed the year as largely a success, the final quarter led to a mighty slump.
The main culprit was a spell of unfavourable results for the gambling giant: the infamous Fury fight last October led to Flutter’s biggest loss of the year in UK and Ireland.
Meanwhile, five out of the six Premier League favourites won on Boxing Day, driving hefty losses on what should have been one of the highest turnover days of the year for Flutter. In all, punter-friendly wins cost it £232m in revenue.
All of this spells danger for a group that is already grappling with the slowing demand for online betting, as well as an impending Gambling Review that could totally shake up the industry.
Even chief exec Peter Jackson conceded that betting was likely to “remain flat” in the coming year and added: “People have more places that they can spend their time and money.”
However, brokers at Peel Hunt stated that Flutter’s increased focus on safer gambling moving forward would be “key to the sustainability of the business”, and stuck to its ‘Buy’ rating.
Another shining light for the group was its US-based gem FanDuel. Indeed, this year’s Super Bowl was a “watershed” moment for the company, with the betting app raking in a whopping eight billion bets for the Sunday game, double the year before