Flutter Entertainment kicked off 2026 with a 17% year-on-year (YoY) jump in Q1 revenue, but a softer US sportsbook performance and lowered guidance delivered a blow to the dual-listed operator’s share price yesterday, 6 May. There is upheaval, too, with FanDuel CEO Amy Howe replaced by president Christian Genetski, and the sportsbook team restructured.
Prediction markets remain the hot topic, with FanDuel Predicts benefitting from Flutter’s new ‘One App’ plan, while market-making opportunities are now being talked about as new revenue streams. M&A in the International arm has served the group well, as shown by Southern Europe and Africa revenue surging 110%.
Here, EGR picks through the operator’s earnings call, as CEO Peter Jackson and CFO Rob Coldrake laid out the vision for 2026.
Predictions, predictions, predictions
Once again, prediction markets could have probably taken up most of this article. As the topic du jour, predicts/prediction/predictions racked up 36 mentions during the call. To be clear, FanDuel Predicts, which went live in December, offers sports event contracts in non-sportsbook US states via a JV with CME Group, while financial-related event contracts are live in states with legalised sports betting.
At the Q4 2025 earnings, Flutter bosses said they expected to spend close to $300m on the prediction markets product in 2026. Around $40m (£29.4m) was deployed in Q1, management confirmed on the call yesterday. The investment will ramp up, particularly in H2 before the NFL’s return in September. CFO Rob Coldrake said: “We will invest behind the World Cup, and we expect to ramp [up] our spend slightly from where it’s been in Q1. We also retain the right to flex that. We really want to get behind the start of the NFL season. We need to make sure we’ve got the right products in place to do that. We’ll be looking at the prediction investment alongside what we’re doing in our sportsbook as well.”
The legality of sports event contracts remains up in the air, though, with state gaming regulators accusing prediction markets of being sports betting dressed up as financial products, regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Jackson pointed to the US Supreme Court eventually getting involved, mirroring expectations from stakeholders the case could be heard before the end of the decade. Jackson added: “I’m excited about the incremental opportunity this presents for us. Until we get through and understand ultimately what the Supreme Court says, I think we’re going to live with this uncertainty. In the meantime, we’re going to continue to invest in the market.”
However, while the opportunity exists, it hasn’t all been plain sailing. Jackson said there remains challenges around offering combos (accumulators/parlays). “I’m confident our teams have the capability to deliver great user experience and products for our customers,” the CEO added. He pointed to the recent soft-launch of Betfair’s prediction markets-style product as an indicator of expertise in the business and the speed at which teams can move. Finally, on the prediction markets beat, Flutter said it has begun market-making services on a “major third-party platform in April” and that “early indicators have been encouraging”.
I love it when a plan comes together
A 1% YoY uptick in US sportsbook revenue is not something Flutter has been accustomed to in recent years. Revenue hit $1.1bn, though actives were down 6%; handle slipped 9% and structural revenue margin fell 40 basis points to 13.7%. Management said there was now a “clear sportsbook improvement plan” in place, focused on generosity and product. Add in the fact the sportsbook team has been restructured, as well as the leadership change at the top of FanDuel, and Flutter declared it was “best positioned to deliver our plans”. The rollout of Bet Protect+ has been received positively by customers, with the athlete injury insurance mechanic proving popular, despite some criticism over the fact it is a paid-for feature, compared to free alternatives at the likes of Fanatics.
Jackson said: “The sportsbook improvement plan is working. We started to see some of those sequential benefits of it in the quarter. I’m excited to see what we can do with our loyalty programme as that launches and rolls out through the course of the year.
“I would describe the intentions of the team as being on where we focus on the customer-first approach. The Bet Protect+ product was important as we needed to deal with the issue of injuries, which has been a real challenge for us in the market. I think we’ve got a great solution in place. We’ve seen twice the levels of engagement that we had expected with the product already. This isn’t a fundamental change in posture of margin and generosity or anything like that. We know what we need to do around loyalty. We know what we need to do around injury.”
The wider loyalty programme, which was called out during the earnings as lacking, is set be married with “core product hygiene”, Jackson noted, which gives customers a positive experience. Those improvements include the FanDuel iOS app launching in “less than two seconds”, full-screen streaming, improved bet tracking and simplified bet builders within live betting. New football products are due for the upcoming World Cup, too. “The cadence of the delivery of this is all being improved with our investment and focus on AI. The throughput we are seeing from a product perspective is stepping up materially,” the CEO added.
I’ve got an app-etite
In March at DraftKings Investor Day, bosses laid out plans for a new ‘Super App’ to combine the Boston-based business’ sportsbook, casino, lottery and prediction markets products in “one seamless, integrated experience”. DraftKings management said they expected the change to “strengthen cross-sell, deepen customer engagement and optimise unit economics across verticals”. Not to be left behind by its primary rival, Flutter unveiled the ‘One App’ in the US. It which means customers in non-sportsbook states can use the FanDuel sportsbook app to access prediction markets via FanDuel Predicts.
The long-term goal is the shift serves as a customer acquisition funnel, allowing the US market leader to tap into its nationwide brand awareness. Jackson called the launch a “great step” and “important progress”. And while not a true like-for-like of the DraftKings product, there was a more downplayed tone to the ‘One App’ approach. The prospect of California or Texas legalising online sports betting is a long way off, the Seminole’s monopoly in Florida seems impenetrable and Georgia continues to stumble in passing legislation. While converting prediction markets users to sports betting customer in those states is, in theory, a sound strategy, the timeline is harder to decipher.
Jackson remarked: “We are focused on the delivery of the One App. It is in the market now. That lets us utilise and leverage the FanDuel brand nationally. Wherever you are [in the US], you can open the FanDuel app and access either regulated sports betting or you can access our Predicts product.
“We want to acquire as many customers as we can through that platform. We know the FanDuel brand resonates very well. We’re improving the quality of our Predicts experience for customers. We know how to do this. Our intention is to build a great sports experience for customers wherever they are in America, and that’s what we’re going to do with the One App.”
Green shoots in a green and pleasant land
The UK got a solitary callout in the Q&A section of the call thanks to a question from JP Morgan’s Estelle Weingrod. The focus, as it has been for some time, is on the US. So much so, Flutter’s secondary listing in London could be terminated. The segment reported a revenue increase of 2% YoY to $900m, though sports betting was down 11%. Flutter runs Sky Betting & Gaming, Paddy Power, tombola and Betfair in the market, and has seen Entain claw back market share over the past 12 months. The remote gaming duty hike from 21% to 40% kicked in on 1 April, with Jackson stating he expects the business to “benefit from second order market share gains over time”.
On the challenges in the UK, the CEO added: “The biggest drag on performance in the UK is Sky Betting & Gaming. It’s an area where we’re now seeing sequential improvements. Since the [platform] migration, we’ve seen a big step change. We’ve had the highest customer acquisition volumes for five years on the brand. Sky Gaming has now got more than one million customers.
“From my perspective, it feels very similar to the experience we had after the Paddy Power migration. There was a first-year reset. We obviously saw very strong performance subsequently. We’ve now got a great product for Sky customers. I think we’re starting to see some of the green shoots come through.”
Art of the deal
M&A proved beneficiary for Flutter in Q1, with its acquisitions of Snaitech and Betnacional parent NSX Group driving significant gains in South Europe and Africa (SEA) and the Brazil segments. SEA revenue rose 110% YoY to $940m, while Brazil soared 772% to $74m, albeit from a low base. Flutter has successfully deployed M&A to bolster its position in core markets, with Sisal being snapped up in Italy back in 2021 to give the operator a strong position on the boot.
Expansions into the Balkans (MaxBet) and a diversification in the UK (tombola) are other examples of well-deployed capital. When asked by Macquarie’s Chad Beynon if Flutter could take advantage of “depressed values in the market”, Jackson was coy in his reply. Remember, Flutter’s own stock is down more than 50% in the past 12 months.
He said: “We have done plenty of deals. We’ve been really pleased with the progress we’re making with the integration in Brazil. It’s going to be great to see the benefits of the pricing and promo capabilities go into that business. Ahead of the World Cup, I think it is going to be exciting to see what Snaitech does with all of the capabilities we will give them access to now that the migration happened successfully.
“There’s a lot for us to after across the business. We are always open to M&A if we think the prices are right. I think they’re right now. For us, we are continuing to focus on those integrations. There’s a lot to do. We also need to acknowledge our [debt] leverage. There’s a focus at the moment on deleveraging.”
The post Five things we learned from Flutter’s Q1 earnings first appeared on EGR Intel.
News editor Joe Levy digs into the multi-brand operator’s latest report and analyst call, with a focus on prediction markets spend, UK green shoots and sports betting strategy in the US
The post Five things we learned from Flutter’s Q1 earnings first appeared on EGR Intel.