Peter Jackson, CEO of Flutter Entertainment, hailed an “excellent” third quarter in a November 12 earnings call. He also took the occasion to announce Flutter’s first-ever stock repurchase, effective November 14. The company will be buying back $350 million in shares, the first of a series of tranches.
The third quarter was, Jackson said, “ahead of market expectations. The business is very well positioned for further growth. Customer economics have also remained compelling.”
Jackson said he was “delighted” with the passage of sports betting in Missouri, where he expects wagering to go live in the summer of 2025. Regarding the narrow margin of victory, he said, “We only needed to win by a vote. Joking aside, we’re very pleased [Amendment 2] was passed.”
In the United Kingdom, the CEO perceived “strong growth across both sports lottery and igaming,” including a 102 percent increase in single-game parlays. In Australia, the horse racing market was down eight percent, but the future looked “encouraging.”
As for the U.K. government’s White Paper on gambling, a holdover from the Rishi Sunak administration, Coldrake would not be drawn out. “We’re early in the second year of an anticipated multi-year consultation” with 10 Downing Street, he said, hewing to previous earnings guidance.
CFO Rob Coldrake said the U.S. performance “exceeded our expectations,” helped by positive sports outcomes. Igaming growth was reported to be 46 percent domestically.
Coldrake guided Wall Street analysts toward a full-year result of US$6.1 billion revenue, plus another $8.2 billion worldwide, adding, “This guidance demonstrates strong momentum across the group.”
Jackson applauded U.S.’s “pricing accuracy. That’s what’s driving the material differential that you’re seeing.” Coldrake added that FanDuel’s promotional outlays were consistent with a strategy of giving back more as a result of bookmaker-friendly outcomes.
“We had a good run in Q3,” Coldrake said, explaining that promotional generosity was a way of encouraging customers to reinvest with FanDuel. “We’re doing well in both market payback and generosity and don’t see any need to change that.”
“We’ve got by far the best product and pricing in the market,” Jackson resumed, “and that’s what’s standing us in good stead.” With regard to pricing of wagers, he added, “It’s really, really important when we’re taking these complicated parlay bets that we’re pricing as accurately as possible,” because it limits potential downside. “The fact that we lead the market in parlays compounds the benefit,” interjected Coldrake.
The latter offered no guidance for 2025, deferring that to the fourth quarter. Likewise, Flutter executives were no more than vague about FanDuel’s prospects in Florida, beyond Jackson saying, “FanDuel supports and partners with tribes throughout the U.S.”
Queried about the impact of higher taxes in Illinois, Coldrake said he hadn’t seen anything in the Land of Lincoln to compel him to alter his previous guidance.
Jackson was asked whether FanDuel would be affected by its inclusion as a sponsor of two Netflix-streamed NFL games on Christmas Day. He replied that he’d known about it for some time and it was factored into earlier earnings guidance.
When one stock analyst voiced doubts as to whether Brazil would launch sports betting on schedule, Coldrake said he was still expecting a January 1 inception. “We’re planning on that basis. We’re very confident about our approach in Brazil,” including the purchase of NSX.
Jackson, meanwhile, fielded a question about whether Fox would exercise its option to buy into Flutter. He replied, “You need to ask Fox what they intend to do.”
