Flutter’s Risky New Bet: $296M Loss, Then a Prediction-Market Pivot

With a sole NYSE listing and new leadership in September, Flutter is pivoting from traditional sportsbooks to crypto-friendly prediction trading, a bold gamble as Kalshi and Polymarket do.

Q2 Financial Highlights

Flutter Entertainment posted Q2 revenue of approximately $4.326 billion, a 3% year-on-year increase. However, its adjusted EBITDA fell to $508 million, a steep 45% drop from the same period last year.

The group swung to a net loss of around $296 million, compared to a profit of approximately $37 million the previous year. Management attributed this decline to around $95 million in legal contingencies relating to India's Goods and Services Tax and US sales and use taxes.

Elevated interest and amortisation charges arising from recent M&A activity also impacted the quarterly results. This was compounded by ongoing investment in both American operations and the FanDuel Predicts offering.

Change at the Helm

Shares of Flutter Entertainment, the parent company of Paddy Power, tumbled after chief executive Peter Jackson announced his departure, as the betting giant reported $296 million loss for Q2.

Jackson will step down on September 30 and be succeeded by Dan Taylor, the current Group President who heads the firm's international operations.

In his statement, Jackson said that he believed the time was right to hand over the reins to Taylor after nearly 9 years in the role. However, his compensation package of $19.7 million last year made him the highest-paid executive at a publicly listed Irish company for the second consecutive year.

Flutter’s Key Priorities Today

On August 3, Flutter Entertainment completed the cancellation of its secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange, paving the way for its shares to trade exclusively on the New York Stock Exchange.

Nevertheless, Q2 revenue from the UK and Ireland rose 4% year-on-year, climbing to $971 million from $936 million, partly buoyed by the early kick-off of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which fell at the end of the quarter.

Despite the delisting, Flutter has made it abundantly clear that it has no intention of withdrawing from its UK and Irish operations. The shift to a sole NYSE listing also underscores the group's growing strategic emphasis on its US business, anchored primarily by FanDuel, which has scaled rapidly over recent years.

Flutter was among the first movers into the US market following the Supreme Court's 2018 decision to permit states to legalise sports betting. Today, however, the company finds itself grappling with a slowdown in US growth, even as it seeks to capitalise on the rising popularity of prediction markets.

Nevertheless, amid intensifying regulatory headwinds, US revenue dipped 6% to $1.683 billion, while adjusted EBITDA plummeted 70% to approximately $119 million.

Flutter attributed the sharp drop in adjusted EBITDA to substantial investments in FanDuel, including the rollout of the FanDuel Predicts app, a strategic response to prediction-market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket.

US sports-betting revenue itself fell 15% to about $1.039 billion, with unfavorable sporting outcomes chipping away roughly $21 million from the top line. Encouragingly, average monthly active players in the US sportsbook rose 8%, underscoring the resilience of customer engagement.

The biggest positive effect, which was quite expected, came from online gaming, where revenue rose 9% to approximately $1.935 billion, and US online-gaming revenue climbed 14% to nearly $577 million. FanDuel maintained its pole position in US online gaming, holding a 27% share of gross gaming revenue. Flutter also highlighted a successful launch in Alberta this July, following the opening of the Canadian market.

In light of these mixed results, the company trimmed its full-year revenue guidance to $17.91 billion.

Why Flutter Is Doubling Down on Prediction Markets

Despite these headwinds, Flutter remains confident in the long-term potential of the prediction marketы. Flutter is accelerating its push there, despite FanDuel losing profitability, a decelerating US sports-betting landscape, and the impending departure of chief executive Peter Jackson.

The company focuses on the following things:

• It continues to view prediction markets as complementary to its regulated sportsbook operations.

• FanDuel anticipates that sports and entertainment contracts will be migrated onto the Crypto.com exchange.

• The company is working on a unified app that will merge its sports-betting and prediction-platform offerings ahead of the NFL season kick-off.

It is worth noting that FanDuel, along with other sportsbooks that have moved into the prediction-market space — such as DraftKings and Fanatics — now faces competition from Kalshi, Polymarket, and a growing roster of new entrants in this sector.

‘We want to invest in the momentum we are seeing right now,’ said Jackson. ‘This is a proactive decision, driven by our long-term view of the US opportunity.’

Wrapping Up

Flutter's second-quarter scorecard is a study in contrasts. The company is sacrificing short-term profitability to plant its flag in prediction markets, betting that FanDuel's brand and technology can outmanoeuvre rivals like Polymarket. Yet with US sports betting decelerating, regulatory heat rising, and a new CEO taking the helm, execution risks are sky-high. Flutter has shown it can disrupt but now it must defend its turf while inventing a new game. The next twelve months will reveal whether this gamble pays off or if the house loses.