FLUTTER PLANS UP TO 1,400 JOB CUTS

Flutter plans to cut up to 1,400 jobs in its UK and Ireland business, citing higher taxes on online gambling. The company owns Paddy Power, Sky Bet, Betfair and Tombola. The proposed cuts affect staff in the UK and Ireland and British and Irish employees at European sites. Locations identified include Leeds, Sunderland, London, Dublin, Porto and Cluj in Romania, as well as Gibraltar and Malta. Kevin Harrington, chief executive of Flutter’s UK and Ireland business, said the company “cannot fully absorb a rise of this magnitude without reducing our fixed cost base”.

The tax changes announced in former chancellor Rachel Reeves’s last Budget raised remote gaming duty from 21% to 40%. Duty on online sports betting will rise from 15% to 25% next April, with horse racing exempt from that increase. Harrington said the changes had “fundamentally changed” the UK industry’s economic model and helped fuel unlicensed gambling. Flutter has previously estimated that the increases would cost it just over £400 million in 2027. The company employs 28,500 people worldwide, including 9,000 in the UK and Ireland, but has not specified which roles it plans to cut.

The announcement follows Flutter’s review of 100 Paddy Power shops in the UK and Ireland, which is expected to result in 400 job cuts. Bet365 plans to cut 300 jobs at its Stoke-on-Trent headquarters. Betfred said in July that it would close 132 shops, resulting in 600 job losses. Flutter left the London Stock Exchange in August, and its shares now trade solely in New York.