Flutter shares slump as CEO Peter Jackson to leave gambling giant next month

CEO confirms exit as group reports near €260m loss and cuts forecasts again in ongoing battle to compete in prediction markets

Peter Jackson, chief executive of Paddy Power owner, Flutter Entertainment, has announced he will step down next month. Photograph: Carlotta Cardona/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Peter Jackson, chief executive of Paddy Power owner, Flutter Entertainment, has announced he will step down next month. Photograph: Carlotta Cardona/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Paddy Power owner Flutter Entertainment’s stock tumbled on Wednesday after chief executive Peter Jackson said he would leave the business and the betting giant reported a €256 million loss for the three months to June 30th.

Jackson will step down on September 30th with company veteran, Dan Taylor, the group’s president and head of its international businesses, taking over, a statement confirmed.

The Irish-based group reported that it lost $296 million (€256 million) in the second quarter, down from a $37 million profit during the same period in 2025.

Revenues rose 3 per cent to $4.3 billion from $4.2 billion in the year ago period.

The group cut its full-year profit forecast to $2.66 billion from the $2.87 billion it flagged in May – the fourth consecutive quarter in which the group has reduced guidance for future earnings.

Flutter Entertainment shares had shed 12 per cent to $92.28 in New York shortly after 6pm Irish time. Its stock has fallen 65 per cent over the last 12 months as the group’s fortunes shifted in the US, its single biggest market.

In a statement, Jackson said he believed it was the right time to hand over to Taylor after almost nine years in the role. His $19.7 million (€17.2 million) remuneration package last year made him the highest paid boss of an Irish publicly-quoted business for the second year in succession.

“The board ​and I have agreed that now is the right time for a new leader to guide Flutter into ‌its next chapter,” Jackson told news agency Reuters when asked if the decision to leave was his.

Flutter has been battling plateauing growth in the US while it has struggled to tap into the increased popularity there of prediction markets, which allow punters to bet on everything from sports to the weather.

Taylor will have to reverse the trend and combat the challenge posed by Polymarket and Kalshi which dominate those markets. Flutter has launched its own prediction market app, FanDuel Predicts.

Flutter’s management reshuffle puts focus on chief executive Peter JacksonOpens in new window ]

Jackson joined Flutter more than 10 years ago and was responsible for the division that included bookie Paddy Power and betting exchange, Betfair, the businesses with which its Irish customers are most familiar.

He took on an expanded role in May with responsibility for turning around the group’s embattled US operations.

Jackson noted that Flutter had changed “beyond recognition” in his time, evolving from Irish and UK-focused Paddy Power Betfair to “the world’s leading online sports betting and igaming operator”.

Chairman John Bryant noted that Jackson had turned the group into the world’s biggest digital betting company, growing revenues to $16 billion a year from $2 billion when he took over nine years ago.

Dublin-headquartered Flutter was one of the first to move into the US market following a 2018 US supreme court ruling that allowed individual states to legalise sports betting.

The Irish group bought local operator, FanDuel, which it used as a vehicle to establish digital sports betting businesses in states as they lifted betting bans, often earning it market-leading positions.

But US revenue slipped 6 per cent to $1.7 billion in the second quarter, the latest results show. Flutter partly blamed results favouring punters for the slide.

Irish and British revenues rose 4 per cent to $971 million from $936 million, partly aided by a strong start to the World Cup, which was under way as the quarter ended on June 30th.

Overall international revenue, which includes Ireland and Britain, rose 10 per cent to $2.6 billion from $2.4 billion during the same quarter in 2025.

An increase in UK digital betting duty to 40 per cent and a boost to marketing spend in advance of the World Cup cut earnings before interest and write-offs by 19 per cent to $476 million.

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Barry O'Halloran

Barry O'Halloran

Barry O’Halloran covers energy, construction, insolvency, and gaming and betting, among other areas