Flutter Entertainment swings loss to profit in fourth quarter
Flutter Entertainment, the parent company of FanDuel, reversed a US$902 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2023 to a US$156 million profit a year later. The news was disclosed after the close of financial markets on March 4.
In addition, Flutter grew revenue 14% to US$3.7 billion. Cash flow was up 4% to US$655 million, with free cash flow of US$473 million. The cash flow margin was 17.3%, a slight narrowing from the fourth quarter of 2023.
Profit was grown in part through an acquired intangibles amortization charge of US$134 million. The 2023 fourth-quarter loss had been swollen by a one-time impairment charge to the tune of US$725 million.
Chief Executive Officer Peter Jackson said, “I am proud of the progress we made during 2024 as we delivered against our strategic priorities and enhanced our leadership positions. Outside of the US, our commitment to first-to-market product innovation led to market share gains in key markets including the UK and Italy, while in Australia, we saw encouraging trends in our player base.”
FanDuel reported 49% revenue share of US sports betting and 26% of igaming. The revenue increase was achieved in spite of a string of bettor-favorable NFL game results, the worst in 20 years, according to Flutter.
Growth of handle slowed but managed 12%. Flutter said it “reflected a combination of factors including an additional round of NFL games in the prior comparable quarter and continued migration of customer spend to higher-revenue margin, but lower-handle Same Game Parlay products.”
Management declared “strong performances in Italy, India, Turkey, Georgia and Brazil.” However, the Australian market was adversely affected by soft racing demand, although Flutter stated that player trends continued to be strong.
Flutter execs called the Australian decline to be in line with their expectations. That was made up in the US, where “we saw strong engagement on sports including NRL, NBA and NFL, with our leading product offering also delivering sustained improvements to structural gross revenue margin.”
Previewing 2025, Flutter reported that “results have been broadly neutral year-to-date with a positive outcome on Super Bowl LIX offset by customer friendly sports results in January.” Non-US outcomes were said to be reflective of a strong customer base in the final trimester of 2024, carried over into this year.
“We have had a great start to 2025, including record levels of customer engagement for the Super Bowl where FanDuel had three million active customers placing 17.7 million bets with US$470 million wagered on the day,” said Jackson. “I am excited to build on this strong momentum.”
Looking ahead to the balance of 2025, Flutter executives pointed to previous, investor day guidance. That includes cash flow of US$1.4 billion and revenue on the order of US$7.7 billion.
Leadership modeled US $40 million in negative revenue and US$90 million in adverse cash flow from new territory launches in Missouri and Alberta. Those numbers were predicated on Missouri not launching sports betting until October at the earliest and Alberta coming on line in early 2026.
Read more: Flutter executives spar with analysts during earnings call
David McKee is an award-winning journalist who has three decades of experience covering the gaming industry.
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