Flutter to cut up to 1,400 UK and Ireland jobs in restructure

Flutter Entertainment is to shed as many as 1,400 jobs from its UK and Ireland (UKI) division, with staff in Dublin, Leeds, Porto and Cluj-Napoca all affected by the cuts.

The division, which runs Paddy Power, Sky Betting & Gaming, Betfair and tombola, currently has around 9,000 staff. Flutter also employs UKI-facing staff out of Gibraltar and Malta. Group-wide, an SEC filing tied to its 2025 annual report put total headcount at 28,518 across 27 countries.

Flutter pointed to the sharp rise in UK gambling duties confirmed in last November's Autumn Budget as the driver behind the cuts. EGR, which first reported the story, understands management briefed affected departments at a meeting held at 10am on 20 October.

Restructuring is expected to cost Flutter between $80m and $90m, a figure already folded into the guidance given alongside its second-quarter results, with the spending to land in the fourth quarter of 2026.

UKI chief executive Kevin Harrington said his priority was “providing the necessary support for all of our impacted colleagues and guiding our teams through what we know is going to be a difficult and challenging period for all concerned.” He added that the Budget's duty rise “has fundamentally changed the economic model of the regulated betting and gaming industry in the UK while helping to fuel the unlicensed, unregulated market,” and said Flutter “cannot fully absorb a rise of this magnitude without reducing our fixed cost base.” Harrington said the group still expects to gain market share as the UK's largest operator.

The UKI arm brought in $971m of revenue in the second quarter of 2026, roughly 22% of group turnover. EGR had earlier reported that up to 220 UKI roles were at risk this year, with those cuts expected over the summer and linked partly to Flutter's move onto a single technology platform as well as tax pressure.

Dan Taylor became Flutter's group chief executive at the start of October, taking over from long-serving boss Peter Jackson. The company's market value has fallen sharply over the past year, from more than $50bn in late summer 2025 to $13.4bn now, with the shares down 64% in 2026 to date.

Flutter's announcement lands amid a wider regulatory squeeze on UK operators. Remote gaming duty jumped from 21% to 40% in April, and remote betting duty outside horseracing is set to climb from 15% to 25% the following April. Flutter said it expects the tax changes to have a “very significant impact on the overall market.”

Rivals have made similar moves this year. Entain cut 500 roles, about 2% of its global online workforce, in July, then announced a further 400 job losses two months later. bet365 said in August it would remove 340 positions across its European operations, including 300 at its Stoke-on-Trent headquarters, citing “increased regulatory- and tax-related costs.” The Betting and Gaming Council said in September that 11,000 jobs had already been lost since the November 2025 Budget raised online duty rates.

Land-based operators face a further threat from a possible doubling of machine games duty on category B machines in betting shops, casinos, bingo halls and adult gaming centres. The Social Market Foundation, which backed the earlier online duty rise, has argued that lifting the rate from 20% to 40% could raise up to £458m in extra tax, assuming every venue stays open.

The BGC has countered with EY modelling suggesting a rise to 40% could cost 16,000 jobs and threaten roughly 1,500 betting shops and 34 casinos with closure, leaving the Treasury £124m worse off overall. Betfred founder Fred Done has said 495 shops, or 45% of his retail estate, would shut if the duty is doubled, while JenningsBet chief executive Greg Knight warned in an EGR op-ed earlier this month that the change could put his business under.