Flutter CEO Dan Taylor laid out four main priorities to make the company a stronger business going forward, which includes strengthening the leadership position of FanDuel and capturing the opportunity presented by prediction markets.
The international gambling giant cut guidance in its Q3 earnings report Wednesday. Part of that is from the unexpected shutdown of online gambling in Brazil, while unlucky sports results makes up the rest of the decrease. Despite the cuts, the market responded positively to the earnings report with Flutter up around 2% at noon Eastern.
Taylor, who took over for Peter Jackson on Oct. 1, said Flutter is entering its next phase from a “position of strength.”
“We have leading businesses in many of the world’s most attractive markets, great brands and scale advantages that few others can match,” Taylor said. “Our job now is to make more of those advantages. Our Q3 performance gives me confidence that we are moving in the right direction.
“In the US, our sportsbook improvement plan is delivering early but tangible progress in customer engagement and performance.”
Updated guidance for Flutter, FanDuel
Flutter now expects 2026 adjusted EBITDA to hit $2.495 billion, which is down $160 million.
That will come from $17.61 billion in revenue, down $300 million from the previous midpoint.
The FanDuel segment had its adjusted EBITDA and revenue guidance cut by $45 million and $60 million, respectively. That takes into account unfavorable sports results in Q3 and so far in Q4, a reduced projection for online casino given recent trends, and an improved outlook for sports betting.
Flutter now expects FanDuel to report $715 million in adjusted EBITDA (down 22% from 2025) from $7.34 billion (up 5%).
Four priorities for focus
Taylor laid out four “immediate operational priorities:”
- Building on its U.S. leadership position.
- Capturing the prediction markets opportunity.
- Driving more value from Flutter’s International portfolio.
- Simplifying Flutter’s operating model.
“Delivering against those priorities will require faster execution, tough decisions and disciplined investment,” he said. “I am confident our actions will make Flutter a stronger business in the long-term.”
FanDuel is already seeing improvements from increased promotional activity that was deemed necessary after market share started to slip in the fourth quarter of 2025, with sportsbook revenue growing 4%. Customers reported a 7-percentage-point increase in “generosity perception.” That helped drive player frequency up 4% and bet count by 15%.
FanDuel also has to keep its “laser-focus” on improving its online casino product, which saw average monthly players jump 24% thanks in part to the Alberta launch and the World Cup.
FanDuel Predicts improving
Taylor was blunt in his assessment of the early iteration of FanDuel Predicts.
“The first thing on the product side, which I think is really an important enabler, is, being candid, the product when I first went over to FanDuel in the spring was not competitive,” Taylor said on Flutter’s earnings call. “I think the team have made tremendous progress on the product in the last few months, and the pace of delivery has really, really impressed me. The results we’re seeing are very good.”
The transition away from relying on Crypto.com’s sports contracts has helped create a more competitive offering. The customers acquired in states without legal sports betting look like typical sports bettors, but they are being acquired at a much lower cost. Continuing that will put FanDuel in a strong position for when those states decide to legalize sports betting, Taylor said.
FanDuel’s all-in-one U.S. app went live at scale at the beginning of the NFL season. So far, metrics like customer retention, play frequency and parlay mix are starting to look “a lot like our sportsbook,” Taylor added.
Promotional levels remain, for now
Elevated promotional spending is not going away any time soon, according to CFO Rob Coldrake. That does not mean margins will be impacted, though.
“We’ve always said that we expect further parlay penetration over time and enhancing our structural gross win margins, and we expect that to continue in 2027,” Coldrake said. “If you think about levels of generosity in 2026, we deliberately upped our investment from Q2 onwards. We’re going to need to annualize that spend year on year, which means the promo cost goes up, and that’s how you kind of get back to a similar net revenue margin.
“I think when you look out longer term, I think we are confident that we can still grow the overall structural margins and the net revenue margin within the business.”
Taylor noted Flutter’s long history gives it some experience when it comes to winning back customers.
“We’ve got deep experience of how to deploy generosity from our different brands across the international business, and we’ve been taking a lot of [those] capabilities into FanDuel to be really scientific and thoughtful about how we deliver it to the right customer at the right time as well,” Taylor said.
FanDuel growing quickly in Alberta
FanDuel was prepared to succeed in Alberta, but not at this rate. Gross revenue share hit 23% in the third quarter after the province launched July 13.
“The success there has astounded us,” Taylor said. “Our pace of customer acquisition was materially faster than Ontario. We’ve reached 20% plus market share on the gaming side within the first quarter, which is already well ahead of where we thought we would be, particularly given there was existing gray market operators in that state beforehand.
“I think the success in Alberta gives us real confidence and conviction about the opportunity for iGaming as we expand the [total addressable market].”
Flutter pausing buybacks
The fallout from Brazil has led to a pause on share buybacks for Flutter for the “foreseeable future,” Coldrake said. The company approved buybacks of up to $5 billion in Sept. 2024.
Flutter’s debt-to-EBITDA ratio hit 4.6 times at the end of the quarter, in part from the $873 million non-cash impairment related to Brazil. The company’s leverage goal is to remain between 2 and 2.5 times.
Flutter will deleverage “significantly” through next year to return to that guided range over the medium term, he added.
“Our capital allocation priority is clear: continue to invest behind our highest return growth opportunities,” Coldrake said. “Delever the balance sheet, and only then consider returning additional capital to shareholders.”
