The consequences of India’s ban on online real money games are continuing to be felt by Flutter.
After being saddled with a $556m impairment charge related to pulling its Junglee offering from the country, the firm has also been forced to lay off 350 staff from its New Delhi and Bengaluru offices.
Another 600 staff have been redeployed as Flutter seeks to transition its operating model in the country.
Regulatory upheaval
The Indian gaming industry was caught by surprise in August when India’s parliament passed the Promotion and Regulations of Online Gambling Bill 2025, which banned the promotion of RMG, such as the ones offered by Junglee.
Alongside Flutter, major domestic operators like Dream11 and Mobile Premier League (MPL) were forced to close down their RMG operations.
Shortly after the passing of the bill, Reuters reported that MPL was set to slash 60% of its local workforce. Meanwhile, the staffing firm CIEL HR also suggested that the gaming ban left almost 2,000 workers searching for new jobs amid the uncertainty within the sector.
At the time, Flutter warned of the “significant adverse consequences” of implementing the bill, and decried the lack of consultation with stakeholders.
“Over the last four years Junglee has invested significantly in its local market, building a workforce of over 1,100 employees to deliver innovative skill-based gaming products to Indian customers,” said Flutter’s CEO, Peter Jackson.
Counting the costs
The prohibition has shut down a market that was valued at $3.7bn and was projected to hit $9.1bn by 2029, according to the India Gaming Report 2025.
Alongside the charge related to pulling Junglee and the financial impact of 350 job losses, Flutter has also missed out on a significant chunk of the $200m revenue it expected to rake in from the business throughout 2025.
Overall, Flutter posted a group net loss of $789m in Q3, largely driven by the upheaval in India.
Despite these headwinds, Flutter appears to remain hopeful of rebuilding its presence in India, and has maintained Junglee’s free-to-play content.
Jackson told investors that the company is continuing to do “all the lobbying and legal challenges that you’d expect”, and likened the situation to the US’ black friday in 2011, when the US Government seized the domains of many of the biggest online poker sites.
“It’s not that long ago that we saw black friday in America, and look where we are today. We’re going to maintain the Junglee product on a free-to-play basis, and we’ll see what happens,” he said.
iGaming Expert has reached out to Flutter for comment.
