Flutter Entertainment will be hoping that the UK government’s renewed fight against the momentum of the black market is enough to reverse the operator’s domestic fortunes.
A tough final quarter saw revenue dip by 9% year-over-year in the UK and Ireland, which burdened the company’s overall growth, which declined by 1% in full year results.
UK headwinds are only set to intensify heading deeper into 2026, as the tax hikes take hold and start to impact the market.
Updating investors, Chief Executive Peter Jackson emphasised the group had ‘obviously laid out top-level plans for mitigation’, as he warned that behaviour will be moderated following the tax hikes in April.
Jackson noted: “If you think about the market share of iGaming in the UK, there’s a very long tail. So there’s circa 30% of the market share in the long tail with much inferior economics to us, given our scale. And actually, we fully anticipate that there will be some changes in marketing, in generosity, and in return to player dynamics as we move through the year.”
The challenges of the UK market are inevitably going to be a key topic this year, not just for Flutter, but for the full spectrum of operators with a presence in the market.
Yet, Jackson remained somewhat bullish on the evolution and ability of Flutter to adapt, praising the firm’s ‘significant progress on transformation and efficiency programs’.
He told investors: “We are well on track to deliver the anticipated revenue growth and cost efficiencies.”
Remote gaming duty rises will be a significant concern for the operator, as its casino performance has been something of an outlier, consistently doing well and on an upward trajectory – even achieving growth in a tough final quarter of 2025.
At the time of the announcement of the tax rises, Kevin Harrington, UKI CEO, described them as ‘a very disappointing outcome, which will have a significant adverse impact on our industry’.
He added: “The Chancellor rightly wants to address harm, but these changes will hand a big win to illegal, unlicensed gambling operators who will become more competitive overnight. These black market operators don’t pay tax and don’t invest in safer gambling. At 40%, the UK’s remote gaming duty is now above countries such as the Netherlands, where a recent tax increase saw a rise in illegal gambling and a fall in Government receipts. Despite this impact, I am confident that through both our scale and leading position in the UK, as well as the proactive cost initiatives that we are taking, we are well placed to navigate through today’s changes.”
India was another market that presented major challenges for Flutter as a result of abrupt regulatory changes – Jackson singled out the company’s ‘swift, disciplined responses to regulatory changes in India and to higher UK taxes, as underscoring the importance of its agility’.
He continued: “We entered 2026 in a strong position and I’ve never had more conviction in our ability to capitalise on the long growth runway ahead. Turning to the fourth quarter, our Q4 group performance was strong with revenue up 25% and adjusted EBITDA up 27%. In the US, revenue growth was 33% with adjusted EBITDA 90% higher.”
A reason for optimism?
That being said, there will be renewed optimism for the wider fortunes in the UK if the battle against the significant black market, which has become increasingly energised at the start of the year, achieves success.
A new approach from the Digital Culture Media and Sport was underpinned by Gambling Minister Baroness Twycross at the recent Betting and Gaming Council AGM, throwing her full support behind the newly established Illegal Gambling Taskforce, which will deliver tangible results ‘as early as later this year’.
The taskforce is looking to circle in on blindspots that have previously allowed the black market to thrive, aiming for social media platforms and payment networks.
She stated: “As part of this work, we will increase financial penalties for those bodies that facilitate illegal gambling advertising, marketing, and content, helping to reduce the pipeline of people being drawn into the illegal gambling market and gambling-related harm.”
