The restructuring of the UK & Ireland business is in response to the significant increase in UK gaming tax announced in last year’s Autumn Budget
Flutter Entertainment has confirmed plans to restructure its United Kingdom and Ireland business, which is expected to result in up to 1,400 redundancies.
The restructuring of Flutter’s UK & Ireland business is in response to the increase in UK gaming taxes announced in last year’s Autumn Budget, which saw Remote Gaming Duty almost doubling to 40 per cent from April 2026 and general betting duty for online betting (excluding horse racing) increase to 25 per cent from April 2027.
The company expects the total adjusted EBITDA impact of changes to UK iGaming taxes in 2027 to be $540 million, which will be offset with $201 million of first order mitigation.
The restructuring plans are subject to consultation and are expected to result in up to 1,400 redundancies, equivalent to around 16 per cent of the 9,000 who work in Flutter’s UK & Ireland business.
The decision will impact Flutter’s staff in a number of locations including Leeds and Dublin, as well as UK & Ireland staff at Flutter hubs including Porto (Portugal) and Cluj-Napoca (Romania).
“My immediate focus is 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,” said Flutter UK & Ireland chief executive Kevin Harrington. “The material increase in betting and gaming duties announced in the UK Budget last year has fundamentally changed the economic model of the regulated betting and gaming industry in the UK while helping to fuel the unlicensed, unregulated market.
“As we warned a year ago, we cannot fully absorb a rise of this magnitude without reducing our fixed cost base and therefore must restructure our business so that we can best position ourselves for the future. We remain confident that we are well placed to benefit from share gains given our position as the largest scale operator in the UK.”
Flutter said that the restructure is expected to support the company in delivering material second order mitigation benefits, by preserving investment in its customer proposition.
The associated costs to implement the restructuring of between $80 to $90 million were captured within the updated guidance issued within Flutter’s Q2 earnings update, and will be incurred in the final quarter of 2026.
Flutter currently employs 28,500 people globally, including 9,000 in the UK & Ireland business.
Shares in Flutter Entertainment plc (NYSE:FLUT) closed 2.35 per cent higher at $77.38 per share in New York Monday.