Flutter plans up to 1,400 UK and Ireland job cuts in response to higher UK gaming taxes

What Flutter disclosed

In a Form 8-K filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Flutter said it "committed to a restructuring plan" affecting its UK&I operations, including UK&I staff at its hubs in Portugal and Romania. The filing said the company began notifying affected employees on October 20 and expects to substantially complete the plan by the end of 2026.

According to the accompanying press release, the cuts will affect staff in locations including Leeds and Dublin, and UK&I staff at the Porto and Cluj-Napoca hubs. Flutter said it employs 28,500 people globally, including 9,000 in the UK&I business.

The filing said the $80 million to $90 million in pre-tax charges will consist primarily of severance, benefits and related cash costs, and that these were already captured in the guidance Flutter updated with its second-quarter results. Non-cash stock-based compensation charges could not yet be estimated, the company said.

The tax change behind it

Flutter's release said the UK increased the tax on iGaming by 19 percentage points to 40% from April 2026, and will raise the rate on sports betting (excluding horseracing) by 10 percentage points to 25% from April 2027. In line with previous guidance, the company put the total adjusted EBITDA impact of the UK changes in 2027 at $540 million, which it expects to offset with $201 million of "first order" cost mitigation.

Flutter said the restructuring is part of that already-guided mitigation and is expected to support "second order" benefits by preserving investment in its customer offer.

What the company said

Kevin Harrington, Chief Executive of Flutter UK & Ireland, said the duty increase "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," he said, adding that Flutter remains "confident that we are well placed to benefit from share gains given our position as the largest scale operator in the UK."

Other UK operators have also cited the tax rise. William Hill owner evoke linked its Q3 revenue fall and shop closures to the Budget. Elsewhere, Flutter has closed Betfair in Brazil under that country's betting ban.

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