Flutter Entertainment plc

Flutter Entertainment was not founded as a single company — it was assembled through decades of mergers and acquisitions. Paddy Power was founded in Ireland in 1988 as a chain of high-street betting shops famous for irreverent marketing and generous odds. Betfair was founded in 2000 as the world's first peer-to-peer betting exchange, allowing gamblers to bet against each other rather than against a bookmaker. The two companies merged in 2016 to form Paddy Power Betfair, which subsequently rebranded as Flutter Entertainment in 2019 to reflect its ambitions as a global rather than an Irish and British business.

Flutter's most transformative move before its US expansion was the acquisition of the Stars Group — owner of PokerStars, the world's largest online poker platform — in 2020. The deal created the world's largest online sports betting and gaming company by revenue, adding PokerStars's massive global customer base to Flutter's UK and Irish operations. The combined company had brands operating in dozens of markets across six continents.

When the US Supreme Court struck down PASPA in May 2018 — the law that had effectively banned sports betting outside Nevada — it opened a market that Flutter had already positioned itself to capture. Flutter had acquired a 61% stake in FanDuel in 2018, the dominant daily fantasy sports platform in the United States. When sports betting legalised state-by-state, FanDuel converted its existing user base of tens of millions into sports bettors. By 2024, FanDuel generated $5.8 billion in revenue — more than any other US sportsbook. Flutter projected FanDuel's 2025 revenue between $7.4 and $7.9 billion.

Flutter listed on the New York Stock Exchange in January 2024 — a signal that the company's centre of gravity had shifted to the United States. FanDuel commanded approximately 40% of the US online sports betting market. Flutter's global revenue for fiscal year 2025 reached $16.38 billion across its US and international segments. In December 2025, Flutter launched FanDuel Predicts — a prediction market product in partnership with CME Group offering sports event contracts and financial/macroeconomic contracts — the latest expansion of its product ecosystem beyond traditional sportsbook and casino.

Flutter's long-term US growth thesis rested on iGaming — online casino gaming — expanding to more states beyond the current handful where it was legal (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Connecticut). Online casino revenue grew 44% in the US in a single quarter in 2025, driven by Flutter's FanDuel Casino. The company's Flutter Edge — a centralised framework providing all its brands with shared technology, pricing algorithms, and risk management — gave it operational advantages that smaller operators could not replicate. Flutter had assembled the most diversified and powerful gambling portfolio in history, operating from college football to casino games to poker tournaments, across dozens of regulated markets worldwide.