The world's largest online betting group is changing chief executive at the exact moment its most important market has stopped cooperating. Flutter Entertainment confirmed that Peter Jackson steps down at the end of September, with international chief Dan Taylor taking the wheel on 1 October — and paired the news with a heavy quarterly loss and a cut to full-year guidance.
Key takeaways
- Peter Jackson leaves the CEO role at the end of September after nearly nine years; Dan Taylor takes over on 1 October.
- Q2 net loss of $296 million, against a $37 million profit a year earlier.
- Group revenue up 3% to $4.33 billion — ahead of forecasts — but US sales fell 6% to roughly $1.7 billion.
- US sportsbook revenue dropped 15%; average monthly players across the group fell 11%.
- Full-year revenue guidance cut to a $17.91 billion midpoint; earnings guidance trimmed by $210 million to $2.655 billion.
- Shares fell 5.5% in premarket trading.
Flutter — owner of FanDuel and Paddy Power — set out the succession plan alongside second-quarter numbers that showed the pressure building in the United States, where both wagering activity and customer retention came in under plan.
Jackson out, Taylor in from 1 October
Jackson framed the timing as the natural moment to hand over. He will stay on in an advisory capacity through to the end of the year to help the transition bed in.
His near-decade in charge reshaped the business through acquisitions and international expansion, taking it from its Paddy Power Betfair identity to a US-listed group of a very different scale.
The company had changed "beyond recognition" since its Paddy Power Betfair days, becoming "the world's leading online sports betting and igaming operator".
— Peter Jackson, outgoing CEO, Flutter Entertainment
Taylor steps up having only recently been made president of Flutter, a role created in May after Amy Howe left the FanDuel CEO position. The group pointed to his work on fixing FanDuel's sportsbook performance, saying the early signals from those initiatives have been encouraging. He currently runs Flutter's international division, which turned over more than $9 billion in 2025.
"Our priority will be to keep delivering for our colleagues, customers and shareholders, while building on the momentum we've created across the business."
— Dan Taylor, incoming CEO, Flutter Entertainment
The US is what went wrong
For the quarter ended 30 June, Flutter posted a net loss of $296 million, reversing a $37 million profit in the same period last year — a loss of $1.57 per share, with adjusted EPS of 49 cents against the 54 cents analysts polled by FactSet had penciled in. Revenue itself was not the problem: it rose 3% to $4.33 billion, comfortably above the $4.23 billion consensus.
The damage sits in the segment breakdown. US sales fell 6% to about $1.7 billion, driven largely by a 15% drop in sportsbook revenue. Flutter noted that results on the field ran in the punters' favour during the period, squeezing sportsbook margins — the kind of variance that flatters one quarter and punishes the next.
Harder to shrug off is the customer picture. Average monthly players across the group were down 11%, and in the US the company reported continued churn plus an extended stretch of weeks where activity trends ran against it. US growth stayed subdued across the whole first half.
Flutter also acknowledged it has struggled to convert the surge of interest in prediction markets — venues where customers can bet on outcomes well outside conventional sport — into business of its own, a gap rivals have been quicker to exploit.
Guidance comes down, international holds up
The group cut its annual revenue outlook to a midpoint of $17.91 billion, down from $18.31 billion, citing the second-quarter result, investment spending and changes to the NFL schedule. Full-year earnings guidance was reduced by $210 million to $2.655 billion.
Outside the US the story reads better: international revenue grew 10% in the quarter, with Flutter singling out strong customer engagement around the FIFA World Cup, particularly through the knockout stage. That is the division Taylor has been running — and the track record he brings into the top job.
The market was unconvinced by the combination. Flutter shares fell 5.5% in premarket trading once the results and the succession plan landed together.
