Global gaming operator Flutter Entertainment’s third-quarter revenue rose 27% year-over-year, thanks in part to favorable NFL outcomes to start the season.
In Tuesday’s earnings release, FanDuel’s parent company announced a $3.25 billion haul from the three-month period that ended Sept. 30. Adjusted EBITDA of $450 million was up 74% from Q3 2023.
Net loss was down to $114 million from the $262 million reported in the same quarter last year.
Average monthly players jumped 16% year-over-year across all brands while FanDuel helped Flutter see an even higher 28% bump to 3.2 million customers in Q3.
“Flutter had an excellent quarter with revenue growth accelerating to 27%, well ahead of market expectations, and increases to our revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2024,” Flutter CEO Peter Jackson said. “In the U.S., we had a fantastic start to the new NFL season with peak wagers per minute already higher than Super Bowl LVII."
Flutter also announced that the first phase of a three-to-four-year, $5 billion share repurchase program begins on Thursday with $350 million in repurchases to end Q1 2025.
Strong NFL start
FanDuel helped Flutter record $1.25 billion in revenue, up 51% year-over-year, while Adjusted EBITDA of $58 million made up for the $55 million loss reported in Q3 2023.
Much of that third-quarter success was attributed to the online sportsbook’s good run against NFL bettors and new products that improved profits.
“Our proprietary product offering continued to drive strong parlay penetration as well as a step up in live betting handle,” Jackson said.
FanDuel continued to shine in the U.S. sports betting and iGaming landscape, reaching a total online market share of 35%. Sports betting reached 41% of the market’s gross gaming revenue and 43% of net gaming revenue while iGaming earned 25%.
Customer acquisition grew 10% higher year-over-year in new and existing jurisdictions with payback periods of 18 months.
Heavy toll
As Flutter noted in Tuesday’s release, FanDuel has followed a similar pattern as DraftKings and Caesars in the early portion of Q4. NFL favorites excelled in October, taking a heavy toll on sports betting operator revenue.
“Strong Q3 outperformance has subsequently been more than offset by unfavorable sports results in Q4 to date,” Flutter reported.
Because of this, the gaming company lowered U.S. revenue guidance by 1% to $6.15 billion and Adjusted EBITDA by 4% lower to $710 million.
However, with a 3% projected rise in revenue from non-U.S. markets, the company increased overall guidance by 1% coming out of the strong Q3.
Ex-U.S. rises
Outside of the U.S., Flutter’s 14 other brands helped the gaming company haul in $2 billion in revenue during Q3, up 15% year-over-year. The U.K./Ireland sector produced the largest non-U.S. revenue increase with an 18% jump from Q3 2023, thanks to “the product momentum” from soccer’s Euro 2024 that wrapped up in July.
The International division, which grew 15% year-over-year, increased in size and reach with the acquisitions of Brazil’s NSX and Italy’s Snai brands.
“Outside of the U.S., all divisions delivered a strong performance in the quarter as they leveraged the benefits of the Flutter Edge,” Jackson said. “In UKI, a broader product range across both sports and iGaming drove player and revenue growth. Sisal continued to make significant share gains in Italy as we look to expand our presence there with the addition of Snai. In Australia, Sportsbet has been demonstrating encouraging trends.”
