Flutter Entertainment, which owns FanDuel Sportsbook, reported a 20% increase in year-over-year quarterly revenue, with $3.6 billion generated. The news came during Flutter’s second quarter 2024 earnings call on Aug. 13.
FanDuel has a tight grip on its title as top operator in the Virginia sports betting market, where its popularity continues to grow.
FanDuel thriving in Virginia, rest of the US market
Flutter is the parent company of over a dozen brands across the globe but only a few that operate in the US. Despite that, Flutter’s US business accounted for 42.4% of its companywide revenue.
FanDuel generated $1.53 billion in revenue, an improvement of a whopping 39% year over year. In the second quarter of 2023, FanDuel generated $1.1 billion. It also saw a 27% boost in average monthly players year over year.
Virginia does not report its sports betting figures by operator, but the Virginia Lottery recently released a report that showed how much market share operators own. FanDuel led the state with 40.07% of the Virginia sports betting market share. There is no denying FanDuel Virginia is doing well, even if exactly how well remains unreported.
During the quarterly earnings call, Flutter Entertainment Chief Executive Officer Peter Jackson spoke about the company’s success in the United States, saying:
“Our US performance was excellent in new and existing states, reflecting our disciplined approach to customer acquisition and our best-in-class product, which offers our sportsbook customers the best pricing in the market. We continue to make improvements to our proprietary product offering, which drove the proportion of live betting handle to be more than 400 basis points higher than last year during the NBA playoffs, while we also increased our MLB parlay penetration.”
Flutter relocated from London to New York in May, and the company now trades on the New York Stock Exchange.
“We achieved important milestones during Q2 as the NYSE became our primary listing and we moved our operational headquarters to New York,” Jackson said. “This reflects the importance of the US market to Flutter and our view that the US is the natural home for our business.”
Flutter did so well in the second quarter of 2024 that it increased its projections companywide.
Outside of the United States, Flutter raised its range of revenue for 2024 to $7.85 billion–$8.15 billion from the previous $7.65 billion–$8.05 billion.
In the US alone, FanDuel’s revenue range has increased to $6.05 billion—$6.35 billion, from $5.8 billion—$6.2 billion.
Jackson said Flutter exceeding expectations is giving the company “the confidence to continue driving customer acquisition in the second half, building a bigger business, which bodes well for 2025 and beyond.”
FanDuel nixes betting surcharge but criticizes high tax rates
One other source of news from the Flutter earnings call related to DraftKings‘ plan to add a surcharge on winnings in high-tax states.
Jackson’s statement on behalf of FanDuel was crystal clear: The company will not follow DraftKings’ lead.
“We have lots of tax recognition from operating internationally in high-tax locations, and our experience is that moderating levels of generosity, or indeed reducing local marketing, is the best response,” he said. “We often find as well that smaller players might have to increase their prices, which leads to us capturing more share, which provides an offset for us. We think the moderator of the generosity and reducing local marketing is the best customer option, and we have no plans to charge a surcharge on winners.”
Jackson followed up by saying there is a sweet spot for a tax rate where the state, operators, and players can all benefit, but that a graduated tax rate is not the solution. He even went as far as to say the Illinois-style tax system is wrong.
“I think it is important to recognize there is a happy medium for the tax rate that enables operators to maximize market growth, provide the best experience for customers, and over time, maximize revenue for states,” he said. “Most states are taking a sensible approach to date. I do think, though, that introducing a graduated tax system [that] punishes those who have invested the most to grow their businesses is wrong.”
Jackson argued that imposing high sports betting taxes on operators only drives the offshore industry while punishing those businesses who have paid the steep licensing fees and operating taxes.
