Paddy Power

Paddy Power's owner expects up to 1,400 redundancies from a restructure of its UK and Ireland business, eight days before a Budget that could raise machine duty. The tax set the size and the timing; the shape looks like the cost programme Flutter was already running.

Budget 2027 left Ireland's 2% tax on stakes untouched and gave racing €2.9 million more, on condition of welfare and integrity reform. The one new betting measure is a 25% charge on pool betting commissions, written for a market the new regulator is about to open up.

Betfred's group accounts for the 52 weeks to 29 March 2026 show turnover of £995.6m, online at 45% of it, and a machine duty bill larger than its profit after tax. They close three days before remote gaming duty reached 40%, and arrive weeks before a Budget that could double the duty on shop machines.

The Betting and Gaming Council has launched a campaign built on shop workers' stories and a poll of Andy Burnham's Makerfield seat, a month before a Budget that may double Machine Games Duty. Its job figures are its own; the think tank behind the proposal says the rise would raise up to £458 million.

Replying to Fred Done's forecast of 495 Betfred closures, Kenny told the Financial Times he used "the same script" himself when he represented bookmakers. He wants machines and online slots taxed harder than bets on sport.

The Betfred founder has put numbers on the Treasury's option: 45% of his estate, 2,475 jobs, £66.8m of tax and £15.8m of racing funding, in a Sunday Times op-ed and a Financial Times interview in which he says machines are half of shop profit. Betfred has already ended its Super League sponsorship, citing last year's Budget.

The Gambling Commission's 2025/26 report shows online casino up 14.8% to £5.7bn, adding more than the entire market gained. Online betting fell 6.6%, bingo fell, 208 betting shops closed before this year's cull began. The survey says participation is flat at 49%. The day after the Lords called for an advertising ban, the regulator's own numbers explain why the product mix is the argument.

Chancellor John Healey is said to be weighing an increase to the duty on gaming machines, a year after remote gaming duty went from 21% to 40%. A doubling would take the three bands to 10%, 40% and 50%, and analysts have told the Racing Post it would cost nearly 3,000 betting shops and around £70m of the racing levy.

Flutter has put a number on the retail review it declined to quantify in August. Up to 100 of 506 shops go before the end of the year, with about 400 jobs at risk, and the company names the Budget.

Flutter Entertainment has announced that Peter Jackson will leave as group chief executive on 1 October, handing over to international president Dan Taylor at a moment when US sportsbook revenue has fallen 15% year-on-year and the company's market capitalisation has dropped from $50 billion to below $20 billion in under a year.

Flutter Entertainment will cancel its London listing on 3 August 2026 and trade only on the NYSE, formalising a pivot to a US business that now supplies 41% of group revenue. The exit lands amid a brutal UK tax squeeze, but Flutter's own filings suggest growth and investors, not duty rises, are what pulled it west.

With a full estate sale off the table and cost pressures mounting, Entain is cutting deep in Ireland. The retail betting shop is becoming an endangered species on both sides of the Irish Sea.

A serious error by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has prematurely revealed the UK government's plan to impose a punitive tax hike on the online

Sky Bet, a major brand under the Flutter Entertainment umbrella, has shifted its sports betting operations headquarters to Malta. This structural change,

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has issued a stark warning about the potentially devastating economic impact gambling tax increases could have on the UK.

Betfred co founder Fred Done warns a UK gambling tax hike could force closure of all betting shops, risking 7,500 jobs & boosting the black market.

Another week, another whirlwind. If you've had your head down in meetings, you might have missed some serious power plays across the globe. The running theme?

The fierce debate over the future of UK gambling taxation has taken a dramatic turn, after Stewart Kenny, a co-founder of industry giant Paddy Power, publicly

Flutter Entertainment's UK and Ireland division has confirmed a customer data incident impacting its prominent Paddy Power and Betfair brands. The breach,

As Royal Ascot concluded, leading UK bookmakers delivered their annual Britannia Stakes charity donation, with all profits from this year’s race being shared