Flutter Entertainment raises forecasts for the year despite US punters enjoying winning run on NFL

Flutter Entertainment has shrugged off punter-friendly sports results in the US in recent weeks to raise its forecasts for revenue and core earnings for the year.

The parent company of Paddy Power, Sky Bet and Betfair said a one per cent rise in group guidance for both revenue and adjusted ebitda (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) reflected a strong performance outside the US in the third quarter as it released its financial results for the period on Tuesday evening.

During the quarter, average monthly players had increased by 16 per cent to nearly 13 million, while revenue was up 27 per cent to nearly $3.25 billion (approximately £2.55bn/€3.06bn).

A "strong" conclusion to the European Football Championships in July helped boost performance in the UK and Ireland, as well as Italy, as did the start of the domestic football season.

What Flutter described as excellent momentum for its US arm FanDuel during the third quarter, courtesy of product launches and favourable results at the start of the NFL season, had subsequently been "more than offset" by sports results swinging in punters' favour in the fourth quarter to date.

Last week, Flutter's main US rival DraftKings cut its guidance for the year due to the recent run of customer-friendly NFL results.

Chief executive Peter Jackson said Flutter had enjoyed an "excellent" third quarter

Flutter's chief executive Peter Jackson said Flutter had enjoyed an "excellent" third quarter with revenue growth accelerating "well ahead of market expectations".

He added: "In the US, we had a fantastic start to the new NFL season with peak wagers per minute already higher than Super Bowl LVII."

Outside of the United States, Jackson said "all divisions delivered a strong performance in the quarter," with a broader product range across both sports and igaming driving player and revenue growth in the UK and Ireland division.

He added: "We believe that the group has exciting growth prospects due to our unparalleled leadership positions across the world, underpinned by access to the Flutter Edge. We expect to have significant capital to deploy over the coming years and I am excited to commence the share repurchase program in Q4."

David Brohan, gaming and leisure analyst at stockbrokers Goodbody, described Flutter's announcement as "another very strong update".

He added: "The main focus today was likely to be on updated US guidance, following the significant downgrade delivered by DraftKings last week. 

"However, the impact is lower than anticipated through a combination of the significant Q3 beat along with a lower exposure to customer friendly sporting results, likely driven by FanDuel’s superior pricing."

Flutter's share price ended the day up nearly 6.7 per cent at 20,560p on the London Stock Exchange.

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