Peter Jackson leaves the CEO’s chair at Flutter at the end of September 2026, having just posted a $296m Q2 net loss and watched the share price fall 65% over the past year. You’d expect an exit message focused on damage control. Instead, Jackson used it to predict that the UK’s remote gaming duty rise will hollow out the industry’s long tail, and that Flutter, with roughly 39% UK sports betting share and 22% iGaming share via Sky Bet, Paddy Power and Betfair is best positioned to absorb whatever share falls out.
Key facts:
- UK remote gaming duty rose from 21% to 40% on 1 April 2026
- Flutter posted a $296m Q2 net loss; share price down 65% over 12 months
- Flutter holds ~39% UK sports betting share, ~22% iGaming share
- Brazil revenue up 62% year-on-year; Italy and Turkey both “phenomenal” per CFO Rob Coldrake
- Rank Group’s profit after tax fell 23% despite EBITDA rising 15%, on the same duty rise
What did Flutter’s CEO actually say about the tax rise?
His words, in full: “Those long tail operators are going to be under a lot of pressure… I think there’s an opportunity for us to use our scale as the market leader” to take share from competitors who can’t absorb the tax and compliance burden. Read plainly, that’s a prediction of market consolidation, coming from the operator best positioned to be the one doing the consolidating.
Is this just an outgoing CEO talking his book?
It would be easy to write this off as parting-shot spin, except the numbers elsewhere back it up. Rank Group’s FY2025/26 results show the same duty rise turning a 15% EBITDA increase into a 23% fall in profit after tax; tax, not trading performance, is doing the damage. Evoke reported a 10% fall in adjusted EBITDA the day before Flutter’s own results landed. Entain, by contrast, is absorbing the hit noticeably better than most peers, largely because international growth from regions such as Australia +13%, Spain +28%, New Zealand +21-23%, these performances are effectively subsidising its UK tax bill.
That’s the pattern underneath Jackson’s comment. Scale and geographic diversification aren’t just efficiency advantages anymore. They’re becoming the line between an operator that can eat a near-doubling of remote gaming duty and one that gets consolidated by a rival who can.
How is Flutter funding an aggressive push during a loss-making quarter?
Here’s the part that makes the strategy more than bravado, while most operators cut marketing spend when margins tighten, Flutter’s reported approach is the opposite, increase it, specifically because rivals are pulling back. That only works if there’s a funding cushion elsewhere, and CFO Rob Coldrake’s numbers point to where it’s coming from. Brazil revenue is up 62% year-on-year, with Italy and Turkey both described as “phenomenal.” The domestic, largely US-facing business is currently loss-making; the growth funding the UK land-grab is coming from almost everywhere else.
What should smaller UK operators do about it?
Jackson’s comment isn’t abstract for a small or mid-tier UK operator. It plainly reads as a direct signal that the market leader intends to spend through your margin compressions to take your customers. We could see a spike in acquisition costs and channels which will significantly hurt mid-small operators. Riding out the duty rise quietly, the way every operator might have a year ago when the tax environment applied to everyone roughly equally, now looks like a considerably riskier bet.
There’s also a policy question sitting underneath this that’s easy to miss which is: a tax designed to raise revenue and dampen problem gambling may, as a side effect, accelerate consolidation around the operators best resourced to absorb it. That’s not obviously the outcome the duty rise was designed to produce, and it’s worth someone in government asking whether it’s the one they’re comfortable with.
FAQ
How much did UK remote gaming duty rise in 2026?
From 21% to 40%, effective 1 April 2026, a near-doubling that’s now visible in nearly every major UK operator’s H1 results.
Which operators are absorbing the UK tax rise best?
Entain appears to be managing it better than peers, largely through international diversification, strong growth in Australia, Spain and New Zealand is offsetting UK margin pressure. Evoke and Flutter both reported EBITDA or net losses tied directly to the duty change.
Will the UK tax rise cause smaller operators to exit the market?
Flutter’s outgoing CEO Peter Jackson has explicitly predicted this, framing it as an opportunity for scale players to consolidate share from “long tail operators” who can’t absorb the combined tax and compliance burden. This should be a concern for the industry, creating a furthering gap from large scale operators to mid-low tier. This could drive out long term innovation for brands and players.
Who is replacing Peter Jackson as Flutter CEO?
Dan Taylor, currently head of Flutter International, takes over at the end of September 2026.
Whether Dan Taylor keeps Flutter’s “spend through the downturn” strategy intact or softens it will be the thing to watch in his first few results calls. Either way, the smaller operators in the crosshairs don’t get to wait and see before deciding how to respond.
If your 2027 plan assumes competitors behave rationally under tax pressure, what happens to it if the market leader decides aggression is the rational move?
This poses a lot of questions to your marketing strategy and budgets. I would prediction a spike in CAC, acquisition funnels being squeezed and a host of MNC’s looking at M&A options. We see M&A already happening with the IG group announcing its takeover of Underdog.
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