Paddy Power owner Flutter Entertainment’s revenue rose 54 per cent to more than €2.7 billion in the first three months of the year, new figures show.
The Irish betting giant said on Wednesday that the average number of people betting regularly on its website rose 30 per cent to 12.3 million a month in the first quarter.
Flutter reported that revenue grew 54 per cent to £2.41 billion (€2.73 billion) in the three months ended March 31st, 2023, from £1.57 billion during the same period last year.
Revenue in its US business almost doubled, increasing 92 per cent to £908 million in the first quarter from £429 million during the opening three months of 2022.
The Dublin-headquartered group said the US remained “firmly on track” for full-year profitability in 2023.
Flutter expects Kentucky, home of North America’s best-known horse race, the Kentucky Derby, and North Carolina, to legalise online sports in coming months.
Ohio and Massachusetts opened this year, adding 20 per cent to regular customers, which grew overall 46 per cent to 3.45 million.
Digital sports betting began in the US only five years ago following a federal supreme court ruling lifting bans on the practice.
Flutter has spent heavily developing the business through its main US subsidiary, FanDuel. The group plans to take a secondary stock market listing in New York by the end of the year.
The group said revenue in its 600-plus Paddy Power bookie shops across Ireland and Britain rose 17 per cent to £77 million (€87.3 million) in the first quarter from £65 million in the same period last year.
Lower turnover hit the early months of 2022 as people readjusted to normal following almost two years of Covid-19 restrictions.
Peter Jackson, Flutter’s chief executive, said the growth was across both countries. “The UK estate is outperforming Ireland as they have done for a while,” he added.
Flutter’s Irish and British online businesses, which include Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Bet, grew first-quarter revenue 17 per cent to £532 million.
Mr Jackson, said the first-quarter performance was very strong, with the group continuing to gain share in the growing US market.
He noted that it had added 1.5 million new customers in the US during the quarter “and we remain the clear market leader”.
Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson, chief financial officer, estimated that a gambling White Paper published last week by the British government, could hit revenue by £50 million to £100 million.
He added that its impact on earnings “could be around half that”.
Mr Jackson argued that the paper is simply government attempts to get the industry to “catch up” with safer gambling practices that Flutter has applied for more than two years.
The paper, which covers Britain only and not Northern Ireland, proposes a levy on industry revenues, tougher affordability checks on customers, limited digital slot machine stakes and moves to slow online casino games, among other measures.
Revenue at Sportsbet in Australia dipped 1 per cent to £289 million, which the company said reflected a fall in betting frequency following the end of Covid curbs there.
Last year’s purchase of Italian lottery specialist Sisal helped boost international revenue by 85 per cent to £605 million, said Flutter.
