Flutter shares plummet on earnings miss and another key leadership change
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- Flutter Entertainment shares fell 13% Wednesday after the company slashed its full-year U.S. adjusted EBITDA guidance by 22% to $760 million and announced CEO Peter Jackson will exit at quarter's end.
- Flutter reported Q2 EPS of 49 cents, missing Wall Street's 60-cent expectation, though revenue of $4.33 billion narrowly beat the $4.26 billion LSEG estimate.
- Dan Taylor, currently CEO of Flutter's international business, will take over as CEO effective Oct. 1; he was already given oversight of FanDuel in May after Amy Howe's ouster.
- Flutter is committing roughly $270 million in additional EBITDA investment to its U.S. business in the second half of 2026, lifting promotional spending closer to 6% of handle to repair FanDuel's lost market share dominance.
- FanDuel is moving its prediction-market sports and novelty contracts from CME to Crypto.com ahead of football season, with the company expecting roughly $50 million in market-making revenue this year.
- Jackson blamed Flutter pulling back on promotions and a weak NFL schedule for FanDuel entering 2026 with a smaller sportsbook than warranted, even as NBA Finals actives rose 26% per game and about a third of 2.3 million World Cup customers were reactivated.
- Jefferies gaming analyst James Wheatcroft struck a constructive stance on the stock despite calling the combination of earnings miss, guidance cut, and CEO transition a 'messy reading.'
Why it matters: Flutter is deliberately trading near-term profit for a FanDuel rebound, plowing roughly $270 million of incremental H2 2026 EBITDA into promotions and customer protections after conceding it 'didn't execute very well last year.' The Jackson-to-Taylor handoff, coming just months after Amy Howe's ouster, shows how costly FanDuel's U.S. market-share erosion has become.
