Flutter Entertainment, the world’s leading online sports betting and gaming operator, has seen its stock price plummet and is focusing its efforts on improving its American cash cow, FanDuel, in the coming months to remain competitive with the best offshore sportsbooks.
Cracks in the Armor
FanDuel recently shook up its C-suite by terminating its CEO, Amy Howe, and promoting company president Christian Genetski to the top job. Although the first quarter earnings report announced a 17% year-over-year revenue increase to $4.3 billion, and its Q1 adjusted EBITDA of $631 million exceeded expectations, the company’s largest and most profitable subsidiary, FanDuel, has been shedding active customers.
Following the report, Citizens’ analyst Jordan Bender wrote, “The business is showing signs of cracks, which we believe are not necessarily structural. But with EBITDA guidance declining 4% for 2026 at the midpoint, on the back of deep investment spend across new state launches, the prediction market, and the World Cup now present an uphill battle for the U.S. business.”
Since August, Flutter’s stock has been in a freefall, decreasing from $306.97 per share to $93.96 as of Monday. Flutter CEO Peter Jackson is understandably concerned and outlined steps the company plans to take to regain its footing and continue to dominate the American mobile sports betting and iGaming markets.
Earlier this week, Jackson said during an investor conference, “We know that we didn’t operate as effectively as we should have done.”
FanDuel’s revenue rose only 1% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026, which can be attributed to a 9% decrease in handle and a 6% drop in active sportsbook customers. Jackson pointed out the leadership changes recently made by bidding adieu to former CEO Amy Howe and welcoming Christian Genetski to pilot the meandering ship.
“There’s a bunch of organizational changes that we’ve made, which I think really will sharpen our focus on execution and delivery, which ultimately has been one of our challenges,” he said.
Putting Customers First
Several external forces are depressing FanDuel’s bottom line, including the rise of prediction markets and increased taxes levied by state legislators to get a bigger piece of the digital gaming pie. Moreover, FanDuel has poured millions of dollars into launching its own prediction platform, FanDuel Predicts.
Yet, Jackson believes that the company has abandoned its core values in terms of customer retention, which starts with more generous bonuses.
“We saw very high margins in Q4, which to some extent supports our view of where our gross margins can get to, but we didn’t execute well on generosity,” Jackson said. “So, we ended up starting this year with a smaller customer base than anticipated.”
The public did not fare well at the betting windows during the latter part of the football season, the industry’s most active season. This propped up the numbers, but the company did not react to what would become disillusionment among its customers.
Promotional offers cost the company money in the short term to engender loyalty from its existing base while wooing new customers to its platform. However, Jackson believes FanDuel did not do enough to assuage those concerns from customers who steadily lost money at the end of the year.
“I think investors obviously want to see us continue to execute, but we are still the largest player in America,” Jackson said. “We’re determined to get the business, not just back on the front foot, but we need to get our mojo back and show that we can keep growing our share and help grow the category.”
