Flutter to cut up to 1,400 UK and Ireland jobs, citing higher gambling taxes

Flutter Entertainment is to make up to 1,400 redundancies across its UK & Ireland operations, attributing the move to the significant rise in UK gaming taxation announced in the previous year's Autumn Budget. The business currently employs around 9,000 people in the region.

The cuts will affect several locations, including Leeds and Dublin, as well as UK & Ireland staff based at Flutter hubs in Porto, Portugal, and Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Betfair Romania Development said on LinkedIn that around 300 UK&I workers in Cluj-Napoca are expected to be affected.

Remote Gaming Duty rose from 21% to 40% in April 2026, and General Betting Duty is due to increase from 15% to 25% in April 2027. The industry is also awaiting a probable rise in Machine Games Duty to 40%. Last week, 90 Labour MPs signed a letter written by Alex Ballinger MP urging the Government to double MGD on Category B gaming machines.

Kevin Harrington, CEO of Flutter UK&I, said his immediate focus was supporting affected colleagues through a difficult period. He said the increase in duties had fundamentally changed the economic model of the regulated UK industry while helping to fuel the unlicensed market. According to Harrington, Flutter had warned a year earlier that it could not fully absorb a rise of this size without reducing its fixed cost base, and so must restructure. He added that the company remains confident of benefiting from share gains as the largest operator in the UK.

The announcement comes weeks after Dan Taylor, previously CEO of Flutter International, replaced Peter Jackson as CEO of the whole group. Harrington had reported directly to Taylor. Earlier this year Flutter placed 100 Paddy Power shops under review, citing tax increases, economic uncertainty and strong competition. UK & Ireland revenue rose 4% year on year to $971m in the second quarter of 2026. Flutter's core brands in the region are Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Betting & Gaming.

Flutter has said it expects the tax rise to cost it about $540m in 2027, with first-order mitigation of $201m planned. Restructuring costs of $80m to $90m were included in the guidance issued with its Q2 earnings update and will be incurred in the fourth quarter of 2026.