Flutter plans up to 1,400 UK and Ireland job cuts over tax rise

Flutter Entertainment plans to restructure its UK and Ireland operations in response to higher gambling taxes announced in the UK government's autumn 2025 Budget, the company announced on 20 October 2026. The plans are subject to consultation and are expected to result in up to 1,400 job cuts, Flutter said.

The decision affects employees at several sites, including Leeds in the UK and Dublin in Ireland, as well as UK and Irish operations staff employed at Flutter's hubs in Porto, Portugal, and Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Flutter employs 28,500 people worldwide, of whom 9,000 work in its UK and Ireland operations.

The costs of implementing the restructuring are estimated at $80m-90m. Flutter said these had already been included in the updated guidance communicated in its second-quarter results update and will be incurred in Q4 2026.

Flutter said the restructuring falls within the first-tier cost mitigation measures it had already outlined and is expected to deliver additional cost mitigation benefits while preserving investment in its commercial offering. The company said it continues to expect the tax increases to have a very significant impact on the market as a whole.

Kevin Harrington, chief executive of Flutter UK & Ireland, said his immediate priority is to provide support to the colleagues involved and to guide teams through what he said would be a difficult period for those affected. He said the increase in betting and gambling taxes announced in the UK Budget had changed the economics of the regulated UK betting and gambling sector and had helped to feed the illegal and unregulated market. Harrington said Flutter could not fully absorb an increase of that scale without reducing its fixed cost base, and that the company remains confident it is well positioned to gain market share as the largest operator in the UK by size and operational scale.