Flutter set to bet US listing will be on to a winner

Amy Howe, FanDuel’s chief executive, told CNN it expected around 17 million bets on the game. A report on CNBC said it accepted 50,000 a minute at its peak, averaging two million active users on its platform during the game.

It wasn’t just the Kansas City Chiefs who emerged victorious from the 57th Super Bowl. The gambling industry was celebrating what turned out to be a massive win for betting in the US.

Two days after the Super Bowl, Flutter announced it was considering a US listing to consolidate its position in the burgeoning American betting market. The location for the listing would be determined after discussions with shareholders but would be between the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.

Currently, the US listing is set to be secondary, although it could become the primary one. Shares of Flutter are listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Irish Stock Exchange.

Flutter and its competitors, such as 888 and Entain, are being hit with heavier regulation in the UK and Ireland as governments seek to tackle problem gambling. The US market appears to be the future, with analysts at investment bank Jefferies flagging it could be three times larger than the rest of the world by 2030.

Flutter’s US bet has been paying off. Its online sportsbook FanDuel is the largest in the market.

The company said FanDuel, which had been tipped for a separate US IPO, was “a $3bn revenue business with a clear runway for growth”, adding it was on track to achieve profitability for the year.

Despite the announcement, Flutter reiterated that it had no plans to move operations away from the UK and Ireland, and management would not be moving to the US.

The appeal of a US listing for Flutter is clear. It once saw rival DraftKings – focused on the American market – achieve a sky-high valuation that at one point dwarfed Flutter as a whole despite steep losses. That has since reversed, with Flutter now valued well ahead of its US rival.

Analysts welcomed the listing news. Investec wrote that the move “makes strong strategic sense”.

“FanDuel is becoming the largest revenue contributor to the Flutter group, and an even larger proportion of its value. A US listing would provide even greater transparency to such value, increase Flutter’s liquidity and facilitate access to deeper US-based capital markets and talents.”

Jefferies also welcomed the move, though it noted the 75pc approval required from shareholders “is a high hurdle”.

Deutsche Bank said Flutter had been on a solid run, partially reflecting the favourable conclusion of the US arbitration tribunal review of Fox’s option to acquire an 18.6pc stake in FanDuel.

You wouldn’t bet against Flutter creating more shareholder value thanks to its US punt with FanDuel. Its share price has risen from around €90 in mid-July to nearly €148 at the time of writing.