The owner of Paddy Power and Betfair, Flutter Entertainment, has reported on a record-breaking start to the year.
The number of bets placed on the Super Bowl was the highest it’s ever been, while some bookie-friendly results in the Premier League – thanks to the relative levels of demise of Arsenal and Manchester City – has only served to enhance their profitability.
And so strong has their start to 2025 been, Flutter have even increased their projected growth for the year ahead.
Good Results
Flutter’s brands include Paddy Power, Betfair, Sky Bet and FanDuel
The group recorded revenues of £10.9 billion in 2024, which was nearly 20% higher than in 2023 – despite the NFL season being something of a disaster for the bookies.
A catalogue of games saw odds-on favourites win and the most popular handicaps, total points and prop bets prevail; all of which was described as a ‘customer friendly’ state of affairs.
So much so that FanDuel, which is one of Flutter’s flagship brands in the United States, was forced to tell shareholders that revenue was likely to be a staggering $370 million (£287 million) lower than expected.
But those profit margins were given a boost courtesy of the Super Bowl, which was contested by the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
The Chiefs were the odds-on favourites with Flutter, but the Eagles soared to win 40-22 in a high scoring contest that also dented the hopes of total points backers expecting a more conservative affair.
All of which was good news for Flutter, with three million punters placing a combined tally of 18 million bets with their brands – at a total of a rather handsome £367 million.
And the good times have kept on rolling since the February showpiece, with both Arsenal and Manchester City continuing to fail to win despite entering games as odds-on favourites.
Premier League table-toppers Liverpool have also dropped points against Everton and Aston Villa in recent weeks, with the Reds also dumped out of the FA Cup by Championship strugglers Plymouth Argyle.
All of which has put a pep in the step of Flutter, who have enhanced their expected earnings forecast in 2025… including a 34% increase, year on year, in the United States alone, which would account for around half of Flutter’s global revenue.
Having switched their main stock exchange listing from London to New York in 2024, the Paddy Power and Betfair operator will be delighted with their results on both sides of the pond.
Putting On a Show
Speaking of the Super Bowl…
The American football showpiece is well known for its half-time extravaganza, which in 2025 saw Kendrick Lamar take to the stage.
So anticipated is the show that TV viewing figures tend to spike higher for the performance than they do for the actual Super Bowl game itself. A staggering 133 million tuned in for Lamar’s performance, which broke Michael Jackson’s record set back in 1993.
It’s the sort of razzmatazz that has not gone unnoticed by FIFA, who are now planning to introduce their own half-time show for the first time at the World Cup final of 2026.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has already confirmed plans are afoot for the spectacle, which will take place during the World Cup final at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, which is scheduled to be played on July 19, 2026. He commented:
“I can confirm the first ever half-time show at a FIFA World Cup final in New York New Jersey.
“This will be a historic moment for the FIFA World Cup and a show befitting the biggest sporting event in the world.”
Very mild rockers Coldplay have been asked to curate the line-up for the show, which will likely feature globally-renowned pop stars and lower key names representing different cultures and nationalities.
It would be a fitting occasion for the United States, who last hosted the World Cup in 1994 – complete with a star-studded opening and closing ceremony. However, the Super Bowl’s half-time show has a 30-minute window allocated to enable the stage to be constructed on the pitch… will that mean an extended half-time break for the World Cup final?
It’s quite possible that such a half-time show will also attract a series of prop bets not unlike those placed at the Super Bowl. Sportsbooks on both sides of the Atlantic took bets on which artists would perform, which celebrity guests would appear and even which song would be performed first.