As Gambling Insider sits in Flutter Entertainment’s new London office, it is evident we are in conversation with the very pinnacle of our industry. At the time of writing, Flutter boasts a $280 share price, a $49.9bn market capitalisation and Q3 revenue of $3.25bn. Thanks to its market-leading US brand, FanDuel, it was able to generate over $100m in gross gaming revenue in New York – in November alone. Through a series of effective mergers, executive hires and key decisions, the gambling giant has gone from strength to strength, at a time when competitors looking to replicate similar growth have repeatedly hit a variety of different stumbling blocks.
But what about the man charged with leading this near-$50bn company? At Gambling Insider, our CEO Specials have previously featured personnel at the very heart of the group, such as Dan Taylor, Flutter International CEO, and Amy Howe, FanDuel CEO. Now, though, we speak with Peter Jackson – the executive they report to. From early inspirations to a recently announced restructuring of the organisation’s global divisions, we seek out the goals, motivations and learnings of the CEO at the helm of the entire Flutter empire.
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“I started my career working in Leeds, in the tax department for Arthur Andersen, before I went to university,” Jackson tells Gambling Insider, keen to emphasise his Yorkshire heritage. “I worked for them for a year, studied engineering at university and then went to work for McKinsey for three years, where I mainly did media work. I’m from Yorkshire originally so, when I looked around at interesting opportunities after those three years at McKinsey, I found HBOS, the Halifax Bank of Scotland. The beauty of my role there was I got to spend time in Yorkshire and London. I was in London as a consultant, but actually spent more time in Yorkshire – which was a good thing for me.”
Now heading up one of the biggest firms in gambling, Jackson’s career spans a number of industries – including plenty of time in the banking sector. Indeed, the executive “didn’t imagine” he would be at HBOS for long – and yet ended up with the bank for seven years. During this time he experienced “quite a lot of ups and downs” – not least the global financial crisis. In September 2008, three days after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Lloyds Bank rescued HBOS, taking over the company and moving Jackson up to run its consumer bank.
Over time, the culture changed “a lot” and Jackson found himself seeking a new challenge. One day, he read that the Chief Executive of Travelex was leaving his role, prompting a phone call to Chairman Lloyd Dorfman. Jackson went from “slightly pulling his leg” over the opportunity to actually being offered the role, accepting it and going on to run the foreign exchange company. “I discovered afterwards that many very well-qualified people had turned down the opportunity because they thought it was a basket case, which it was initially, but the team were great. We turned the business around and sold it.”
CHALLENGER BRANDS
This precise point in Jackson’s career brought about his first experience of gaming. While at Travelex in early 2013, he joined the Board at Betfair. Far from envisioning becoming the CEO of Flutter at this point (Betfair had yet to even merge with Paddy Power), Jackson made the move to gain some experience at a public limited company. “Travelex was owned by private equity and one of the likely exit mechanisms was to list the business. I’d never been on a board, never mind run a public company.” Other factors Jackson attributes to what would become a pivotal career choice include his passion for technology and, in particular, “challenger brands.” “It was very exciting,” he recalls. “I joined the Board at Betfair, which then merged with Paddy Power in 2015 and I was fortunate enough to be selected to stay on the Board. In the meantime, I’d left Travelex – we sold the business. I did several different things in and around payments. I worked for Santander for a while running their digital business, then I ran the UK and European businesses for Worldpay.”
In late 2017, however, Paddy Power Betfair CEO Breon Corcoran decided to step down, prompting Jackson to throw his hat into the ring as his replacement – and succeed. This step up began a journey that has lasted seven years and counting. It is not a position Jackson ever imagined holding in his younger days, he admits, although he did always envision a future in “something commercial.” He adds: “I think there’s a degree of genetic influence that impacts things. My dad was always an entrepreneur, often involved in the car trade, so I’ve always been interested in business.”
Jackson’s enthusiasm for challenger brands can specifically be traced back to his time at McKinsey – an organisation FanDuel CEO Howe also spent 14 years with. He learned plenty during his time in the London office but “by far the most influential thing that happened” was a lunch Jackson attended one Friday. He explains: “In those days at McKinsey, they’d often invite external speakers and, one day, we had a chap called Adam Morgan come in, who had written a book called Eating the Big Fish. It’s all about challenger brands and what Adam talked about really resonated with me. Ultimately, do you want to work for a challenger brand, which is going to be focused on serving what customers want and attacking the soft underbelly of the incumbent? Or do you want to work for the incumbent, doing today what you did yesterday? It’s not a difficult decision. I’ve always tried to work for challenger brands.”
BANKING ON A GOOD BET
When Gambling Insider asks Jackson about the similarities between banking and gambling, the CEO acknowledges a plethora when dealing with customers across both sectors. After all, whether in financial services or gambling, Jackson has “nearly always been in the consumer space.” He says: “Making sure you hold what customers want at the forefront is important. When you’re looking at cohorts of customers, you have to ensure you’re not fooled into thinking that consumers behave like they do across an average. They don’t. You often get distinct behaviours within cohorts, which you can miss if you look at a cohort on aggregate.” Jackson also highlights the importance of technology: “We all use our mobile phones now to access our current accounts. That’s changed the way banks have to go to market – and it’s the same for the gambling sector.”
Fast forward to today and there is crossover, too, between Jackson’s day job as Flutter CEO and another role he currently holds: as an Independent Non-Executive Director at food delivery business, Deliveroo. Once again, both organisations are “ultimately focused on consumers,” with an international focus and basis formed by technology. “I think it’s a very privileged thing to be able to sit on the Board of another business, experience how it works and the drivers and mechanisms; it definitely helps me. You take lessons back into your business and hopefully I can contribute something to that team.”
At Flutter, the operator’s focus on customers (and the differences across customer cohorts) is built into a decentralised, federated operating model. This gives local teams “full empowerment” to run their businesses and do “what’s needed to win” in local markets. Here, Jackson refers to Howe as a perfect example. Running FanDuel in the US, she has access to “all the capabilities she needs.” This means access to the Flutter Edge, a “very important” component for the organisation in bringing products, expertise, technology and scale benefits to different parts of the group. “Having worked in many different organisations over the years, some serving them as a consultant, one of the big lessons for me is you have to be really close to what your customers want,” Jackson reinforces. “I don’t think I ever remember anyone coming from head office to help, which is often what they claim.”
“THE BEST DEALS WE’VE DONE ARE THE ONES WE HAVEN’T”
In May 2018, Jackson’s Flutter – then still named Paddy Power Betfair – acquired a 61% share in US fantasy sports brand FanDuel for $158m, agreeing to increase its stake to 95% in December 2020. The acquisition proceeded to transform both Flutter and the wider industry landscape in the years that followed. Today, the group is primary listed in the US and, for Q3, reported $1.25bn in US revenue – 38.5% of Flutter’s worldwide total. Given the common nature of big-money deals not living up to their full potential in the gambling sector, is buying FanDuel the best decision the company has ever made?
“Look, it’s definitely stood us in very good stead,” Jackson tells Gambling Insider. “But we make decisions every day trying to serve our customers. At the time, it wasn’t seen as an obvious ‘best decision we’d ever made’ type deal. A lot of people were worried, and people were worried we were spending too much money on acquiring customers. But we were always very focused on having the best product in the market. We actually started building the product even before we acquired FanDuel and way before PASPA was overturned (giving individual states the power to legalise sports betting, also in May 2018). Having the best product helps you win for customers; it’s the most important thing you can do. But there have been many other businesses that haven’t been as successful, despite having some of the ingredients. So luck definitely plays its part in a similar light again.”
There's a lot of revenue we switch off, a lot of customers that we turn away and block from the platform. I think often people don't appreciate that – Peter Jackson
Flutter’s acquisitions have gained industry recognition for their success and efficiency. Unlike with some of the operator’s rivals, there have been no activist investors protesting high-profile takeovers, and a history of dealmaking has led to a strong position across multiple international markets. Significantly, in 2019, it was agreed that Flutter would merge with The Stars Group, bringing brands like PokerStars and Sky Bet under the same umbrella. Even as recently as this September, Flutter bought Italian operator Snaitech from Playtech for €2.3bn ($2.43bn), while in the same month acquiring a 56% stake in Brazilian operator NSX Group for $350m.
And yet Jackson provides a telling insight when we ask him for a ‘secret M&A formula:’ “The best deals we’ve done are probably the deals we haven’t done. We definitely say no many, many more times than we say yes. You see the ones we say yes to but the market doesn’t see the ones we say no to. So I think that’s a very important consideration. The other thing, though, is that we know when we acquire these businesses, we empower the local management team by having that local hero strategy, wanting the podium positions in local markets. It’s very difficult to do that from an office in Dublin, New York or Leeds. We find the right teams locally, that we can empower and give access to our products, providing them with expertise, technology and scale that will help them thrive.”
WHERE DOES THE RESPONSIBILITY LIE?
In today’s gambling market, with the proliferation of online activity and a greater offering of betting options than ever before, it is inevitable that individual players can end up accruing significant losses. If Flutter – or any other operator in the industry – is reporting billions in quarterly revenue, someone somewhere is losing money betting. That is the unavoidable formula behind how the industry works, and it is one that raises both philosophical and practical questions. The gambling sector of the present is more focused on gaming as an entertainment option, attracting as many customers as possible to place casual bets – or even flutters shall we say. But there will be times when customers deposit huge amounts, creating the issue of exactly when an operator must step in to help them from a responsible gambling perspective. It is an issue that, following heavy losses, can even result in individual cases being taken to court.
“Since I started at the beginning of 2018, we’ve always been very, very serious about safer gambling and responsible wagering,” Jackson says. “We invest heavily, last year $100m. There’s a lot of revenue we switch off, a lot of customers that we turn away and block from the platform. I think often people don’t appreciate that. They think we talk about it, but they don’t see that we actually do it. And if you read our Positive Impact Plan, you can see some of the statistics we have in terms of the actions we take. So it’s something we take very, very seriously; it’s something I am very involved with alongside the rest of my management team, and we want to lead the race to the top. If we’re uncomfortable with what a customer’s doing, we’ll engage with them and intervene.”
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
One of the most mature gambling markets in the world – and a market where the question of responsibility is perhaps asked most in today’s climate – the UK will always hold huge importance for Flutter. Following the drawn-out Government White Paper on gambling, a number of new rules are now being put into place – such as £5 ($6.37) stake limits for online slots (and £2 for under-25s). In Ireland, too, the Gambling Regulation Act was passed in October, creating a period of considerable change in the markets where it all began for Flutter.
For the company itself, however, change is also afoot internally. In November, Flutter announced the promotion of PokerStars CEO Kevin Harrington, who will succeed Ian Brown as Flutter UK & Ireland CEO. Under a new structure, Harrington’s division will be one of five reporting to the aforementioned Taylor, Flutter’s International CEO, while Howe will continue to run the US division. “At the moment, we’re a big, complicated business and it’s a little while since we made any changes to our organisational structure,” Jackson explains. “This is a small change we’ve made; we will run our FanDuel business under Amy’s leadership, and Dan Taylor will run the rest of the world under what we’ll call this International segment.
“Dan will have five regions, each of which will have a CEO and, as part of that new structure we are putting in place at the beginning of 2025, Kevin Harrington is going to take over and run that UK & Ireland business. I’m delighted, as I’ve known Kevin for a very long time. He was at Betfair when I joined the business and he’ll do a tremendous job for us. I was sad to see Ian go, he’s done a great job for us in terms of the trajectory the set for the UK & Ireland business. But he decided it’s time for him to leave and we’ve got a great person who can step into his shoes.”
The best deals we've done are probably the deals we haven't done. We definitely say no many, many more times than we say yes – Peter Jackson
FORZA ITALIA
Moving in a south-easterly direction, another European market that has generated plenty of headlines for Flutter of late is Italy. As already mentioned, Flutter recently spent €2.3bn to onboard a new B2C Italian-facing operator in Snaitech. But its presence in Italy is already noteworthy, given its December 2021 acquisition of Sisal. This September, industry analysts told Gambling Insider that Flutter is considering heavy investment in Sisal ahead of a potential lottery bid, perhaps inspired by the changing of the guard in the UK – Camelot losing its National Lottery licence, to Allwyn, for the first time since 1994.
Jackson himself said as much in Flutter’s Q3 conference call, and here he tells Gambling Insider: “Italy is a tough market. It’s one where operators that have retail footprints are doing better than the digital-only players. That’s something we have seen over the years with different brands: when they’re all owned separately, Italy becomes a difficult market. When you look at Francesco [Durante] and the team at Sisal, they have done a brilliant job. I couldn’t be more proud of the results they’re delivering in terms of market share and the work they’re doing for their customers. They lead with responsible gambling and all aspects of the business are very strong. So I think it’ll be exciting to see what they can do. When the regulators close the Snaitech acquisition, we can bulk up the business and have even more great customers to serve.”
A STAR-SPANGLED FUTURE
As we round off our London interview with the Flutter CEO, Gambling Insider can admit to being stuck for an original question about America. “We’re struggling with what to ask about the US, because you are in such a good position there. But perhaps there’s a question there in itself: how do you maintain that position in the long run?” Here, Jackson wants Flutter to “stay hungry” and “humble” to avoid becoming the very type of company he “always worried about.”
Heading into 2025, that means delivering short-term incremental changes from a product perspective, as well as “longer-term exciting developments” for customers. “Look, we’re not going to rest on our laurels. We continue to acquire as many customers as we can in the US and let them have access to our fantastic product. If we can keep doing that, I’m sure the business can keep growing.” Naturally, the aim is for Flutter to maintain its US leadership position, where it was always #1 for market share in sports betting but, in 2024, also became #1 for online casino. Howe and her team are doing a “tremendous job,” Jackson says, a job that has seen her named American Executive of the Year for three years running at the Global Gaming Awards. Yet there is “lots more to go” – both in potential new states and the states in which FanDuel is already live.
More broadly, Jackson feels Flutter’s strategy is “clear.” Internationally, there remains a huge total addressable market the CEO is as keen as ever to target. “There are many markets where we are number one – but there are more we’re not in yet.” There are no surprises as Jackson tells us M&A, too, will continue to be an “important component” of the company’s strategy. “We’ve got to keep winning in the markets we’re operating in. I think Dan will take that business from strength to strength and the glue that holds all of Dan’s regions together, making us so powerful, is the Flutter Edge. I think Phil [Bishop, COO] and his team will continue to make sure that, from a product perspective, expertise, technology and scale, we can drive those benefits across the business. So we’ve got our strategy, we understand the benefits of those three areas and, of course, it has to be underpinned by our Positive Impact Plan.”
Indeed, given his passion for challenger brands, Jackson’s firm faces a different type of hurdle in today’s landscape: how to remain a market leader without becoming the complacent incumbent he alluded to earlier in our interview. But, after 84 months in the job, there is certainly no air of complacency we can sense here. With Flutter, Jackson is playing to win.
