Flutter Entertainment plans to cut up to 1,400 jobs in its UK & Ireland business, about 16% of the division’s 9,000 staff, in response to higher UK gambling taxes. The Flutter job cuts, announced on 20 October 2026 and subject to consultation, will cost $80m to $90m in Q4 2026.
Where the Flutter job cuts fall
Flutter said the plans would affect employees in Leeds, in the UK, and Dublin, in Ireland. UK & Ireland staff based at the group’s hubs in Porto, Portugal, and Cluj-Napoca, Romania, are also in scope.
The group employs 28,500 people worldwide, according to the announcement. Its UK & Ireland division runs Sky Betting & Gaming, Paddy Power, Betfair, tombola and PokerStars, and has been led by Kevin Harrington since January 2025, when Flutter named him chief executive of UK & Ireland.
The UK tax bill
The restructure is part of the first-order cost mitigation Flutter had already guided for after the UK government’s Autumn Budget 2025. According to Flutter, the UK tax on iGaming rose 19 percentage points to 40% in April 2026, and the duty on sports betting, excluding horseracing, rises 10 points to 25% in April 2027.
Flutter puts the adjusted EBITDA impact of the UK iGaming tax changes at $540m in 2027, of which it expects to offset $201m through first-order mitigation. At its Q2 2026 update, the group raised its guidance for restructuring, transaction and integration costs to $500m; the $80m to $90m for the UK & Ireland programme sits inside that figure.
The company said the restructure should also deliver second-order savings by protecting investment in its customer offer, and that it expects to gain market share in the UK. Bally’s Intralot also flagged the UK tax hit when it reaffirmed its EBITDA guidance in April.
Harrington’s statement
Harrington said his first priority was support for the staff affected.
My immediate focus is providing the necessary support for all of our impacted colleagues and guiding our teams through what we know is going to be a difficult and challenging period for all concerned.
Kevin Harrington, Chief Executive, Flutter UK & Ireland, in a statement
He tied the decision directly to the Budget and to the unlicensed market in the UK.
The material increase in betting and gaming duties announced in the UK Budget last year has fundamentally changed the economic model of the regulated betting and gaming industry in the UK while helping to fuel the unlicensed, unregulated market.
As we warned a year ago, we cannot fully absorb a rise of this magnitude without reducing our fixed cost base and therefore must restructure our business so that we can best position ourselves for the future. We remain confident that we are well placed to benefit from share gains given our position as the largest scale operator in the UK.
Kevin Harrington, Chief Executive, Flutter UK & Ireland
The Flutter cuts add to the iGaming layoffs recorded across the sector in 2026.
Next steps
Consultation with affected employees in the UK, Ireland, Portugal and Romania comes before any redundancy is confirmed. Flutter expects to book the $80m to $90m restructuring cost in Q4 2026, and the higher UK sports betting duty takes effect in April 2027.
Source: Flutter Entertainment
