# Flutter Entertainment delivers a positive Q1 performance with revenue growth of 6%

- Link: https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/flutter-entertainment-delivers-a-positive-q1-performance-with-revenue-growth-of-6/4121062943
- Published: 2022-05-04T08:14:09+01:00
- Author: Amilia Stone

**[Flutter Entertainment plc](https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/ftse-company/flutter-entertainment/fltr.l)**(
LON:FLTR) has announced a trading update for three months ended 31 March 2022.

| Unaudited £m | **Q1 2022** | **Q1 2021** | **YoY %** | **YoY % CC^(1)** | 
|  |  |  |  |  | 
| **Average monthly players^(2) (‘000s)** | **8,855** | **7,672** | **+15%** |   | 
|   |   |   |   |   | 
| Sports revenue | 930 | 896 | +4% | +5% | 
| Gaming revenue | 636 | 589 | +8% | +9% | 
| **Total revenue** | **1,566** | **1,485** | **+5%** | **+6%** |

_  __All commentary within this trading update refers to constant currency__^(1)
__ growth rates. Any differences due to rounding._

•    **Group:** Revenue growth of 6% driven by continued strong recreational player
momentum with average monthly players (“AMPs”) up 15%

•     **US:** excellent execution delivering revenue growth of 45% to $574m with
continued strong customer economics

•     **Group ex-US:** 3% decline in revenue or 2% higher excluding known safer 
gambling and regulatory headwinds driven by strong performance in Australia, Canada,
Brazil and India

**•     [Sustainability](https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/sustainability-green-stocks-news):**
Positive Impact Plan progress in Q1 included roll out of mandatory deposit limits
to under 25s in the UK and Ireland, and the launch of our Play Well advertising 
campaign with US ambassador Craig Carton

> **Peter Jackson, Chief Executive, commented:**
> “Flutter Entertainment delivered a positive Q1 performance with revenue growth
> of 6%. The quarter saw us launch our new global sustainability strategy, the Positive
> Impact Plan, aligning commercial goals with our commitment to support our customers,
> colleagues and the communities in which we operate.
> In the US we had another exciting quarter as FanDuel continued to deliver unparalleled
> scale, with the US accounting for over half of all stakes for the Flutter Group
> in Q1. We launched our FanDuel sportsbook in New York and Louisiana in January
> and also expanded into Ontario in April. We beat a number of FanDuel records in
> the quarter; Super Bowl Sunday was the single biggest day ever for new customers
> and we had over 1.5m active customers on the day. March Madness this year also
> proved our most popular season yet attracting 19m wagers across the tournament.
> Outside of the US, our business performed well, adapting to the evolving regulatory
> and trading environment and reflecting the benefits of our global diversification.
> In the UK and Ireland we launched several new products in the quarter. I look 
> forward to the imminent release of the UK Government’s White Paper on its review
> of the Gambling Act. In Australia, Sportsbet delivered good growth from ongoing
> customer driven momentum, with excellent retention of players acquired in 2021.
> Our International business benefitted from strong performance in focus markets
> and we hope to complete the Sisal acquisition in Q3.
> With our enlarged recreational customer base, winning position in the US and ongoing
> focus on sustainable growth, our business remains well placed for the future.”

Divisional analysis

| Unaudited revenue £m | **Total **
**Q1 2022** | **Total ****Q1 2021** | **Total ****YoY % CC** | **Sports ****YoY % CC** | **Gaming ****YoY % CC** |  | **Average monthly players ****Q1 2022 (000s)** | **Average monthly players YoY%** | 
| US | 429 | 288 | 45% | 50% | 34% |   | 2,359 | 43% | 
| UK & Ireland | 519 | 568 | -8% | -21% | 15% |   | 3,627 | 15% | 
| – UK & Ireland Online | 453 | 568 | -20% | -32% | 4% |   | 3,627 | 15% | 
| – UK & Ireland Retail | 65 | – | 100% | 100% | 100% |   |   |   | 
| Australia | 291 | 279 | 8% | 8% |   |   | 915 | 10% | 
| International | 327 | 351 | -5% | -3% | -5% |   | 1,954 | -4% | 
| **Group** | **1,566** | **1,485** | **6%** | **5%** | **9%** |   | **8,855** | **15%** |

**US**

In the US, FanDuel delivered another excellent performance with 2.4m customers and
revenue of £429m ($574m). We remained the number 1 US sportsbook with a 37% online
sports betting share. We acquired over 1.3m new customers in the quarter and similar
to the trends seen in Q1 2021, some of our key promotional mechanics led to reduced
market share particularly around the SuperBowl. Our iGaming share was 20% in Q1^(
3).

Revenue grew by 45% driven by a 43% growth in AMPs, with a number of factors driving
performance:

•     Excellent execution delivered record customer acquisition and engagement with:

◦      Compelling customer economics as cumulative CPAs remain at c.$290 and average
paybacks within 12-18 month range^(4)

◦      Strong SuperBowl/March Madness campaigns with FanDuel the most downloaded
sportsbook app across the events

◦      Successful launches in New York and Louisiana, with New York exceeding expectations
representing the fastest penetration of our daily fantasy sports player base to 
date

•     This strong player momentum more than doubled stakes to £5.7bn ($7.7bn). Sportsbook
revenue was up 89% with net revenue margin 30 basis points lower at 4.1%. Customer
friendly results cost £98m ($132m)^(5) or 175 basis points versus expected margin
in Q1, however, structural margin gains delivered by our leading product proposition
drove additional revenue firepower to offset most of this year-on-year results impact

•     iGaming growth reflects the launch of Connecticut in Q4 and good cross-sell
to SuperBowl and March Madness players. We continued to improve our customer proposition
with FanDuel rated the number 1 casino app in Q1

**UK & Ireland**

**Online**

UK&I online AMPs grew 15% while revenue declined 20% (pro forma for Tombola AMPs
+2%, revenue -26%) due to the expected impact of:

•     Safer gambling measures introduced over the last 12 months (incremental year-
on-year impact £30m in Q1)

•     Favourable sports results in the comparable period with sportsbook net revenue
margin 100 basis points lower year-on-year at 9.6%

•     Peak in player engagement during Q1 2021 from Covid-related restrictions

We continue to sharpen our sports product with the launch of ‘_Buildabet_‘ and ‘
_Acca Assist_‘ in SkyBet. On the gaming side, Sky Vegas launched _‘The Vault’_ and
we continue to see good recreational player growth with gaming AMPs up 9% on a pro
forma basis. We believe that our increased focus on product and efficiency will 
set the division up well for the future.

**Retail**

Our retail estate was fully open during the quarter compared to completely closed
during Q1 2021. Our UK estate has returned to near pre-Covid levels with revenue
just 6% lower than Q1 2019. Our Irish estate was 24% lower than Q1 2019 reflecting
the higher level of societal caution with respect to Covid and is unlikely to return
to pre-Covid levels in the current year.  

**Australia**

At Sportsbet, revenue grew by 8% despite a more challenging market environment with
Covid restrictions easing. Our strong performance was driven by player volumes as
AMP growth accelerated to 10%. Structural improvements in margin driven by our in-
house pricing capabilities and product mix funded an increase in promotional spend.
This led to strong player engagement and good retention of the 2021 Covid-enlarged
customer base. Staking was 7% higher as a result with net revenue margin broadly
flat at 11.5%.

**International**

Revenue in our International division was 5% lower, reflecting the impact of guided
headwinds^(6) in the quarter. Excluding these headwinds revenue grew 6% with strong
growth in focus markets of Canada, Brazil, India, Georgia and Armenia.

We continue to improve the customer proposition by leveraging expertise within the
Group. The Group’s global betting platform has been deployed in Denmark. Junglee
is bringing the concepts of PokerStars ‘_Spin and Go_‘ poker product to the Indian
rummy market.

_^(1 )__Constant currency (“cc”) growth is calculated by retranslating the non-sterling
denominated components of Q1 2021 at Q1 2022 exchange rates. Growth rates in the
commentary are in local or constant currency._

_^(2 )__Average Monthly Players represent the average number of players who have
placed and/or wagered a stake and/or contributed to rake or tournament fees during
the month in the reporting period._

_^(3 )__Online sportsbook market share is the GGR market share of FanDuel and FOX
Bet for Q1 2022 in the states in which FanDuel was live, based on published gaming
regulator reports in those states. During Q1 2022 FanDuel was live in 15 states;
Arizona (AZ), Colorado (CO), Connecticut (CT), Illinois (IL), Indiana (IN), Iowa(
IA), Louisiana (LA), Michigan (MI), New Jersey (NJ), New York (NY), Pennsylvania(
PA), Tennessee (TN), Virginia (VA), West Virginia (WV) and Wyoming (WY). During 
Q1 FOX Bet was live in 4 states; CO, NJ, MI and PA. Market share does not include
AZ for February or AZ, IL, VA, WV and WY for March as the data has yet to be released.
Online gaming market share reflects the combined CT, MI, NJ, PA and WV market share
of our gaming brands._

^(4)_CPA is cost per acquisition and represents the total media and digital marketing
spend per acquired customer including those cross-sold from daily fantasy sports.
The payback period represents the average number of months it takes to generate 
sufficient gross profit to pay back the average CPA to acquire those customers. 
It includes all quarterly cohorts of FanDuel sportsbook acquired between Q3 2018
through Q1 2021._

^(5) _Represents the revenue impact of sports results in Q1 before adjusting for
recycling._

_^(6 )__Guided headwinds in International reflect the impact of the temporary market
exit from the Netherlands, tax changes in Germany and the effects of the ongoing
war in Ukraine on our business in Russia and the Ukraine._

| **Analyst briefing:** Flutter Entertainment will host a questions and answers call for institutional investors and analysts this morning at 9:00am (BST).  To dial into the conference call, participants need to register [here](https://cossprereg.btci.com/prereg/key.process?key=PKJRBNLV3) where they will be provided with the dial in details to access the call. |

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