Flutter's revenue growth accelerates to 30% in Q3

n a trading update for the 3 months ended 30 September 2020, Flutter Entertainment announced group online revenue growth of +33% as it focused on the return of sports. Average daily customers grew 41% globally, with double-digit growth across all key regions.

In the UK & Ireland, Paddy Power and SBG brands took share, with revenue growth of +32% and +26% respectively.

"Flutter's performance in the third quarter exceeded our expectations in both sports and gaming.  Our strong trading continued as we grew market share in key regions while retaining our commitment to safer gambling practices. During the quarter we continued to expand our recreational customer base while bringing our businesses together. This included the successful migration of the BetEasy customer base onto the Sportsbet platform in Australia," said Peter Jackson, Chief Executive.

Other highlights included:

• Stand-out Australian performance; revenue +76% with BetEasy customer migration successfully completed
• Normalization of revenue trends at PokerStars; improved clarity on German regulation
• US #1 position maintained; 46% online sportsbook market share and total online share of 29%4. Better-than-forecast new customer acquisition of over 450,000 with over 1.8m active customers in Q3; significant, multi-year, tier 1 media partnerships signed; continuing to secure long-term access to key assets; and total US GGR5 now expected to be over $1.1bn in 2020 with NGR of over $850m.

"We are very pleased to have retained our position as the number 1 online operator in the US, where FanDuel has made significant progress against each of its key priorities. We have enhanced the customer experience, secured further strategic media partnerships, and acquired more new customers than anticipated. We are on track to generate more than $1.1 billion of GGR in the US this year, which will mark a major 'first' for an online operator," Jackson continued.

Outlook:

• Group ex-US 2020 EBITDA expected to be £1,275-1,350m driven by higher customer volumes across all divisions (previous guidance: £1,175-1,325m)
• In the US, increased investment in customer acquisition expected to lead to an EBITDA loss of £160m-180m (previous guidance: £140-160m)

"We are now a truly global business with significant scale. As such we are in a unique position to respond to the many opportunities we see across our growing markets. Looking ahead, whilst the outlook with respect to Covid-19 remains uncertain, we are confident that our business is well positioned to capture further growth in a sustainable and responsible way," Jackson concluded.

See Flutter Entertainment's Q3 2020 Trading Update here.