Flutter Entertainment to Hand Over £14M as Bonus to its Employees

Flutter Entertainment is set to give 14,000 staff a £1000 bonus as a result of their work during the pandemic.

The Paddy Power owner saw profit slide 70% after major sports events were cancelled amid the pandemic.

Chief executive Peter Jackson said, “maybe we are all bookmakers at heart [and] there is a degree of risk-taking.”

The handout came as Jackson hit out at the gambling ad ban which would constitute the biggest shake-up in the industry for decades.

Officials have warned members of the sports industry that a crackdown on gambling sponsors is under consideration.

Such a move would be a seismic shock for sports clubs, and mark the biggest shake-up in sports advertising since the outlawing of tobacco sponsors.

Football clubs, which would be the worst hit by such a measure, have warned that the timing of the move is wrong.

Premier League and Championship sides take in about £110m a year from shirt sponsorship. Half the Premier League teams have some form of betting shirt sponsor.

“If gambling is not allowed to continue its association with sports, because that’s what the Government decides, I think there would need to be a good transition period. I don’t think that the switch would be an easy one because the gambling industry is a source of revenue for the sector … A lot of these sports are saying: Now’s a really difficult time for us because we’ve lost all gate receipts … Please don’t make life harder for us,” Peter Jackson said.

“But as we’ve all shown over the last 12 months, people are very adaptable and… sports could get there with enough notice.”