Flutter veteran Taylor to replace Jackson as CEO, profit guidance downgraded again

By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Betting giant Flutter Entertainment named company veteran and head of its international division Dan Taylor as incoming CEO on Wednesday, succeeding Peter Jackson who said he and the board had agreed it was the right time for new leadership.

 Taylor, who will take over from October 1, had only assumed the expanded role of Flutter president in May to oversee the group's underperforming U.S. operations, part of a management shake-up at its market-leading FanDuel brand.

Flutter made the announcement as it cut its full-year core profit forecast for a fourth successive quarter, this time due to planned investment in the U.S. That was despite a lower-than-expected second-quarter fall and a strong third-quarter start. 

SHARES TRADING LOWER IN PRE-MARKET 

Flutter's shares, which have dropped 65% over the last year as investors assess the potential impact fast-growing prediction markets may have on sports betting, were 7% lower in pre-market trading.

"The board and I have agreed that now is the right time for a new leader to guide Flutter into its next chapter," Jackson told Reuters when asked if the decision to leave the Irish-founded group was his alone.

Flutter Chair John Bryant thanked Jackson for transforming the group into the world's largest online betting company with annual revenue of $16 billion compared to just $2 billion when he took charge almost nine years ago.

Taylor has been with Flutter for more than a decade and was in charge of its main UK Paddy Power Betfair brands from 2018 to 2020 before becoming head of all non-U.S. operations where he oversaw a number of big acquisitions in Italy and Brazil.

He will be tasked with reversing fortunes at FanDuel, which had been growing rapidly until the last year, while both seeing off the threat posed by dominant prediction market players such as Polymarket and Kalshi, and making its own moves in the space.

Flutter's second-quarter core earnings (EBITDA) fell 45% to $508 million, still above the $478 million average estimate of 19 analysts with LSEG SmartEstimate.

However, it forecast a 7% fall in full-year core profit to $2.65 billion, below the $2.87 billion it flagged in May and $2.79 billion expected by analysts. The planned investments are expected to hit profit by $270 million.

Analysts had expected earnings to grow to $3.5 billion as recently as February before Flutter issued disappointing guidance for the year.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin, Editing by Louise Heavens and Tomasz Janowski)