Up to 1,400 jobs are set to go across Flutter Entertainment’s UK and Ireland business, with the company pointing to the gambling tax increases announced in the UK’s 2025 Autumn Budget. The proposed redundancies are still subject to consultation and would hit around 15% of the roughly 9,000 people working in the division, which covers Paddy Power, Betfair, Sky Betting & Gaming, PokerStars, and tombola.
Leeds and Dublin are both affected, as are staff working for the UK and Ireland business out of Flutter’s hubs in Porto, Portugal, and Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Betfair Romania Development said around 300 UK and Ireland roles in Cluj-Napoca are expected to go, while UK reports put the planned cuts around Leeds at roughly 350. Flutter hasn’t published a full breakdown by location or business unit.
The restructuring is expected to cost between $80 million and $90 million, booked in the fourth quarter of 2026. Flutter said the cuts belong to the cost reductions it had already planned in response to the higher UK gambling taxes, not to any new financial problem inside the division.
Remote Gaming Duty went from 21% to 40% on April 1, 2026, covering profits from online casino games including slots. Most remote bets move to a new 25% rate of General Betting Duty on April 1, 2027, up from 15% today, though remote bets on UK horse racing stay at 15%, as do bets placed through self-service betting terminals in licensed premises.
After the 2025 Budget, Flutter estimated those changes would knock around $320 million off adjusted EBITDA in 2026 and $540 million in 2027 before any action to offset them. Its initial plan relied on cutting operational, marketing, and promotional spending, which it expected to cover about 20% of the gross tax hit during the first six months after each increase and around 40% after that.
Flutter UK and Ireland CEO Kevin Harrington said the company couldn’t absorb a tax rise of that size without cutting fixed costs, and argued that higher duties had changed the economics of Britain’s regulated gambling market in a way that could push more customers toward unlicensed operators. That’s Flutter’s position on the changes, while the government brought in the higher rates as part of a decision to raise more revenue from remote gambling while abolishing Bingo Duty.
A separate review of around 100 Paddy Power betting shops was already underway, potentially affecting another 400 jobs. That one concerns Flutter’s retail estate rather than the newly announced restructuring, though the company has tied pressure on its high-street business to the same tax and cost environment. Paddy Power runs more than 500 shops across the UK and Ireland.
Entain has also announced job cuts while citing the duty increases, and the wider industry has stepped up its lobbying ahead of the next Budget. Betting companies are particularly worried the government could raise Machine Games Duty, which currently sits at a standard rate of 20% on most machines in betting shops and other gambling venues.
The Betting and Gaming Council has seized on Flutter’s announcement to renew its criticism of higher gambling taxes, warning that further increases could bring more redundancies and shop closures. The industry body has been campaigning against another rise while MPs and policy groups push for a higher Machine Games Duty rate, including proposals to lift the standard rate on Category B machines to 40%.
Harrington said the group believes its scale will help it win market share despite the heavier tax burden, and Flutter still expects its UK and Ireland business to stay competitive after the restructuring. Even so, up to 1,400 positions makes this its largest announced workforce reduction in the region since the new tax rates were confirmed last year.