Flutter Entertainment has confirmed that nearly one in 10 of its Paddy Power shops will close, coming shortly after two of its main high street rivals hinted at doing the same.

The gambling operator, which is the largest in the world by market cap, confirmed to SBC that 57 Paddy Power shops across the UK and Ireland will close at an unspecified date.

Of the 57 shops, 28 will close in Great Britain, 28 in the Republic of Ireland, and one in Northern Ireland. Flutter shared that this will put 247 jobs at risk of redundancy, 128 in the UK and 119 in Ireland.

The company also stated that staff were informed about the closures earlier this week and are being consulted on changes, including the possibility of redeployment opportunities to other Paddy Power shops. However Flutter emphasised that job losses will occur despite this.

A Flutter UKI spokesperson said: “In light of increasing cost pressures and challenging market conditions we can confirm that we will be closing 29 shops across the UK (including one in NI) and 28 Ireland within the next month.

“We are continually reviewing our high street estate, but it remains a key part of our offer to customers, and we are seeking to innovate and invest where we can as we adapt to different customer trends and needs.”

Although one of the world’s biggest gambling groups, Flutter’s UK and Ireland retail presence is limited to Paddy Power, with the remainder of its brands – Sky Bet, Betfair, Tombola etc – being online.

This does not give the company the same staff redeployment possibilities of its rival Entain, owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, collectively the largest retail betting chain on UK high streets around 2,300 shops – though its presence in Ireland is not as extensive.

UK&I retail in need of urgent refresh

When looking at company financials, Flutter’s UK&I performance remains robust, but is not near as substantial as its standing in markets where the US – admittedly its main US asset is market leader FanDuel, so this isn’t an entirely fair comparison.

Nevertheless, Flutter’s H1 UK&I revenue was up just 1% year-over-year in H1 2025 to $936m ($928m). The markets did account for 17% of its iGaming revenue, however, but this indicates that British and Irish online betting is far surpassing Paddy Power’s retail activity.

This in turn will mean that the benefits of running an extensive retail business do not outweigh the costs – unit rent, council tax, energy costs, media rights and data feeds, equipment maintenance, and staff wages.

In contrast, Entain has actually seen some improvements in its retail landscape, however, with the group’s Q3 update published Wednesday 14 October showing a 2% increase in revenue from Ladbrokes and Coral shops.

Evoke, owner of William Hill, has also hinted at a retail recovery in previous quarterly financial updates. However, the looming prospect of the UK government hiking taxes on gambling, likely via a merger of the three types of gaming duty which would increase retail betting’s tax increase from 15% to 21%, has got people worrying.

Both Entain and Evoke have told the press that tax raises could lead to them closing shops, with the latter telling The Sunday Times last weekend that it may have to close 200 William Hill shops as a result of tax increases.

However, retail betting has been on the decline in the UK for some time, with punters increasingly turning to the convenience and ease of online gaming.

Separate Gambling Commission figures this year, for example, showed a 2% drop in gross gaming yield (GGY) from betting shops while customer participation in online betting eclipsed retail participation 38% versus 29%, with lottery sales accounting for a huge chunk of the latter.

Regardless of tax raises, betting shop closures may have been a foregone conclusion, as although Entain and Evoke cite improvements in retail performance, it is inevitable that some shops will still be underperforming.

Flutter, meanwhile, seems to see the writing on the wall with the 57 shop closures announced this week. This is hardly an indicator that Flutter is giving up, however, with the group perhaps embracing an ‘outside the box’ approach to the future of retail.

The closures come a couple of weeks after Paddy Power opened a sportsbook at the London Hippodrome casino, and at the time the bookmaker stated that it is planning trials of other sportsbook concepts across the UK.

Rupert Elwood, Managing Director of Retail at Paddy Power, commented at the time.“Our market is continually evolving and this incredible partnership with the Hippodrome is a brilliant example of how we will invest in new concepts to broaden our reach and react to changing demand.”