Flutter Entertainment is pressing ahead with a restructure of its marketing department  at Paddy Power, according to an email seen by SBC News.

An internal email sent by Michelle Spillane, the Managing Director of Paddy Power Online, confirmed that marketing restructurings are underway across the omnichannel brand, which include the potential for redundancies.

According to the email, all employees across Paddy Power’s retail, brand strategy and content marketing teams have been informed of the decision – however, the specifics of those discussions were not detailed.

A Flutter UK&I spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Paddy Power is reviewing the structure of its marketing operation in light of the changes announced in the Budget. These changes will unfortunately place a small number of colleagues at risk of redundancy. We will be working closely with those impacted through this process.”

The development is unsurprising, and has been hinted at by Flutter Entertainment ever since tax raises were confirmed in the November budget by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves.

Shortly after the tax hikes were announced, Flutter, Ladbrokes Coral owner Entain, and Wiliam Hill owner evoke all announced that marketing budgets would probably shrink as a result. A widely touted figure was a reduction of 20%.

Remote Gaming Duty (RGD), the tax paid on online gambling, will double from 21% to 40% from 1 April 2026. With the tax hikes fast approaching, Flutter appears to be putting mitigation measures in place.

Paddy Power’s marketing madness

Paddy Power is a core Flutter brand with an extensive retail and online presence across the UK and Ireland. The company has played a central role in the development of Flutter Entertainment as a business.

Flutter has its origins in the merger between Paddy Power and Betfair in 2015. In 2018, the firm announced that it was going to acquire US operator FanDuel, now its largest asset and key growth driver, the following year rebranded as Flutter Entertainment. Then, two years later, it acquired Sky Bet.

Marketing has been a central pillar ofPaddy Power’s UK and Irish success. The firm is known for its often outside-the-box, tongue-in-cheek approach to marketing, which has, at times, walked a tightrope of controversy,  with some adverts having been removed from UK television.

Notable examples included a Cheltenham Festival TV ad in which a man walked round the racecourse shooting disruptive ‘chavs’ with a tranquiliser dart. Another saw a man playing blindfold football accidentally kick a cat instead of the ball.

In recent years, the firm has been expanding heavily into online content marketing with skit-style shorts shared across YouTube, Instagram, X and TikTok – so far, it’s amassed 775,400 followers on X and 277,000 on Instagram. 

The new confirmation that the company could soon be making redundancies across its marketing departments follows the revelation last year that it would close 57 shops across Britain and Ireland, with up to 247 retail jobs at risk.

Regardless of tax hikes, restructurings have been underway at Flutter for some time. The Flutter UK and Ireland division was created as a way to consolidate its UK and Irish operations across Paddy Power, Betfair, Sky Bet, Tombola and PokerStars, among other brands with a presence in both markets.

In June last year, the company confirmed that it was relocating its Sky Bet HQ to Malta amid the debate around taxation and the subsequent fall-out from the  Gambling Act review recommendations. It still maintains UK and Ireland hubs, however, across locations in Dublin, London and Leeds.

Flutter soldiers on

Flutter, like its rivals in Entain, evoke, Betfred and others, has been forced to accept the reality of the government’s tax hikes. Despite extensive campaigning last year, the industry and its main representative, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), was unable to convince the Treasury.

This has not stopped corporate leadership from maintaining that the tax hikes were and still are a bad idea, however. Kevin Harrington, Chief Executive Officer of Flutter UK and Ireland, reiterated this point in a recent appearance on the Business Post Podcast, for example.

“There was confusion going into that budget as to whether the government was in a £30bn deficit or a £20bn deficit,” he said.

“The Office for Budget Responsibility released their budget statement 45 minutes early by accident– there’s a lot of things going on and I think gambling was seen as a free hit.”

Despite the challenges, Flutter remains confident that it can ride out the coming tax storm – it just seems that marketing may not factor into this as much as it did in previous years. 

Leadership is also confident it may also be able to seize more market share as smaller firms are forced to exit the UK. It’s not the only one to express this view, however, with Super Group’s CEO saying the same on a recent iGaming Daily podcast appearance.

Harrington added: “It’s a seismic shock to the market – there are other operators that don’t have our scale, that will struggle more. And we’ll see, and we’ll hope, that we can take up some of that share, like any other business would look to take advantage of any structural change in the market.”

Flutter is also pressing ahead with other UK-focused initiatives, despite the tax challenges. 

While it may be rolling back its retail presence, it is also experimenting with new forms of land-based betting, such as launching a Paddy Power sportsbook at the London Hippodrome last year.

The firm also continues to work closely with British horse racing. It is a bit of an outlier here, with some other UK firms pulling back from horse racing sponsorships as they too reduce marketing budgets.

In Flutter’s case, the NSYE firm is working closely with the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) on implementing the findings of the Project Beacon research into horse racing audiences and fan engagement.

This has culminated in the duo hosting the ‘Future of Racing’ series of summits, having whittled down a shortlist of 10 companies from a total of 100 horse racing-focused tech-startups which applied to participate.

“Over the last decade, racing has not always been the first-choice sport for the younger generation,” said Seb Butterworth, Strategic Racing Director at Flutter UKI. 

“Today it must compete with modern sports for people’s attention, and it needs to keep pace with innovation and modernization if it is to capture the fans of tomorrow.”