Flutter forecasts profits to double by 2027, unveils $5 billion share buyback

DUBLIN (Reuters) -Flutter, the world's largest online betting company, said on Wednesday it expects to more than double its core profit by 2027 and that it had authorised a share buyback of up to $5 billion to be deployed over that period.

Flutter, which has forecast full-year profit of around $2.5 billion this year, said that figure should reach more than $5 billion by 2027, with almost half of it coming from the booming U.S. market that it now sees growing at a faster-than-expected pace.

Flutter's London-based shares were 5.2% higher at 1230 GMT.

The Irish betting group said ahead of an investor day in New York that it expected to launch the buyback following its third-quarter earnings in November and that it would be deployed over the next three to four years.

Flutter's growth has been transformed by the gambling boom in the U.S., where its FanDuel brand has become the market leader following the lifting of a ban on sports betting in 2018.

Based on the U.S. states where it currently operates, the company now expects core profit there to treble to $2.5 billion in 2027 from the $680 million to $800 million forecast for this year and the $167 million reported for 2023, which represented Flutter's first full year of profitability following years of heavy investment.

It sees the total U.S. market growing to $63 billion by 2030 compared to the $40 billion it forecast two years ago.

Flutter, whose market leading brands elsewhere include Paddy Power and Betfair in Britain and Sportsbet in Australia, expects core profits to grow to around $3 billion in the rest of the world, helped by its recent acquisitions in Italy and Brazil.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin, Editing by Louise Heavens and Paul Simao)