Tombola’s Owner Says the UK’s 40% Tax Will Cost It $320m
Flutter has put the first hard number on what April’s tax rise is costing the companies behind Britain’s biggest bingo sites. In its second-quarter results, published on Wednesday, the group that owns tombola, Sky Bingo and Paddy Power said changes to UK iGaming taxes will knock $320m off its earnings this year, and that cost savings will claw back just $85m of it. The rest gets absorbed. Flutter reports in dollars, but the duty behind the number is British: Remote Gaming Duty on online bingo, casino and slots profits, which jumped from 21% to 40% on 1 April. Buried in the same statement is the line that matters most for players. Flutter expects “other operators” to begin reacting to the tax rise in the second half of the year. When an operator reacts to a 40% duty, the reaction usually lands on your offers.
At a glance
- The number$320m off Flutter’s earnings this year from UK iGaming tax changes
- The offset$85m of cost savings, leaving roughly $235m absorbed
- The bingo linkFlutter owns tombola, Sky Bingo and Paddy Power’s bingo rooms
- The watch itemFlutter expects rivals to “react” from the second half of the year
A $320m tax line inside a loss-making quarter
The wider results were rough. Group revenue rose 3% to $4.33bn, but adjusted earnings fell 45% to $508m and Flutter swung to a $296m net loss, against a $37m profit a year earlier. World Cup marketing spend and a run of punter-friendly sports results in America did much of that damage. Full-year guidance came down again too, by $395m on revenue and $210m on earnings. And there is a changing of the guard on top: Peter Jackson hands the chief executive role to Dan Taylor, currently head of Flutter’s international business, on 1 October.
The UK and Ireland arm held up better than the group. Revenue there grew 4% to $971m, with online bingo, casino and slots up 7% while sports betting slipped 2%. That 7% is the figure worth sitting with. The gaming side of Flutter’s UK business, the side tombola and Sky Bingo live in, is still growing through the biggest duty rise the sector has faced. Growth is not the same as profit, though, and the $320m line is where the difference shows.
What “other operators begin to react” actually means
Here is the sentence from the results statement, which we read in full: “We remain confident in the delivery of our first order cost saving mitigations and in our ability to gain share as other operators begin to react to this increase in the second half of the year.”
Decode that and you get Flutter’s whole UK strategy. A group of its size can absorb a $235m unmitigated hit and keep its offers competitive. Smaller operators cannot. Their options are thinner. Cut whatever the marketing budget funds, which mostly means bonuses and free rooms, or push effective prices up. The hardest-pressed will simply leave the market. Flutter is telling investors it will hold its nerve precisely because it expects rivals to blink first, then collect the players who walk. We wrote in May that the 40% rate put Sun Bingo’s future in doubt. Flutter’s statement is the other side of that squeeze: the biggest operator openly planning to profit from it. Worth remembering too that sports betting’s own duty rise does not arrive until April 2027, so for now this is a bingo, casino and slots story.
Why this lands on bingo
Flutter is not usually discussed as a bingo company. It should be. It paid £402m for tombola, the Sunderland brand its own announcement called the UK’s most recreational online bingo operator, and two more of its brands run substantial bingo rooms besides. That makes it one of the largest owners of online bingo in Britain, and bingo sits squarely inside the “iGaming” that the 40% duty taxes.
Bingo is also where tax pressure shows up first. Margins on 90-ball rooms are thinner than on slots, free bingo is a marketing cost operators fund from profit, and the players are loyal enough that operators are tempted to test how much worse an offer can get before anyone leaves. The half-year window Flutter flagged is exactly when that testing would start.
What this means for players
Nothing needs doing today. Nothing in a results statement touches your balance or your withdrawals. What changes is what to expect between now and winter. If a smaller bingo site quietly shortens its free bingo schedule this autumn, or an offer that used to be clean sprouts wagering, that is the 40% duty working through the system, whatever the promotional email says. Flutter’s brands are the least likely to cut first, because holding offers steady while rivals retreat is the stated plan. Worth keeping half an eye on the terms pages of wherever you play, since changes like these tend to arrive without an announcement.
Flutter’s UK Tax Hit: Your Questions Answered
Who owns tombola?
Flutter Entertainment, which completed a £402m takeover of the Sunderland-based bingo company in early 2022. The same group owns Sky Bingo, Paddy Power, Betfair and, in the United States, FanDuel.
How much will the UK tax rise cost Flutter?
Flutter’s own figure is $320m off adjusted earnings in 2026, of which it expects to offset $85m through cost savings. The figure itself was not a surprise, since the statement describes it as in line with earlier guidance, but this was the first set of results to show the duty actually biting. The cost comes from Remote Gaming Duty rising from 21% to 40% of online gaming profits on 1 April.
Does the 40% duty apply to bingo sites?
Yes. Remote Gaming Duty covers online bingo along with online casino and slots, so every UK-licensed bingo site pays it on gaming profits. Bingo played in halls is taxed separately under its own, lower duty, which is one reason the tax rise hits online operators hardest.
Will tombola cut its bingo offers?
Nothing has been announced, and Flutter’s stated plan points the other way. It intends to absorb the tax hit, keep its brands competitive and pick up players from operators that retreat. That is a plan rather than a promise, but tombola players have less reason to worry than most.
Will bingo offers get worse this year?
Flutter thinks so, at least at its competitors: its guidance says other operators will begin reacting to the tax increase in the second half of the year. That is a prediction from an interested party rather than a certainty. The practical signs to watch are welcome bonuses getting smaller and wagering appearing on offers that used to be wager-free. A thinning free bingo schedule is the other early warning.
