Consolidation within the casino gambling industry has been a steady constant over the past several years. As the online gaming sector continues to expand at a rapid pace, a few major players are staring to emerge.
One of those major players would have to be Flutter Entertainment. Founded in Ireland, the company continues to expand its gambling brands on a global scale. A recent post on The Motley Fool website, Fool.com detailed the company’s recent merger with The Stars Group in early May.
Flutter’s main concentration of business was in Ireland as well as the UK. The addition of The Star Group expands that sphere of influence far beyond those boundaries.
A few of the original online NJ sports betting brands that are part of the Flutter family were Paddy Power and Betfair. It went on to add Sportsbet, Adjarabet, TVG and FanDuel Sportsbook as part of the company’s initial expansion plans.
Paddy Power alone offers more than 600 retail betting shops across the UK and Ireland. Along with Betfair, expansion into online gambling websites with the Paddy Power and Betfair brands became a highly successful part of the business as well.
The Sportsbet brand has grown to become the market leader in Australia. The purchase of FanDuel in 2018 opened the doors to the brand new US online market. This covers both online casino gambling and sports betting.
Industry investors viewed Flutter Entertainment as a global gambling company with a European focus. They also recognized the company’s desire to expand and diversify its holdings. That came to fruition following the $12 billion deal to acquire The Stars Group.
The Stars Group stable of online gambling brands includes Poker Stars as the world’s predominant online poker room. Skybet is one of the fastest-growing brands in the UK and BetEasy runs an expansive Australian betting platform.
As far as US betting platforms included in the merger, FoxBet was the shining star for The Star Group. This piece of the deal has created a partnership with the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Fox Sports.
A chart that was part of this post shows Flutter with six million active customers added to The Stars Group’s seven million customers.
In a call to investors concerning this acquisition, Flutter’s CEO Peter Jackson stated:
Primarily, this deal is about delivering growth. During our prelims result presentation, I highlighted how the global gaming industry is worth approximately $40 billion and is growing at a pace that still has a long runway of growth ahead of it.
Basically, this philosophy of growth is tied to adding as many high-profile online gambling brands to the mix as possible. It will also take advantage of various economies of scale to deliver strong financial results for investors. This includes the reduction of redundancies at the corporate level. It will also consolidate many of the technical aspects that come with online betting platforms.
Interestingly enough, The Stars Group had an existing partnership with Reno, Nevada’s Eldorado Resorts for online casino gambling licenses in 13 different states.
