Cayman Islands-based billionaire Kenneth Dart has breached the 25 per cent stake level at Flutter Entertainment, having committed billions of dollars building up a holding in the gambling giant over the past eight months.
The septuagenarian, who first disclosed a 5 per cent stake in the group last September, has disclosed to the company that he now has an interest of just over 25 per cent.
He owns almost 18.7 per cent of the group’s ordinary shares, with the remainder held by way of cash-settled equity swaps.
Flutter is currently in the middle of a share buyback and cancellation programme that ultimately aims to return as much as $5 billion to shareholders but would increase the stake of remaining shareholders.
READ MORE
The current value of the stake is about €4.88 billion, with the stock having slumped about 60 per cent since Dart’s initial investment was revealed. Still, buying into a declining market has helped him lower the average price at which he has bought shares and entered into equity-swap transactions.
Dart became Flutter’s largest shareholder in January. The Dublin-based group, led by chief executive Peter Jackson, owns brands including Paddy Power, Betfair and US sports betting group FanDuel. It’s main stock listing is in New York.
Last month also saw London-based activist hedge fund Parvus Asset Management, founded by former Merrill Lynch investment manager Edoardo Mercadante, disclose that it had more than doubled its stake in Flutter to almost 10.7 per cent.
Flutter, whose FanDuel unit is the top sports betting company in the US, and rival DraftKings have seen their shares hit in recent times by being late arrivals to the fast-growing predictions market, where people can place wagers on everything from elections and the weather to whether a new phone will sell a million units.
[ Flutter investors hedge their bets as prediction-market challengers up the anteOpens in new window ]
The predictions market is dominated by Kalshi and Polymarket, which offer punters the opportunity to bet on everything from the prospect of the US Federal Reserve moving interest rates to what country will win this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. However, most of their revenue comes from sports betting.
Jackson said in February that Flutter’s own fledgling predictions market had been performing better than expected since it was launched in December. He also said the group had found “no evidence of material cannibalisation” of FanDuel’s core sports betting business by prediction markets. Still, shares have continued to lose ground since then.
The Irish company’s woes have also been compounded by regulatory changes affecting its international business – including a jump in UK gambling taxes, set to take effect in April, and a ban on money-based online games in India.
The chief executive’s remuneration package, which is dominated by stock awards, dipped to $19.7 million (€16.7 million) last year from $22.2 million in 2024.
Dart’s family wealth stems from his grandfather who founded Dart Manufacturing, the world’s largest maker of styrofoam cups,
Over decades, Dart expanded his wealth by buying distressed sovereign debt from countries including Argentina, Brazil and Greece – often engaging in lawsuits to squeeze more out of debtors seeking to restructure their borrowings.
He is also the largest shareholder in Evolution, a Swedish online casino tech company, and in recent years has amassed big stakes in tobacco giants British American Tobacco and Imperial brands – defying an ethical exodus from such companies.
