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Flutter sees US earnings growing by 176% in 2025

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CEO expect gamblers to be resilient to wider shocks

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Company to bid for Italian national lottery concession

(Adds details, CEO quotes throughout)

By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN, March 4 (Reuters) - Flutter ,

the world's largest online betting company, said on Tuesday it

expects to increase its core profit by around 34% this year

following growth of 26% in 2024, driven again by its

fast-growing and market-leading U.S. brand FanDuel.

The Irish-founded company's growth has been transformed

by a gambling boom in the nascent U.S. market. CEO Peter Jackson

expects gamblers there to be resilient to any knock on consumer

impact from President Donald Trump's

imposition

on Tuesday of 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico.

"Historically our business has been very strong in the

face of challenges from a consumer economics perspective so

we've always been quite defensive from that perspective,"

Jackson told Reuters in an interview.

"We're a growth business. I think that even in the face

of these sort of macro and global challenges, the business will

continue to progress."

Flutter, which said 2025 had started well including a record

number of bets wagered at the Super Bowl, expects adjusted

earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation

(EBITDA) of between $2.94 billion and $3.38 billion compared to

the record $2.36 billion posted in 2024.

It expects $1.28 billion to $1.52 billion of that to

come from the U.S., up 176% at the midpoint of the range.

Flutter

forecast in September

that its U.S. EBITDA would reach $2.5 billion in 2027.

FanDuel nudged up its leading share of the U.S. sports

betting market to 43% and the iGaming market to 26% in the

fourth quarter when a

previously flagged

run of customer-friendly NFL results cut quarterly profit

by 3% year-on-year.

It expects 2025 core profit of $1.75 billion to $1.95

billion in its other markets, including the Paddy Power, Betfair

and Sportsbet brands.

While that is in line with 2024 at the midpoint, it

would be 10% higher if foreign currency headwinds and the impact

of bookmaker friendly sports results in 2024 are excluded,

Flutter said.

Jackson also said Flutter will be putting forward a bid

to run Italy's national lottery game, hoping to add the licence

to its growing portfolio of businesses in the country.