Paddy Power and Betfair owner Flutter Entertainment has warned the Government’s Budget move to hike gambling taxes will hit its annual earnings by hundreds of millions of pounds over the next two years.

The Chancellor announced on Wednesday that remote online gaming duty will rise from 21% to 40%, while online sports betting – excluding horse-racing – will increase from 15% to 25%.

Flutter – which also owns Betfair, Sky Bet and FanDuel in the US – said the tax raid will impact its underlying earnings by around 320 million US dollars (£241.7 million) in 2025-26 and 540 million US dollars (£407.9 million) in 2026-27.

It hopes to offset the hit by up to 40% by 2027 through efforts to cutting promotion and marketing spend and wider cost reduction efforts.

Kevin Harrington, Flutter’s UK and

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