Product, technology, capital and talent were cited as the key components of Flutter Entertainment’s continued global conquest at a rousing keynote as the 2023 edition of the SBC Summit kick-started its farewell tour of Barcelona.
Ahead of blockbuster move to the Portuguese capital of Lisbon from 2023, Daniel Taylor hammered home the importance of a defined localised strategy, key investments, welcoming new brands into the fold and, most importantly, a harmonious environment that fosters collaboration and sharing as crucial to the group’s significant growth.
Following a cinematic opening video sequence and opening remarks by host Trudy Kerr, the Flutter International CEO took to the stage to first to address the importance of scale in enabling the operator group to maintain a constant desire for additional market share on a global basis.
“We are long believers that striving for scale allows you to invest more through the customer proposition that in turn allows us to drive higher revenue growth, brings greater operational leverage back into the business, and drives more scale. And that repeats,” it was noted.
This has enabled Flutter to attain what are dubbed as “gold medal positions” across a range of jurisdictions, with the UK, Ireland, Australia, Italy and the United States pinpointed as evidence of success.
“…it’s really important when we reflect on our local positions in our local market [that] we don’t get bogged down with the bureaucracy”
In turn, this also enables the firm to plunge additional funding into its positive impact strategy which aims to ramp-up the protections for not just customers, but also colleagues and the environment.
Shifting focus slightly, it was seemingly inevitable that M&A would become a key touchpoint of Taylor’s 20 minute address, with Flutter having dipped its toes into this well on numerous occasions to much success.
Commenting on the group’s modus operandi when aiming to either enter a new market, or swell its presence across an existing region, Taylor noted the necessity for a customer first approach, as well as the need to spread the group’s vast expertise across its many brands.
“It’s really important when we reflect on our local positions in our local markets [that] we don’t get bogged down with the bureaucracy, and the structures that come with being the world’s biggest betting business, that allow us to service our customers in those markets in the way they want to, in the way they should be, but while getting the benefit of what it means to be part of Flutter,” he commented. “So we operate with highly engaged and open team across these markets.”
Adding: “Sharing products around the group, sharing technologies from one part of the group to another, injecting capital into the businesses to turbocharge success and address underinvestment, perhaps in the past, and sharing our best talent all around the world, giving our people the opportunity to progress, but also businesses to learn from one another and accelerate the development in ways we’ve never been able to do.”
“We’ve got nearly 8000 people building technologies for Flutter around the globe”
The Flutter Edge, he continued, aims to build on the headway made by “highly engaged local teams”, with the application of this highlighted as comprising product expertise, capital injection, tech platforms and leading talent.
This necessity of knowledge sharing was one that was a constant feature of Taylor’s address, with FanDuel, Adjarabet and Junglee across the US, Georgia and India picked out as prime examples of this strategy in action.
“We’ve got nearly 8000 people building technologies for Flutter around the globe, offices and technologies now in every continent, but allowing them to work on their own in their own markets, but in a way that allows other bands to share and piggyback on that development has given us a huge advantage,” he continued.
To round-up, Taylor adopted a focus on building for the future, with investments on a global basis, a sharpening of the Flutter Edge, leveraging the company’s well established business model and welcoming more brands into the fold each pinpointed as key components of maintaining its global conquest.
“It would be obvious to say we look to add new bands, we’ve added eight bands in the last five years,” Taylor rounded-up.
“We’re always thinking about how we get more brands to allow them the benefit of this scale. So it’s been a really fascinating ride for me, I’ve been in this business for nine years. I think we’ve learned a lot. I should have said along the way we’ve got plenty wrong, as well as the things that we’ve got right, but I don’t reflect on it.”
