Owner of Leeds-based Sky Bet, Paddy Power and Betfair gives staff £14m in shares for work during pandemic

A spokesman for Flutter, the company which owns Sky Bet, Paddy Power and Betfair, today confirmed a report in the Sunday Telegraph that it handed its 14,000 staff a £1,000 bonus for helping to steer the business through the coronavirus pandemic.

Peter Jackson, Group CEO of Flutter said: “To recognise the hard work, focus and resilience over the course of an incredibly challenging year, we recently gifted all colleagues a share award worth £1,000 giving them a stake in the business."

Last month, Sky Bet, revealed it is moving into 4 Wellington Place in Leeds, which was completed just before Christmas.

The investment will see Sky Betting & Gaming consolidate around 1,400 staff into one building on MEPC’s city centre business park from its dual locations of Number 2 and Number 6 Wellington Place.

The fit out is expected to be completed by the end of May.

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, Michael Afflick, Sky Betting and Gaming’s brand, creative and sponsorship director, who is leading the 4 Wellington Place project, said all employees were currently working remotely but the company is planning to move to hybrid working.

Under the new model, individuals will no longer have their own desk in the office. Instead there will be six desks for every 10 people.

The company is setting up what it calls ‘neighbourhoods’ for each department - physical spaces within the office, which individuals can also connect to from home.

“We’re trying to promote working from home when you want to and coming into the office when you need to, which we think will be about 40 per cent of the time,” Mr Afflick said.