Sky Bet owner taps investors for £812m with a shares placement

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Flutter Entertainment, the owner of Leeds-based Sky Bet, Paddy Power, Betfair and Poker Stars, has raised £812m via a share placement that will see US media group Fox Corp increase its investment in the world’s largest online betting group.

Flutter said the 8 million new shares would be placed with institutional investors. The placement came three weeks after Flutter completed its $6bn merger with Stars Group that also added the Sky Bet brand to the group.

The betting group said that it was pleased by the strong support it had received from new and existing shareholders in the placing.

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Flutter said that Fox, which bought a 4.99 per cent stake in Stars in May last year, would increase its investment in Flutter as part of the placement but did not say how many shares it was acquiring.

Flutter said its revenue in the second quarter so far had increased by 10 per cent from a year earlier, despite widespread ongoing disruption to global sports.

The firm will use the cash to accelerate expansion plans and boost its finances amid coronavirus uncertainty.

Group revenues jumped in the period from the start of April to May 17 as it was boosted by a 92 per cent surge in revenues from Poker Stars operator Stars Group.

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The company said poker and gaming revenues grew as they “benefited from strong customer engagement” during lockdown.

It said growth had started to moderate as lockdown restrictions began to loosen and said it expected this trend to accelerate as more economies opened up.

The gambling watchdog has told betting firms to tighten measures to protect problem gamblers after a surge in online gaming during the shutdown.

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