Jackpot word on banner with green curtains

Getty Images

Punters winning more NFL bets are set to dent FanDuel owner Flutter’s profits

The house always wins — just a little less last quarter.

1/8/25 11:37AM

DraftKings’ biggest rival and the world’s largest online-betting company, Flutter Entertainment, is seeing a short-term hit to its bottom line from customers’ sweetest dream: gamblers are winning too much.

In a surprise trading update on Tuesday, the group (emphasis ours) detailed that:

“The 2024/2025 NFL season to date has been the most customer friendly since the launch of online sports betting with the highest rate of favorites winning in nearly 20 years.”

The “very unfavorable US sports results” are set to cost Flutter Entertainment some ~$390 million in revenue, with the company’s shares listed in London opening down 5% this morning — though the stock has since recovered all of that initial drop, with rival DraftKings also trading higher.

It’s ironic that it should be the NFL — America’s favorite league to bet on — at the heart of Flutter’s current issues, as the Dublin-headquartered group has increasingly placed its own chips on the US market, including abandoning the London Stock Exchange to move its primary listing to New York last May.

Since first combining with FanDuel seven years ago, Flutter has grown rapidly, capitalizing on the changing regulatory landscape in America, which has quickly become the company’s most important region: revenues from the US market now account for 38% of its business, up from just 12% in 2020.

Elsewhere, sports results continued a “good momentum” in the UK and Ireland region (read: punters are still losing on the English Premier League).

Hyunsoo Rim

appy birthday

4/1/26

Apple is turning 50 today and it doesn’t look a thing like its younger self

From Macs to iPods, iPhones, and now services, here’s how Apple’s business has looked every 10 years.

The entrance of Allbirds seen from Hayes St. in San Francisco, Calif.

Allbirds, the once buzzy multibillion-dollar sneaker startup, is selling up for $39 million

That’s less than 1% of its peak market cap about four years ago.

Tom Jones3/31/26

Max Knoblauch3/30/26

JetBlue is raising its bag fees as fuel costs squeeze airlines

JetBlue will reportedly hike its bag fees, as the cost of jet fuel continues to climb amid the war in Iran. It’s the latest example of carriers finding ways to push rising costs onto travelers.

Last week, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said that if fuel prices remain elevated, fares would need to rise another 20% for his airline to break even this year.

As CNBC reported, when one airline raises fees, others tend to follow.

Earlier this month, JetBlue hiked its first-quarter outlook for operating revenue per seat mile to between 5% and 7%, saying that strong Q1 demand helped “partially offset additional expenses realized from operational disruptions and rising fuel costs.” Now, the carrier appears to be making moves to further boost revenue to offset those costs.

Earlier on Monday, JetBlue rival Alaska Air lowered its Q1 profit forecast. The refining margins for the carrier’s cheapest fuel option — sourced from Singapore and representing about 20% of Alaska’s overall supply — have spiked 400% since February.

JetBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.