FanDuel Removes Hundreds of Jobs as Flutter’s Stock Finds Some Ground

Key Points

• FanDuel has now confirmed its third round of job cuts in under seven months, with sources placing the number in the hundreds, covering middle management, software engineering, customer service, and business development.
• Flutter Entertainment’s stock moved from $100.83 on 5 June to above $119 on 10 June after the news came out, though it is still down nearly 59% over the past year.
• The cuts come after the departure of FanDuel CEO Amy Howe in early May 2026, and point to wider pressure from prediction markets taking revenue away from sportsbooks across the US.

Markets did something this week that made people stop and look twice. Flutter Entertainment, a company that sits among the largest online gambling businesses in the world, watched its share price go up right after news came through that its US brand FanDuel had cut hundreds of jobs. Flutter’s stock on 5 June was at $100.83. Then by 10 June, the number had climbed past $119. For a business that has had a very hard year, a move like that carried real meaning.

Three Rounds of Cuts. Seven Months. One Company

FanDuel has not released a specific number. Sources who spoke to Front Office Sports said hundreds of roles were removed, touching software engineering, customer service, and business development. Among those who lost jobs were people who had given years to the company some going back to when it ran as a daily fantasy sports business. FanDuel’s total headcount sits at around 5,000 people, so this round alone may have cut more than one in every twenty workers.

What weighs on this moment is the context. November 2025 saw a first round of cuts. March 2026 brought the end of FanDuel’s television network and more than 100 jobs with it. Now this. Three rounds of job losses in fewer than seven months points to a company that is working hard to reduce what it spends and find a different shape for itself going forward.

Workers caught in this round felt it land without warning. The night before, managers sent out calendar invites to their teams. On those calls, workers found HR representatives on the line rather than the managers who had sent the invites. One former staff member described that realisation to Front Office Sports: “As soon as I saw the HR person, I was like ‘oh god, here we go.'” Within an hour, systems had been shut off and laptops had gone dark.

FanDuel’s public statement kept things at a distance. A company spokesperson said the business had “implemented organisational changes to ensure the company remains agile, focused and well-positioned to capitalise on what lies ahead,” and acknowledged those affected: “We are deeply grateful to the talented colleagues whose contributions have helped drive FanDuel’s success and are committed to supporting those impacted through this transition.” Someone with direct knowledge of events put it plainly to NEXT.io a “money-saving move dressed up as an organisational pivot.”

The CEO Was No Longer There When the Cuts Came

A wider picture surrounds this week’s events. Just a month before the latest round, FanDuel CEO Amy Howe had already left. Howe had held the CEO position since 2021, and her presence inside the company carried real weight for the people there. An insider explained her standing to NEXT.io in straightforward terms: “She was so pivotal to the growth of FanDuel, she knew everyone. If you walked into the office, she knew everybody’s name and she knew the department that you worked at.”

Her leaving was made public on 6 May 2026, on the same day Flutter published its first-quarter results. Flutter CEO Peter Jackson said it was “the right moment for new leadership at FanDuel,” though people close to the situation made clear that the departure was not Howe’s own decision. Jackson, in a later moment, did not hold back: “It’s no secret that FanDuel has underperformed.” Howe received a severance payment of $4.37 million two years’ worth of combined salary and bonuses. Christian Genetski, FanDuel’s President, was then moved into position to lead the US operation.

Flutter’s stock had already dropped below $100 before Howe’s exit reached the public which meant it had fallen nearly 70% from the $308 it reached at its high point in August 2025. Industry analyst Chris Grove, partner emeritus at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, described what leadership change tends to trigger: “Changes in leadership at a company are more often than not followed by ripples across the rest of the org chart, as people decide (or are asked) to move on in light of new leaders with new priorities and new philosophies.”

Prediction Markets Are Changing Everything for the Industry

At the heart of FanDuel’s problems is a shift moving through the entire US gambling industry. A new kind of platform called a prediction market has been pulling customers away from traditional sports betting. These platforms, with Kalshi leading the way, let users place predictions on real-world events through a trading model that sits outside the normal gambling rules.

One former FanDuel worker described the harm without holding back, speaking without giving their name: “Prediction markets had just taken so much away from sports betting, even though Cathe Sino was doing really well. Number one in market, number one in market share. We had relied so heavily on sportsbooks and the market share, and the amount of money that was bringing in.”

Flutter’s Q1 2026 numbers told that story clearly. US online casino revenue rose 19% year-on-year, while US sportsbook revenue moved just 1%. The casino side was doing well. The sportsbook that FanDuel had built its name on had almost stopped growing.

FanDuel did eventually put its own prediction markets product out. FanDuel Predicts went live on 22 December 2025, built with CME Group as a partner, coming nearly a year after rivals like Kalshi had already taken a large share of that market. Flutter CEO Peter Jackson has put $300 million behind the platform, and a partnership with Crypto.com is adding to its reach. Some former workers feel the company waited too long. “I think we were a little late to the game,” one told NEXT.io. “Sometimes we have a tendency to over-index on certain products.”

FanDuel Is Not the Only Company Making Cuts

This pattern of job cuts does not belong to FanDuel alone. Right across the US gambling industry, company after company has been reducing its workforce through 2026. Penn Entertainment removed more than 75 roles at theScoreBet and its online casino division in May. DraftKings announced redundancies in late February, with analysts putting the annual savings at around $30 million. Gambling.com Group and LSports also reduced their headcount in the same period. FanDuel had also been running internal workshops where staff learned to use tools including Claude and ChatGPT, showing how much the pressure to get more done with less has changed day-to-day life inside these businesses. Grove put the wider picture into words for NEXT.io: “FanDuel is hardly alone in shedding staff. Workforce reductions in the status quo are the rule, not the exception, across the gaming industry, especially companies with exposure to the US market.”

What People Watching This Should Follow Next?

Flutter’s stock sits at around $110.80 at the time of writing, still well below its 52-week high of $313.69 but clearly above its low of $91.52. Of the analysts covering the stock, 87.5% currently recommend buying it, with an average price target of $162.72. Flutter has also confirmed a review of its London Stock Exchange listing, with an update due by the end of June 2026, which adds another layer to an already important period of change at the company.

For workers across the US gambling sector, these months have made one thing clear: the industry is being rebuilt around prediction markets and artificial intelligence, and the companies doing that rebuilding are working with smaller teams. Those who lost their jobs at FanDuel this week are walking into a jobs market where the same pressures exist at nearly every large operator.

What an Expert Makes of All This?

Chris Grove, partner emeritus at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, kept it direct: “FanDuel is hardly alone in shedding staff. Workforce reductions in the status quo are the rule, not the exception, across the gaming industry, especially companies with exposure to the US market.” His earlier point about leadership changes sending ripples through an organisation proved true within weeks of Amy Howe leaving. The cuts across sportsbook, casino, engineering, and customer service point to something structural rather than a small and targeted adjustment. Investors have responded well in the short term, but whether Flutter can turn this week’s stock movement into a real recovery will depend on how the company performs in prediction markets and how well its new leadership team can rebuild trust inside a business that has had a very hard twelve months.