Key Points
- In TIME’s World’s Best Companies 2026 ranking, Flutter was 41st best in the world, having made the most significant improvement in its history to be ranked 597th when it first joined in 2023, scoring 87.99 out of 100 in total scores.
- It was 14th in sustainability transparency and scored “very high” in revenue growth, while being 501st out of 1,000 companies.
- Flutter’s shares closed at $89.56 on 18 September 2026, a 52-week low at that date, in the same week the TIME recognition was published.
Flutter has also been ranked 41st in TIME’s World’s Best Companies 2026, which is the best rank that Flutter has achieved ever since the rankings began in 2023, having been a part of the list every year since the first one in 597th place. There is no other company in the iGaming sector which even ranks in the top 50. The two others in the gambling sector to be included in the rankings were Las Vegas Sands in 263rd place and MGM Resorts in 499th place.
The ranking assesses the companies on three equally weighted criteria: employee happiness, measured by analysing survey responses of more than 200,000 employees globally; revenue growth, analysed on the basis of multi-year figures from the Statista revenue database; and sustainability transparency, analysed via publicly available ESG data. All criteria carry equal weight and account for a total of 100 points, and the list comprises the top 1,000 companies. The firms had to generate an annual income of more than $100 million in 2024 or 2025 to be considered in the ranking. Flutter, with its rating of 87.99 out of 100 points, was definitely among the company’s real international competitors. The leader of the 2026 ranking was Nvidia.
The Score that Explains the Recognition: Strong Sustainability, Weak Employee Satisfaction
Flutter obtained a score of 87.99/100 and was ranked 14th in transparency regarding sustainability and gained a “very high” rating for revenue growth, but was ranked 501st among 1,000 companies for employee satisfaction. Two out of three components were boosted significantly. The third did not follow.
A 501st finish in employee satisfaction, inside a list where Flutter ranks 41st overall, is the number most coverage has noted briefly and moved past. It deserves more consideration. The employee satisfaction dimension incorporates direct recommendations from verified employees as well as indirect evaluations from industry peers. Flutter operates across live sports markets, real-time odds management, and rapidly expanding prediction market products, with a workforce spread across dozens of brands and regulatory regimes. The company has over 28,500 employees as per regulatory disclosures. The 501st ranking in comparison with other companies and among employees does not help understand why the score is what it is; rather, it reflects the gap Flutter has to cover between institutional reputation and peer and employee views on the firm’s experience.
The Quote That Leads the Announcement, and the Number It Does Not Reference
Flutter’s Chief People Officer was the company’s voice on this recognition. “Being recognised by TIME every year since this list began says something more durable than any single result. It reflects the work of colleagues across every brand and every market we operate in — the people who build our products, serve our customers and hold us to the standards we have set ourselves. This is their recognition, and I am hugely proud of them for it,” said Lisa Sewell.
The statement is measured and credible. What it does not reference is the 501st employee satisfaction position sitting behind the overall score. That is a common pattern in corporate recognition announcements: the headline number is front and centre, the sub-score that complicates the story is not. Sewell frames this as the employees’ achievement. The survey data raises a question about how employees and industry peers rate the working environment, a question the announcement leaves unanswered.
From 597th to 41st in Four Years: What the Ranking Is Actually Rewarding
Flutter has been a regular entrant on this list over the past five years since TIME and Statista initiated this ranking back in 2023, having started out with a rank of 597 in its inaugural list. A jump of 556 places within the span of four rankings of the same list cannot just be down to luck. It is due to the fact that the criteria of this ranking give equal weight to the aspects of ESG disclosure, revenue growth, and employee satisfaction, and the company’s performance in all these areas influences the ranking. In the case of Flutter, it is due to its excellent performance in ESG disclosures and revenue growth that the ranking has improved.
The Market Is Running a Different Calculation
The recognition of Flutter in TIME was announced on 15 September 2026. The share price of $89.56 on 18 September 2026 represents a 52-week low. During the same week, a cluster of investors along with a well-known world ranking provided contrary views about the same company. Both are correct. They look at something entirely different.
Flutter registered a net loss of $296 million in the second quarter on 5 August 2026. Group revenue increased 3% to $4.33 billion for the period ending 30 June 2026, but adjusted EBITDA declined 45% to $508 million. Year guidance for adjusted EBITDA was lowered by $210 million to $2.655 billion, while year guidance for group revenue was slashed to $17.91 billion. The US division bore the brunt of that reduction with year guidance for revenue being lowered to $7.4 billion and year guidance for adjusted EBITDA revised down from $970 million to $760 million.
The UK government’s decision to raise iGaming remote gaming duty from 21% to 40%, effective April 2026, left Flutter estimating a $320 million adjusted EBITDA impact for the full year before mitigation. A confirmed one-week delay to the 2026/2027 NFL season start, plus heavy investment in prediction market expansion, added further pressure. None of that is absorbed by an ESG transparency score. The company also confirmed CEO Peter Jackson would hand over to Dan Taylor on 1 October 2026, a leadership change landing at one of the most financially pressured moments in the group’s recent history.
Expert Analysis: Two Scorecards, One Company, No Easy Answer
We think the most honest read of Flutter’s position is that both narratives are accurate, and neither cancels the other out. The TIME ranking is a legitimate, data-driven assessment of a company that has genuinely improved its ESG disclosure, expanded its revenue base across multiple markets over three years, and maintained its presence on a demanding global list from the first edition onward. Those achievements are real, built across a period that predates the current financial pressure.
What we find harder to ignore is the structural tension the ranking itself contains. Flutter’s sustainability transparency score places it 14th in the world. Its employee satisfaction score places it 501st. The three dimensions carry equal weight. That means an operator can present an outstanding public-facing ESG record, sustain strong multi-year revenue growth, and still rank in the lower half of 1,000 global companies on the dimension measuring how its own people and industry peers rate the experience. Whether that gap narrows or widens as financial pressure increases is the internal story the TIME ranking cannot capture.
The market is focused on a shorter window. Flutter’s cost-transformation programme is ahead of schedule, on track to deliver more than $300 million in savings by 2027, with a second phase targeting an additional $500 million of gross savings by 2029. That plan may rehabilitate the financial picture. Whether it also addresses the employee satisfaction gap remains an open editorial question worth watching as Dan Taylor takes the helm.
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