The Ireland-based gambling and sports betting giant Flutter Entertainment has revealed that it could make further investment in its retail assets.
In an interview with the Sunday Independent, Conor Grant, the CEO of the gambling company’s business in the UK and Ireland, shared that Flutter Entertainment would keep its support for its brick-and-mortar business, although the revenue of its Irish retail network was 27% lower in the quarter to the end of October than in the same period a year earlier.
Mr Grant revealed that the gambling giant would make a further investment in its retail network in case it saw the right opportunities. He explained that in the UK, Flutter Entertainment was continuing its investments in its retail business, while in Ireland it was more willing to move locations from the ones that might not be performing so well. Mr Grant described that as “a wait-and-see approach”.
Apart from that, the CEO of the UK and Ireland operations of Flutter Entertainment reminded that the company had recently completed a refurbishment of its Dublin-based headquarters thanks to a €15.5-million investment from the gambling giant and another massive investment made by its landlord.
According to the company’s plans, the refurbished 164,000-square-foot headquarters would continue to serve as proof of Flutter Entertainment’s commitment to Ireland. The group also aims its headquarters to be a centre of excellence in innovation and technology for the company that currently operates a total of 267 brick-and-mortar locations across Ireland and employs about 1,400 retail staff members there.
Flutter Entertainment Remains Focused on Promoting Safer Gambling
In his interview with the Sunday Independent, Conor Grant also spoke about the upcoming gambling overhaul in Ireland and the policy of Flutter Entertainment that has lately become more focused on safer gambling.
At a time when online gambling has become extremely popular, facing technological challenges could be tough even for a gambling operator of the scale of Flutter Entertainment, which is currently among the biggest gambling companies on a global scale. The constantly rising demand of customers and the non-stopping scrutiny over the sector have also made the situation more difficult for the operator.
The CEO of the company’s UK and Ireland assets also made an apology for a mistake that resulted in one of the online casino brands of the company – Sky Vegas – send promotional emails offering free bets to recovering problem gamblers.
As Casino Guardian reported earlier in November, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) said it had started investigating the Sky Vegas online casino for offering the free bets incentive to recovering gambling addicts during the much-promoted annual Safer Gambling Week. Later, a London-based law firm announced that it was exploiting the possibility to start a lawsuit against the online casino operator on behalf of about 120,000 people who had been reached by the aforementioned promotional emails.
- Author
Olivia Cole
