Flutter rewards staff with £14m pandemic bonus

Flutter Entertainment will pay a £1,000 bonus to each of its 14,000 staff for their continued work during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is understood the bonus will be paid in the form of shares in the FTSE 100 operator. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Flutter CEO Peter Jackson confirmed the bonus award and suggested all employees were “bookmakers at heart” for remaining with the firm during the challenging period. Flutter retail employees affected by pandemic-related closures have been paid in full throughout lockdown and the operator has not utilised the government’s furlough scheme. In addition to the employee bonus, Flutter has donated a £4.8m surplus fund generated from the government’s business rates tax relief to Made By Sport’s ‘Clubs in Crisis’ campaign, under the Cash4Clubs initiative. The campaign aims to provide funding for grassroots sports clubs which have been severely impacted by the pandemic, with grants of £2,021 being made available to clubs which meet specific criteria. The Cash4Clubs initiative was launched in 2008 and has given nearly £800,000 to clubs over the last 12 years, with £165,000 of grants distributed in 2020. The rates relief was generated between March 2020 and March 2021. “Lack of funding is not a new issue for community clubs which is why we originally set up our Cash4Clubs programme,” Jackson explained. “But now help is needed more than ever and working with Made by Sport to provide a fund for ‘Clubs in Crisis’ is a great way for us to pass the benefit of business rates relief straight into the communities where that funding is most needed,” he added. Addressing speculation surrounding a potential ban on gambling advertising and sponsorship in the UK, Jackson said with the exception of horseracing, sport would not be severely impacted by such a ban. “If gambling is not allowed to continue its association with sports because that’s what the government decides. I think there would need to be a good transition period,” he explained. “I don’t think that the switch would be an easy one because the gambling industry is a source of revenue for the sector. “A lot of these sports are saying: ‘Now’s a really difficult time for us because we’ve lost all gate receipts, so please don’t make life harder for us.’ “But as we’ve all shown over the last 12 months, people are very adaptable and […] sports could get there with enough notice,” Jackson added. Jackson asserted his belief that the Gambling Act 2005 review might see the industry avoid a potential blanket ban in favour of less stringent measures.