Flutter name Kevin Harrington as new UK and Ireland CEO

By Charlie Dear

Flutter Entertainment have made the decision to hire Kevin Harrington as the new UK and Ireland CEO, succeeding outbound Ian Brown. From January, Harrington will report to international CEO Dan Taylor as part of a wider restructuring within the betting industry giant.

This will see Flutter take on a two-division design, keeping the US arm of the business separate from all other global operations. The organisational structure is divided between the US, UK and Ireland, Australia and international divisions. But now all operations outside of the USA will fall under Flutter International.

The restructuring follows Flutter's move to the New York Stock Exchange as its primary listing, with London now a non-primary listing and leaving the Dublin Stock Exchange (Euronext Dublin) entirely.

Clearly, this shows a repositioning of its efforts towards the US - understandable, as its Q3 results showed growth of over 50% and revenue that accounted for 38.5% of the operator's total.

This is where Harrington will come in and act as Flutter’s UK and Ireland CEO, adding another significant move to a career path that has included Betfair’s UK commercial director, managing director and International CCO before his role as CEO of PokerStars. 

The outgoing Brown has expressed that the restructuring of the business marks a time to move on to pastures new: “The transformation over the last two years has been tremendously exciting. I am particularly proud that we have taken share in a challenging market, investing in customer innovation and our people. Kevin has a deep knowledge of our business, and I am confident he will build on the strong momentum to take Flutter UKI to new heights.

“I would like to say a sincere thank you to Peter and the whole Flutter team for what has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.”

Flutter CEO Peter Jackson said: “Ian’s time at Flutter has been enormously successful. He has transformed the UK and Ireland business on almost every metric and he will be a hard act to follow. Kevin’s promotion is very well-deserved and the business will be in safe hands as we embark on the next phase of our growth plan.”

Harrington himself said: “I’m incredibly proud to be given the chance to take over and run a business I first joined more than a decade ago. I want to continue the work that has made Flutter the clear market leader across the UK and Ireland and maintain the high standards we have set – with responsible gambling at the core of all our work.”