Flutter Entertainment, the parent company of FanDuel, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time Monday, as the company tries to narrow the valuation gap between it and rivals including DraftKings.
Flutter said Monday that it’s planning to make the New York Stock Exchange its primary listing and will put that to a vote of its shareholders in May. Making the NYSE its home, rather than London, will help it get included in important U.S. indexes, the company said.
Launching Monday with the ticker FLUT, it’s targeting New York as its primary listing late in the second quarter and early in the third quarter.
Having a New York listing will also boost its profile in the U.S., help with recruitment and retention, and access “much deeper” capital markets.
Flutter CEO Peter Jackson spoke with Yahoo Finance about the company after it started trading on Monday. The total addressable U.S. sports betting market is expected to reach $40 billion by 2023 — but Jackson thinks that’s lowballing it. “I expect [$40 billion] will turn out to be conservative, because everything in America turns out bigger than you expect,” he said.
And when asked about betting on the Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, he said, “We’ll break records in a couple of weeks time.”
London-listed shares
FLTR,
drifted 0.3% lower on Monday, though the stock has gained 17% this year.
According to FactSet, DraftKings
DKNG,
trades on 8.2 times estimated fourth-quarter sales, compared to 2.6 times for Flutter Entertainment.
Flutter said it plans to retain its London listing, having already delisted from Euronext Dublin.
Flutter earlier this month said that FanDuel was the “clear number one sportsbook” in the U.S. during the fourth quarter.
Other Flutter brands include Betfair, PokerStars and Paddy Power.
Weston Blasi contributed.
