COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Guarantees

The Group has uncommitted working capital overdraft facilities of $20 million (December 31, 2023: $21 million) with Allied Irish Banks p.l.c. These facilities are secured by a Letter of Guarantee from Flutter Entertainment plc.

The Group has bank guarantees: (i) in favor of certain gaming regulatory authorities to guarantee the payment of player funds, player prizes, and certain taxes and fees due by a number of Group companies; and (ii) in respect of certain third-party rental and other property commitments, merchant facilities and third party letter of credit facilities. The bank guarantees have various expected terms up to December 31, 2032; three of the bank guarantees are indefinite lived. The maximum amount of the guarantees as of December 31, 2024 was $304 million (December 31, 2023: $322 million). No claims had been made against the guarantees as of December 31, 2024 (December 31, 2023: $Nil). The guarantees are secured by counter indemnities from Flutter Entertainment plc and certain of its subsidiary companies. The value of cash deposits over which the guaranteeing banks hold security was $62 million as of December 31, 2024 (December 31, 2023: $29 million).

Other purchase obligations

The Group is a party to several non-cancelable contracts with vendors where the Group is obligated to make future minimum payments under the terms of these contracts as follows:


($ in millions)	Year Ending December 31,
2025	$	1,600
2026	1,163
2027	989
2028	344
2029	85
Thereafter	447
	$	4,628

Legal Contingencies

The Group is involved, from time to time, in various litigation, administrative and other legal proceedings, including regulatory actions, incidental or related to its business. The Group establishes an accrued liability for legal claims and indemnification claims when the Group determines that a loss is both probable and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated. The estimates are based on all known facts at the time and our assessment of the ultimate outcome. As additional information becomes available, the Group reassesses the potential liability related to our pending claims and litigations, which may also revise our estimates. The amount of any loss ultimately incurred in relation to these matters may be higher or lower than the amounts accrued. Due to the unpredictable nature of litigation, there can be no assurance that our accruals will be sufficient to cover the extent of our potential exposure to losses. Any fees, expenses, fines, penalties, judgments, or settlements which might be incurred by us in connection with the various proceedings could affect our results of operations and financial condition.

Austrian and German player claims

The Group has seen a number of player claims in Austria and Germany for reimbursement of historic gaming losses. The basis of these claims is rooted in the Group having provided remote services in Austria and Germany (outside of Schleswig-Holstein) from Maltese entities on the basis of multi-jurisdictional Maltese licenses, which the Group continues to believe is compliant in accordance with EU law. However, the Austrian Courts and certain German Courts consider the Group’s services non-compliant with their respective local laws. The Group strongly disputes the basis of these claims and judgements made by Austrian and German courts in awarding the player’s claims.

As of December 31, 2024, the Group has recorded an amount of €16 million ($16 million) within loss contingencies forming part of other current liabilities. It is reasonably possible that the actual losses could be in excess of the Group’s accrual. The Group is unable to estimate a reasonably possible loss or range of loss in excess of its accrual due to the complexities and uncertainty around the judicial process. In addition, there are further claims made against the Group amounting to €47 million ($48 million) as of December 31, 2024, the settlement of which is predicated on the merits of the case and whether the enforcement proceedings are successful in laying claim over the Group’s Maltese assets for settlement of these claims. The Group, based on advice from its legal counsel, believes such cross-border enforcement of judgements is in contravention to Maltese public policy and Regulation (EU) 1215/2012 and has not accrued any liability for these claims. The Group has filed countersuits before the Maltese Civil Court for setting aside these claims. The defendants have also filed garnishee orders with the Maltese Civil Court to attach the Group’s Maltese assets, some of which have already been declined by the Maltese Civil Court. Should the Maltese Courts decide in favor of the Group, there would be grounds for dismissal of all pending player claims instituted against the Group.

While the Group believes that it has strong arguments, at this time, the Group is unable to reasonably estimate the likelihood of the outcome due to the complexities and uncertainty around the judicial process.

Income tax dispute in relation to operations in Italy

The Italian Tax Police initiated an investigation of the operations conducted by PokerStars business in Italy (hereinafter referred to as “PS Italy”), alleging that PS Italy’s server infrastructure located in Italy amounts to an Italian permanent establishment for corporate income tax purposes. As of December 31, 2024, the Group has fully settled this tax dispute with the Italian Tax Authorities for an amount of €8 million ($9 million).

Cybersecurity Incident

The Group received notice in August 2023 that certain customer and employee data was involved in the global incident involving the MOVEit file transfer software, which began when the third-party provider administering the software announced that it had identified a previously unknown vulnerability in MOVEit. The Group had previously used MOVEit to share data and manage file transfers similar to many companies globally. Once the Group was informed of the incident, the Group promptly undertook responsive measures, including restricting access to the affected application, launching an internal investigation in partnership with outside independent cybersecurity forensic and notifying the relevant regulators and law enforcement agencies, as well as our employees and customers, impacted by the incident. Based on this investigation and information currently known at this time, the Group cannot determine or predict the ultimate outcome of this matter or any related claims or reasonably provide an estimate or range of the possible outcome or loss, if any, though the Group does not expect that this incident will have a material impact on our operations or financial results. However, the Group has incurred and may continue to incur, expenses related to existing or future claims arising from this incident.

Goods and Services Tax rate applicable to operations in India

India’s Directorate General of Goods & Services Tax (the “DGGI”) is currently investigating the historical characterization of products such as rummy, fantasy games and poker as ‘games of skill’ (subjects to tax of 18% on player commission) rather than ‘games of chance’ (subject to 28% tax on player stakes). In making GST returns, Junglee and PokerStars India have consistently followed the Supreme Court of India’s rulings in relation to the distinction between games of skill and games of chance and treated its products as games of skill.

The DGGI has issued notices to multiple online gaming businesses alleging historical underpayment of goods and services tax (“GST”), including to Junglee, and most recently to PokerStars India, for a total amount of ₹198.5 billion ($2.3 billion). The Group disputes that any additional tax is payable and has been advised that the notices received are not in accordance with the GST provisions applicable to past periods.

As of the date of issue of these consolidated financial statements, Junglee has had its case joined to the GST cases of other online gaming operators pending at the Supreme Court of India (the “Supreme Court”) . The Supreme Court has stayed proceedings such that DGGI cannot take any further action against Junglee, including raising a demand of the alleged underpayment of GST, until the Supreme Court rules on the GST cases or vacates the stay. The lead case (The Directorate General of GST Intelligence vs. Gameskraft Technologies Private Limited) was ruled in favor of Gameskraft, the taxpayer, at the Karnataka High Court in May 2023, and found that taxes had been paid in accordance with the law, but the case remains unresolved at the Supreme Court.

On June 22, 2024, a meeting of India’s Goods and Services Tax Council (the “GST Council”) (a constitutional body responsible for the formation and recommendation of GST law changes, held by the Supreme Court to be the ultimate authority on the GST issues), recommended amending the GST law to empower the Indian Central Government, on the recommendation of the GST Council, to waive any historical taxes not paid, where the common trade practice was either:

1.not to subject the goods or services to tax, or

2.to subject the goods or services to a lower tax rate than what is now being suggested by the DGGI.

The recommendation of the GST Council was incorporated into the Finance Act, 2024.

While this law is not industry specific, if applied by the GST Council to the online real money gaming industry, we would expect the 18% GST already paid on platform commissions for past periods to be accepted as the applicable tax rate and the litigation referenced above will likely cease.

As of the date of issue of the consolidated financial statements, no liability has been accrued as the Group has determined that it is not probable that a liability has been incurred considering the progress of the cases pending at the Supreme Court, decisions of the State High Courts in favor of the industry, the arguments of legal counsel representing the industry and the opinion of the Group’s own legal counsel.

The Group is unable to make an estimate of any reasonably possible loss or range of losses, if any, were there to be an adverse final decision in the cases pending before the Supreme Court associated with the notice received.

Trademark and copyright claim regarding the use of the Aviator brand by Adjarabet in Georgia

Aviator LLC, a company owned by parties connected with the former owner of Adjarabet sued Atlas Holdings LLC, the Group's legal entity operating the Adjarabet brand in Georgia and Armenia, for damages alleging infringement of intellectual property rights in the brand name “AVIATOR” used within four third-party online casino games which were available on Adjarabet’s website. As of December 31, 2024, the Group has resolved the dispute and agreed to reimburse Aviator LLC an immaterial amount of legal costs.