Paddy Power-owner Flutter Entertainment could pay chief executive Peter Jackson €6.25 million in salary and bonuses next year while it awarded him up to €10 million in share options on Tuesday.
Flutter confirmed that it had altered Mr Jackson’s terms after shifting its main stock market listing and headquarters to New York in May. He will take a 13.5 per cent cut in basic salary to $1.39 million (€1.25m). But his cash bonus for 2025, paid if the company hits agreed targets, will increase to between 200 per cent and 400 per cent of pay.
His current bonus is set at between 190 per cent and 285 per cent. Flutter said it would remain at this level for 2024.
The new terms mean that Mr Jackson could earn between €3.75 million and €6.25 million at Wednesday’s euro-dollar exchange rates. The group will pay him in the US currency from now on. He earned £4.5 million (€5.3m) last year, including a £3.2 million cash bonus, according to Flutter’s annual report.
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Flutter ties 80 per cent of executive bonuses to revenues and earnings and 20 per cent to how it performs on safer gambling policies meant to protect its customers.
Meanwhile, Flutter confirmed it had awarded Mr Jackson options on 53,729 shares, worth around €10 million at the price at which they traded on Tuesday, over the next three years. He will receive 13,432 shares in the betting giant in three equal tranches over three years from this week.
Separately, Flutter will give him 42,297 shares in three years time provided the group meets certain performance targets.
Mr Jackson will receive the shares for free under incentive schemes meant to encourage him and other executives to remain working for Flutter over the longer term and run the business so that it hits particular performance targets.
Flutter’s 2024 annual report confirmed that he received £2.3 million worth of shares under an incentive plan agreed by the company in 2020. Former chief financial officer Jonathan Hill received £1.3 million, according to the report.
The group’s executives received nothing under a 2021 incentive scheme as Flutter’s shares failed to perform in line with the targets required for share options to vest.
Mr Jackson will be required to hold at least six times his salary in shares in the group from now on. The figure was previously 500 per cent. This is meant to prevent him selling all his stock as and when it vests and is in line with recommendations from corporate governance advisers Institutional Shareholder Services.
Mr Jackson remains responsible for his own taxes, although the company will provide reasonable support and advice in respect of his US, UK and Irish tax returns.
Flutter’s biggest business is now in the US where its subsidiary FanDuel, is one of the leaders in a market that has been opening rapidly since 2018 when the federal supreme court lifted a ban on individual states legalising sports betting. The group said this month that it expects US revenues to be as high as €5.7 billion this year, with earnings around €720 million.
Along with Paddy Power and FanDuel, Flutter owns betting exchange Betfair, UK bookie Sky Bet and Sportsbet in Australia among other businesses. It is currently in talks to buy Italy’s Snaitech from owner London-listed Playtech for a likely €2.3 billion, although it has cautioned that there is no certainty about the negotiations’ outcome.
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