Filings show that a company controlled by the businessman now owns just over 5pc of Flutter Entertainment
The company, which has its main stock market listing in New York, confirmed that Mr Dart’s Cayman Islands investment vehicle, Candle Lake, now owns just over 5pc of the gambling group.
Mr Dart (70) has been dubbed a ‘vulture investor’, for his purchase over many decades of distressed sovereign debt and holding out for government deals.
He has built a property empire in the Cayman Islands and become a serial investor in everything from sovereign debt to big tobacco.
His grandfather, William Dart, founded the Dart Manufacturing Company in 1937 in Michigan. It began by selling steep tape measures, dog tags and a children’s marble game. His son expanded the business, eventually transforming it into the world’s largest maker of Styrofoam cups and making the family a fortune.
Ken Dart is reckoned by Forbes to have a net worth of about $12bn. He renounced his US citizenship in 1994 and then secured citizenship from Belize. He now lives in the Cayman Islands. That helped him to avoid a US federal tax liability.
Over the course of decades, he expanded his wealth by buying distressed sovereign debt from countries including Argentina, Brazil and Greece. He often made large profits by rejecting debt restructuring deals and alongside other debt investors, launching lawsuits.
Over the past 25 years, his Dart Enterprises firm has invested about $1.5bn in the Cayman Islands, building mixed-use, residential, commercial, recreational, educational and hospitality properties.
Flutter Entertainment, whose chief executive is Peter Jackson, shifted its primary listing to the United States last year. It retains a listing in London, but delisted from Dublin.
“We believe a US primary listing is the natural home for Flutter given FanDuel’s number one position in the US, a market which we expect to contribute the largest proportion of profits in the near future,” said Mr Jackson in early 2024 when the company confirmed the move.
Flutter Entertainment now has a $50bn market capitalisation.
FanDuel, which is Flutter’s largest brand, is the US market’s leading online sportsbook and iGaming operator, with gross gaming revenue and market share of 25pc and 44pc respectively as at the end of last December.
Flutter’s group revenue last year rose 19pc to just over $14bn, and its adjusted core earnings were 26pc higher, at $3.3bn.