Shares in the world\u2019s largest publicly traded gambling company Flutter, which is Dublin-headquartered but dual-listed in London and New York, have dropped more than 50 per cent so far in 2026. DraftKings, which is the closest competitor to Flutter\u2019s US sportsbook FanDuel, is also down about 30 per cent, as investors fret that prediction markets are eating into the $17 billion US sports betting market.<\/p>\n
Across the Atlantic, London-listed Entain, which owns British betting chains Ladbrokes and Coral and runs US sportsbook and casino brand BetMGM in a joint venture with MGM Resorts, has fallen 30 per cent.<\/p>\n
The declines come as investor sentiment towards US-focused sports betting companies has \u201creached extreme levels of pessimism\u201d amid the rise of prediction markets, according to Barclays analyst Brandt Montour. Analysts at Citi last month downgraded Flutter\u2019s shares from buy to sell, citing concerns about the company\u2019s ability to hit its US profit targets.<\/p>\n
Prediction markets, which allow customers to bet on binary outcomes of future events, are regulated as derivatives by the commodity futures trading commission, enabling them to bypass states\u2019 sports-gambling bans and taxes. They have surged in popularity and now attract billions of dollars in sports wagers every month, sparking fears that they will erode gambling companies\u2019 profits.<\/p>\n
UK-focused betting brands have also struggled after British chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves raised taxes on online casino games and online betting in her November budget. Entain in March reported that it had taken an unexpectedly large \u00a3488 million impairment charge as a result of the new levies, while Flutter \u2013 which owns chains such as Paddy Power, Sky Bet and Betfair \u2013 in February warned that the new levies were slowing growth.<\/p>\n
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Rents and evictions soar as house price inflation slows<\/p>\n
Hedge funds that have increased bets against Flutter include DE Shaw, which started increasing its position last October and was shorting 1.49 per cent of Flutter\u2019s London-listed stock, according to the latest disclosures filed with the British financial conduct authority. Two Sigma Investments has also built a short position in 2.17 per cent of Flutter\u2019s total London-listed shares \u2013 now the largest short position \u2013 up from 0.61 per cent at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n
Other funds that have taken short positions against Flutter so far this year include AQR Capital Management, Marshall Wace and Balyasny Asset Management.<\/p>\n
Marshall Wace, Millennium International Management, and Capital Fund Management have all shorted Entain. Marshall Wace has held the largest net short position so far in 2026, as much as 1.7 per cent of Entain\u2019s shares in April, but has since partly cashed in the bet.<\/p>\n
Marshall Wace, Capital Fund Management, AQR Capital Management, Two Sigma, Balyasny Asset Management and Millennium declined to comment. DE Shaw did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Not all short bets have come good, however. Funds holding positions this year against Evoke, owner of William Hill and 888, have lost about $3.5 million, according to S3 Partners, after the company \u2013 one of the hardest hit by UK tax rises \u2013 rebounded more than 50 per cent from its December lows amid reports of takeover talks with gaming operator Bally\u2019s Intralot.<\/p>\n
In the US, Barclays\u2019 Montour anticipates a possible \u201crelief rally\u201d for Flutter and DraftKings, as prediction markets also face rising scrutiny, legal disputes over whether they should be treated as gambling and fears that they could be facilitating a new wave of insider trading.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hedge fund short sellers have made at least $2.3 billion (\u20ac2 billion) this year betting against online gambling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[125659,79,18,75457,19,17,2549,55595],"class_list":["post-502607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-betfair","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-flutter","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-paddy-power","tag-peter-jackson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116638152947802352","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}