Paddy Power owner Flutter Group hit with whopping $870m fine
Flutter Group has been hit with an enormous $870m fine after a Kentucky court ruled a previously vacated judgment had been reinstated.
Yesterday the Kentucky Supreme Court reinstated a ruling against The Stars Group, which merged with Flutter in 2019 in a £12.2bn deal, saddling Flutter with an enormous fine in the process.
The original award of damages against The Stars Group was made in 2015, but vacated three years later, approximately a year before the merger.
“Flutter is wholly surprised by today’s ruling and strongly disputes the basis of this judgement, which, it believes, runs contrary to the modern US legal precedent,” the company said.
The betting giant said it had a number of legal options available and that it was “confident that any amount it ultimately becomes liable to pay will be a limited proportion of the reinstated judgement.”
Flutter said its balanced sheet “remains robust”.
Today Flutter’s share price is down around 2.2 per cent.