Sky Bet’s Malta Team Set to Move to Gibraltar as Part of Restructure

Flutter Entertainment is set to transfer Sky Bet Malta’s staff to Gibraltar, as part of the restructuring of its UK and Ireland business.

Earlier this week, Flutter, which also owns Paddy Power and Betfair, confirmed it is planning to make up to 1,400 job cuts across its UK and Ireland (UKI) business, as a result of increased taxation in the UK. This would represent almost 16% of Flutter’s UKI workforce, and is the latest sign of UK tier one operators scaling down as a result of the government increasing tax on various forms of betting.

According to Next.io, about 50 of the redundancies will apply to staff who are based in Malta, and any remaining staff are planned to move with Sky Bet to Gibraltar. While Sky Bet is headquartered in Leeds, England, Sky Gaming has some presence in Gibraltar already. The restructuring comes after Sky Bet opened its Malta operation last year. Approximately 500 Flutter staff are based in Malta.

Taxation causing redundancies

In April, remote gaming duty, paid on online casino bets, was raised from 21% of gross gambling yield (GGY) to 40%. There will also be a rise in general betting duty, paid on online sports bets, from 15% of GGY to 25% in April 2027; bets on horseracing will be exempt from the increase.

Operators are now bracing for an increase in machine games duty (MGD). Recent reports had suggested UK Chancellor John Healey was giving serious consideration to raising the MGD rate to 40%, which would be double the current rate of 20% of revenue generated on gaming machines in both casinos and bingo halls.

However, a report from The Times on Wednesday suggested the rate is actually going to be raised to 25% and will be announced in the Autumn Budget next Wednesday, offering some form of reprieve to operators.

A recommendation to raise the rate to 40% was made by cross-party think tank the Social Markets Foundation (SMF) in June. The SMF’s basis for this is that according to the Gambling Survey for Great Britain covering 2023, one in four (27%) casino game users on machines gambles at risky or harmful levels – the highest of any major category.

Reducing fixed costs

A rise to 40% would particularly impact Flutter’s Paddy Power brand, which operates betting shops.

Kevin Harrington, Flutter’s UKI CEO, said in a statement: "As we warned a year ago, we cannot fully absorb a rise of this magnitude without reducing our fixed cost base and therefore ​must restructure our business ​so that we ⁠can best position ourselves for the future.”

The redundancies will impact staff based in Leeds and Dublin, as well as Flutter UKI employees based at hubs in Porto, Portugal and Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The restructuring is expected to cost $80 million (£59.8 million) to $90 million. Those charges will be incurred in the fourth quarter of this year. Flutter employs about 28,500 people across the globe, with approximately 9,000 of those working for Flutter UKI.

Last month, Flutter confirmed up to 100 of its Paddy Power shops were “under review”, with around 400 jobs being at risk of redundancy. In March, reports suggested Flutter was restructuring Paddy Power’s marketing department, with redundancies a possibility. Flutter announced 57 shop closures at Paddy Power in October 2025, ahead of the announcement of the RGD and GBD increases.