Paddy Power may close up to 100 shops in Ireland and UK, with 400 jobs at risk

Paddy Power will shut up to 100 betting shops across Ireland and the UK, the bookmaker said on Thursday, with up to 400 employees now facing the risk of redundancy. Picture: Denis Minihane.

Paddy Power will shut up to 100 betting shops across Ireland and the UK, the bookmaker said on Thursday, with up to 400 employees now facing the risk of redundancy. 

The announcement could see the booking firm closing one fifth of all its shop numbers. Paddy Power has 196 shops in the Republic of Ireland employing 935 people, with a further 310 shop outlets in the North and in Britain employing 1,374 workers. 

Flutter UK and Ireland, the parent company of Paddy Power, said impacted workers would be offered redeployment opportunities where possible. “We are incredibly proud of our high street estate, and it remains a key part of our business in communities across the UK and Ireland. Unfortunately, we have had to take the extremely difficult decision to conduct this review," a spokesperson from Flutter UK and Ireland, owner of Paddy Power, said.

“The high street trading environment has been challenging for a number of years given rising costs, fierce competition, economic uncertainty and the shift to online but we also face a material impact from the higher gambling taxes announced in last year’s UK budget. Our immediate priority at this time is to support those colleagues affected by this announcement.”

The announcement on Thursday comes on the back of further closures by Paddy Power in November 2025. Back then Flutter UK & Ireland announced the closure of 57 Paddy Power shops across Ireland and the UK, with 28 shops closing in the Republic of Ireland, on in the North, and 27 in Britain. The company said that higher gambling taxes was impacting underlying earnings by $540m (€465m) in 2026-2027.

Flutter is the world's largest online betting company with annual revenue of €13.8bn. It's other gambling brands include Betfair, Sky Bet, and FanDuel in the US. Paddy Power was founded in 1988, opening its first 42 shops as a result of a merger between three Irish bookmakers.

Last month, Flutter named company veteran and head of its international division Dan Taylor as incoming chief executive, succeeding Peter Jackson, who had been with Flutter for more than a decade. Mr Taylor, who will take over on October 1, had only assumed the expanded role of Flutter president in May to oversee the group's underperforming US operations, part of a management shake-up at its market-leading FanDuel brand.

Flutter made the August announcement of its managerial change as it cut its full-year core profit forecast for a fourth successive quarter.