Flutter Entertainment raises £1.1bn in placing to up stake in FanDuel

Paddy Power Betfair owner Flutter Entertainment said on Friday that it has raised around £1.1bn in a share placing to help fund the acquisition of a further stake in US gaming company FanDuel.

The company had said a day earlier that it had agreed to buy the entire 37.2% interest in FanDuel currently held by Fastball Holdings - a consortium led by private equity group KKR - for $4.18bn (£3.13bn).

Flutter bought a controlling stake in FanDuel in 2018 and the latest acquisition takes its interest in the business to 95% from 57.8%. The remaining 5% will continue to be held by existing co-shareholder Boyd Interactive Gaming.

The company said on Friday that it placed around 8 million shares at 14,000p each. The placing shares represent approximately 5.2% of the issued share capital and the price is a discount of around 2.1% to the closing share price on Thursday.