European Online Bingo Giant Faces Uncertain Future with 250 Jobs on the Line

Sarah Haselwood

In 2021, Tombola was taken over by the mighty Flutter, and now staff are at risk due to cost-saving initiatives. Last week, 250 customer-experience employees at Tombola bingo were told via email that their jobs were at risk.

Cost savings initiative

Tombola, whose headquarters are in Sunderland, told staff that due to cost savings, their jobs are at risk. In total, Tombola, Europe’s biggest online bingo website, has approximately 700 staff in the UK. They were bought by the world’s largest betting company, Flutter, at the end of 2021 for £402 million.

In a meeting with the affected staff last week, Flutter said they will aim to redeploy as many individuals as they can across their group. It’s expected that 250 customer experience roles will be reduced to about 100 to avoid role duplication.

A formal review

The next steps in the UK employment law process mean that the 250 staff who have been told they are at risk will now be part of a formal consultation process, which may result in redundancies or redeployment at the end of the process.

Flutter’s UK sales

Flutter continues to gain momentum in UK sales. In 2022, Tombola generated sales of £177 million with a £25 million profit (pre-tax).

This year, UK sales have been up during the first six months. Flutter announced earnings of £396 million compared to £369 million for the same period last year.

Regarding its third quarter results for UK and Ireland 2023, revenue increased by more than 11% overall and 11.5% growth for their online sectors.

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