Touch Down in Dublin: How Flutter Delivered the NFL's Historic Game

History in the Making

Tens of thousands filled Croke Park to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers edge the Minnesota Vikings 24–21 in a game that blended the NFL’s trademark spectacle with a uniquely Irish atmosphere. And as one Paddy Power customer kicked field goals, with FanDuel’s branding lighting up the stadium’s LED boards, it became clear that Flutter wasn’t just simply a sponsor of the event. It was at the heart of it.

For Phil Bishop, Flutter’s Chief Operating Officer, it showed what’s possible when Flutter combines product innovation with the strength of its partnerships – delivering something no single brand could achieve alone. “The NFL is a huge organisation and Flutter can really add value to it when we bring skills and capabilities from across our brands,” Bishop said.

The Dublin game carried a resonance that stretched beyond the scoreboard. The Steelers’ Irish roots run deep through the Rooney family, whose late patriarch Dan Rooney not only owned the team but also served as U.S. Ambassador to Ireland. The Steelers played a preseason game in Dublin back in 1997, but this was the first time Ireland had hosted a regular-season NFL fixture. For the Steelers, it felt like a homecoming. For the NFL, it was another milestone in its mission to broaden the game’s appeal.

A Unique Opportunity

For sports betting operators, the NFL represents a unique opportunity. Unlike soccer, which stretches across months of overlapping competitions, the NFL is compressed into 18 weeks of regular-season games. Every game matters. Every game draws an audience. And in Ireland and the U.K., where the sport is still developing its fan base, there’s an opening to turn occasional viewers into regular fans.

Andy Branigan, Commercial Sports Director for Paddy Power, summed it up: “We’re seeing the appetite everywhere — in viewership, in media consumption, in our own customer base. It’s starting to transcend into popular culture beyond just the sport, and we’re determined to be part of that conversation.”

The numbers underline that appetite. The Steelers–Vikings clash became Paddy Power’s highest-ever regular-season NFL game for active customers and betting volume across the U.K. and Ireland, while over 180,000 players have already taken part in Paddy Power’s NFL Showdown, the brand’s new free-to-play game. Weekly jackpots have included €40,000 shared among winners and even a €5,000 prize for one fan who nailed three field goals alongside their tickets to Croke Park. Flutter colleagues also got to share in the moment, with many winning tickets to attend the historic game as part of internal competitions.

“Last season, we had just shy of half a million customers active on the NFL,” Branigan said. “This year we’re aiming for over 600,000. We see this as a stepping stone toward even more ambitious targets to grow the sport amongst our customers.”

Creating Connections

Flutter’s real edge lies not only in timing, but in reimagining how fans experience the game. In the U.S., FanDuel has rolled out products that simply didn’t exist a few years ago – turning every drive, every play, even every season-long storyline into a chance for fans to engage more deeply. Whether it’s combining MVP predictions with playoff outcomes, or betting on the outcome of a single possession in real time, these innovations show how technology can transform passive viewing into an interactive experience.

Mike Prinzivalli, Senior Director of Media and Partnerships at FanDuel, has seen the shift first-hand. “When I first joined in 2021, your average U.S. customer didn’t know what a parlay was. They thought it had to do with a pirate,” he laughed. “Now, thanks to activations like Rob Gronkowski’s weekly ‘Gronk’s Way’ parlay on Fox, parlays are a big portion of our book.”

And once those products are built for FanDuel’s massive U.S. audience, rolling them out in other markets becomes straightforward. This season Sky Bet launched NFL Bet Builders for the first time. As part of a partnership that has seen it become the NFL’s official partner in the U.K. and Ireland, Paddy Power expanded its NFL portfolio with locally adapted versions of FanDuel’s innovations, offering customers a balance of depth and accessibility.

Nicola O’Sullivan, Sports Trading Operations Manager at Flutter UK & Ireland, described the translation challenge. “FanDuel gives us a huge amount of content, but we have to tailor it to our markets,” she said. “The terminology they use isn’t always relatable for U.K. or Irish customers. Our job is to make sure what they see on site is simple, fun and relevant.”

That often means shaping products around the habits of local sports fans. “We know our American sports bettors are football customers. They’re used to the Premier League on Sunday afternoons. As soon as that finishes, they see Red Zone, so we build Red Zone-specific specials and offers that customers can understand and engage with quickly.”

Her own story captures the casual side of fandom. “I follow the Chicago Bears. Why? I went there with my J1 visa after university. I didn’t know any player. I showed up to my first NFL game wearing a jersey from TJ Maxx, which was on sale because the player had left and was on the opposition team that day,” she laughed.

For O’Sullivan, that makes accessibility key. While FanDuel customers might wager on a quarterback’s precise yardage, Paddy Power’s audience often prefers straightforward boosts and novelty bets. “Things like the color of the Gatorade or the outcome of the coin toss,” she said. “Our customers enjoy these fun bets on games they’re either attending or watching on TV.”

New Opportunities Abound

Visibility matters too, and Dublin gave FanDuel something almost impossible to get in America — LED branding inside the stadium itself. “TV-visible signage is hugely valuable in the U.S.,” explained Lindsay Vellines, FanDuel’s Director of League and Team Marketing. “But there aren’t many opportunities for it in NFL games here. The U.K. and Ireland deal gave us that field-level signage we don’t have in the U.S.”

Seeing FanDuel’s name circling Croke Park was a first-of-its-kind moment for the brand. “You can imagine how powerful it is to activate at league events, to embed yourself in those iconic moments,” Vellines said. “That’s what makes this deal so valuable as it gives us the right to show up in the moments that matter.”

Her team developed campaigns around that visibility, from TikTok and Snapchat takeovers to traditional broadcast spots, while personalities like Kay Adams helped drive product-specific engagement. Even for American fans watching from afar despite an earlier kick-off, the international games add to FanDuel’s product proposition. “These games can be tough for some Americans,” Vellines admitted. “But proper NFL fans wake up and definitely still tune in, so we need to be ready to cater to them.”

A Sport Like No Other

The NFL also creates challenges unlike any other sport. With its entire season condensed into 18 weeks and only 16 games each weekend, betting volumes are concentrated into short bursts of activity. For Flutter, the solution lies in global collaboration. FanDuel’s Director of Risk Operations, Joe Silkes, sees it as the perfect demonstration of the Flutter Edge. “The NFL is a great example of how we collaborate globally,” he said. “We’ve been able to leverage shared tools and expertise, so we always have a full view of our risk profile. That allows us to innovate confidently and scale our processes as our customer base grows.”

The technology behind this effort is just as important as the people. Advanced modelling, real-time data feeds and shared platforms connect risk, data and trading teams across the U.S., U.K., Ireland and beyond. Together they can spot patterns in seconds and adjust seamlessly across brands. Crucially, this approach doesn’t just manage exposure; it makes new product development possible.

“Risk management is becoming an enabler of the future of sports betting,” Silkes explained. “We’re building the products and processes to make that happen, giving more power to customers to predict how they see a game playing out.”

Alan Clarke, Flutter Group’s Chief Trading and Product Officer, highlighted the same strength from another angle. "We’ve got people who really care about trading, and managing risk on, their sports, supported by quants, data teams and platforms. We’ll have well over four billion customer bets in our betstream this year, and we stream all of that intelligence back into sharpening our pricing. As a result, many participants follow Flutter’s price in the market and according to Clarke, this is because the company has "the best infrastructure, talent, and pricing. Getting that combination right is difficult for competitors to replicate and ultimately forms the bedrock on which we offer more innovative markets, shaping the future of sports betting.”

Everyone’s A Winner

Such competitive advantages – known as the Flutter Edge – ran through every workstream around the historic game in Dublin. For some teams, it meant tapping into the company’s scale, for others its technology or talent, but the common thread was the ability to deliver more together than any brand could alone. For Bishop, it is about offering the NFL something in return. “This is how we use our muscle – our scale across the whole group – to strengthen our relationship with the NFL in a way that helps them grow their business, their sport globally, and helps us engage our customers at the same time.”

That muscle extended beyond sport. According to the Irish government, the event generated an estimated €64 million in additional economic activity for Ireland, delivering nearly a 2-to-1 return on State investment. It reinforced the value of hosting international fixtures – not just for fans and brands, but for the broader economy.

Dublin’s historic game may have been just one Sunday in the calendar, but it symbolized much more. It captured the NFL’s ambition to make its sport truly global, and underlined Flutter’s ability to deliver on that vision. Record customer engagement for Paddy Power, breakthrough stadium visibility for FanDuel, expanded offerings from Sky Bet – each brand operating at its best, powered by shared technology and talent.

As fans spilled out of Croke Park after a game that came down to the final whistle, the Rooney family’s wish to bring the NFL “home” to Dublin had become reality. Flutter’s brands had turned it into something more, with a celebration that stretched from the terraces to the Paddy Power Fanzone to millions of mobile screens across markets.