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Pentagon takes stake in US rare earth company – Arab News PK
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The 10 Best Dressed Stars From Couture Week
In Paris these past few days, the fall 2025 shows at couture week took over the City of Light. As luxury fashion houses showcased the finest craftsmanship they can offer, VIP celebrities took in the glorious designs from the front row. And given that couture week is no average fashion week (it is ultra exclusive), stars were sure to bring their sartorial A-game to the presentations—delivering bold, avant-garde looks that were all about the art of the fashion transformation.
The best dressed stars of the week were those who understood that attending couture is a privilege—and that your looks for the week should be a moment. Nobody did this better than Cardi B: The rapper attended several shows in a series of bold, striking looks. Her Schiaparelli outfit, however, was certainly the most-discussed. The star showed up in a pearl-fringed, three-dimensional cape, and carrying a live raven. (The bird has become a recurring motif while teasing her upcoming album, Am I the Drama?).
But Cardi was not the only star to bring the drama (pun intended) to the shows. At Balenciaga, Lorde sported a sheer metallic slip gown; At Chanel, forever-chic filmmaker Sofia Coppola and her two teenage daughters—Romy and Cosima Mars—coordinated in pastel hues. As for one of the most fashion-forward models on the scene this week? Supermodel Alex Consani brought impeccable style as she ran from one show to the next. Her couture wardrobe was filled with casual-cool pieces like slouchy jeans and itty-bitty Alaïa bags.
Below, the 10 best dressed stars from couture week.
Cardi B
‘2025 Getty Images’
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Lorde
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Kim Kardashian
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The Coppolas
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Tessa Thompson
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Alex Consani
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Naomi Watts and Kai Schreiber
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Switzerland break new ground at EURO 2025 by reaching knockout stage
How Switzerland bounced back at the right time
Until today, Switzerland had never reached the quarter-final stage of any international tournament.
Coming into this one, it didn’t feel as though they were going to make it out of the group.
Before July, they had won just one of their last seven games on their way to being relegated to League B of the UEFA Nations League.
By all accounts, they were carrying the form of a team far and away from their best.
So, what changed?
The answer is simple: the power of hosting.
In the last two editions of the EUROs, the winning side was the nation who hosted the competition.
It just invokes something special within a team, as it has with this year’s host, a side that has shown real fighting spirit in front of their home crowd.
Even in their opening defeat to Norway, a game of fine margins, they demonstrated that they should not be discounted.
Thursday proved to be the biggest test of their character, trailing to Finland late on in a game where they needed to avoid defeat by all means necessary.
They did not panic. They believed. The fans believed. Every attack roared home by the Geneva crowd, who rallied behind them.
Pia Sundhage’s management prowess paid off, calling on the right substitutes at exactly the right moments.
Record-breaking crowds, a 14,000 strong fan march… this was a performance that paid back the faith supporters have shown in the squad.
This is more than just a draw for the Swiss – this is history.
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T20 Blast: Wins for Hampshire, Leicestershire and Worcestershire
After being put in and losing Tim Robinson without a run on the board, Northants’ David Willey was then dropped on nought with Sam Wood parrying the ball over the rope for six.
He went on to make 27 with Bopara scoring 53 from 40 balls and Saif Zaib smashing 30 from 18 balls as the Steelbacks reached 100-2 in the 11th over.
They collapsed to 129-7 at the start of the 15th before Luke Procter and Ben Sanderson steered them to 171-7.
There were two wickets apiece for England’s Josh Hull, Logan van Beek and spinner Josh Thomas, who is on a short-term loan from Somerset.
Rishi Patel also fell without scoring to start the Foxes reply but Shan Masood and Sol Budinger added 71 inside seven overs before Masood was strangled down the leg side for 25 and Budinger holed out for 40 from 22 balls soon after, both off George Scrimshaw.
Ahmed and Louis Kimber guided the Foxes to 100-3 in 11 overs but Kimber (17) was bowled by Scrimshaw who ended with 3-33, leaving Ben Cox (21* from 10) to join Ahmed to see the hosts to the line.
The England all-rounder hit three sixes in his 30-ball unbeaten 52 not out.
At Derby, Worcestershire made it back-to-back wins to move within four points of the top four.
They might have been regretting choosing to bat first when they fell to 10-4 in the third over, with Zak Chappell (3-26) in fine form, however Roderick made 71 from 59 balls and steadied the ship with Ethan Brookes (43 from 26) before a late flurry from Ben Dwarshuis (33* from 18) and Tom Taylor (14* from five) saw the visitors post 174-6.
Despite two early sixes from Caleb Jewell (16), the Falcons lost wickets at regular intervals and although 41-year-old Madsen hit 10 fours and cleared the ropes twice, his side were unable to keep up with the required rate thanks to some stifling bowling.
When Martin Andersson was run out by Adam Hose with 28 still needed from 13 balls the game was up and Madsen was left on 77 from 53 balls as the Rapids saw it out.
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S&P 500, Nasdaq post record closes, Nvidia closing valuation $4 trillion – Reuters
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The UN warns millions will die by 2029 if US funding for HIV programs isn’t replaced
LONDON (AP) — Years of American-led investment into AIDS programs has reduced the number of people killed by the disease to the lowest levels seen in more than three decades and provided life-saving medicines for some of the world’s most vulnerable.
But in the last six months, the sudden withdrawal of U.S. money has caused a “systemic shock,” U.N. officials warned, adding that if the funding isn’t replaced, it could lead to more than 4 million AIDS-related deaths and 6 million more HIV infections by 2029.
A new UNAIDS report released Thursday said the funding losses have “already destabilized supply chains, led to the closure of health facilities, left thousands of health clinics without staff, set back prevention programs, disrupted HIV testing efforts and forced many community organizations to reduce or halt their HIV activities.”
It also said that it feared other major donors scaled back their support, reversing decades of progress against AIDS worldwide — and that the strong multilateral cooperation is in jeopardy because of wars, geopolitical shifts and climate change.
A ‘lifeline’ removed
AP AUDIO: UN says if US funding for HIV programs is not replaced, millions more will die by 2029
AP correspondent Karen Chammas reports on the impact of cuts to US funding for international HIV programs.
The $4 billion that the United States pledged for the global HIV response for 2025 disappeared virtually overnight in January, when U.S. President Donald Trump ordered that all foreign aid be suspended and later moved to shutter the U.S. AID agency.
Andrew Hill, an HIV expert at the University of Liverpool who is not connected to the United Nations, said that while Trump is entitled to spend U.S. money as he sees fit, “any responsible government would have given advance warning so countries could plan,” instead of stranding patients in Africa where clinics were closed overnight.
The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, was launched in 2003 by U.S. President George W. Bush, the biggest-ever commitment by any country focused on a single disease.
UNAIDS called the program a “lifeline” for countries with high HIV rates, and said that it supported testing for 84.1 million people, treatment for 20.6 million, among other initiatives. According to data from Nigeria, PEPFAR also funded 99.9% of the country’s budget for medicines taken to prevent HIV.
U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Angeli Achrekar, a UNAIDS deputy executive director who was PEPFAR’s principal deputy coordinator until January 2023, said the program is under review by the Trump administration though Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver “to continue life-saving treatment.”
““The extent to which it will continue in the future, we don’t know,” she told a video news conference with U.N. reporters in New York. “We are cautiously hopeful that PEPFAR will continue to support both prevention and treatment services.”
A gap impossible to fill
In 2024, there were about 630,000 AIDS-related deaths worldwide, per a UNAIDS estimate — the figure has remained about the same since 2022 after peaking at about 2 million deaths in 2004.
Even before the U.S. funding cuts, progress against curbing HIV was uneven. UNAIDS said that half of all new infections are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Tom Ellman of Doctors Without Borders said that while some poorer countries were now moving to fund more of their own HIV programs, it would be impossible to fill the gap left by the U.S.
“There’s nothing we can do that will protect these countries from the sudden, vicious withdrawal of support from the U.S.,” said Ellman, head of the group’s South Africa medical unit.
Experts also fear another significant loss — data.
The U.S. paid for most HIV surveillance in African countries, including hospital, patient and electronic records, all of which has now abruptly ceased, according to Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the Global Health Institute at Duke University.
“Without reliable data about how HIV is spreading, it will be incredibly hard to stop it,” he said.
A new drug revives hope
The uncertainty comes in the wake of a twice-yearly injectable that many hope could end HIV. Studies published last year showed that the drug from pharmaceutical maker Gilead was 100% effective in preventing the virus.
At a launch event Thursday, South Africa’s health minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the country would “move mountains and rivers to make sure every adolescent girl who needs it will get it,” saying that the continent’s past dependence upon US aid was “scary.”
Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug, called Yeztugo, a move that should have been a “threshold moment” for stopping the AIDS epidemic, said Peter Maybarduk of the advocacy group Public Citizen.
But activists like Maybarduk said Gilead’s pricing will put it out of reach of many countries that need it. Gilead has agreed to sell generic versions of the drug in 120 poor countries with high HIV rates but has excluded nearly all of Latin America, where rates are far lower but increasing.
“We could be ending AIDS,” Maybarduk said. “Instead, the U.S. is abandoning the fight.”
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Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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A previous version of this story was corrected to show that the name of the drug is Yeztugo, not Sunlenca.
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Dolly Parton takes break from songwriting after husband’s death
Dolly Parton is putting new music on hold following the death of her husband, she disclosed on the podcast “Khloé in Wonder Land.”
The 79-year-old country legend sat down with host Khloé Kardashian to discuss her faith, career and life advice on Wednesday’s episode. Though famously private about her marriage, Parton opened up about her decision to press pause on music while she grieves her husband of almost 60 years, Carl Dean, who died in March at 82.
“Several things I’ve wanted to start, but I can’t do it,” Parton said. “I will later, but I’m just coming up with such wonderful, beautiful ideas. But I think I won’t finish it. I can’t do it right now, because I got so many other things and I can’t afford the luxury of getting that emotional right now.”
Parton and Dean wed May 30, 1966, and remained together until his death. Despite Parton’s fame, Dean avoided the spotlight and was rarely seen in public.
“We were so good for each other, because he’s a total loner,” Parton told Kardashian. “We could just be in the house all day and say two or three words, didn’t matter. Or we could talk all afternoon or lay in bed and talk at night “
“I really think that there’s just certain personalities that are great for each other. And we were together 61 years,” she said. “We were just so different, but we were so similar.”
Parton also noted that their zodiac signs were compatible: She’s a Capricorn and he was a Cancer.
The “Jolene” singer won her first Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) award in 1966, the year she and Dean married. He rented a tuxedo and got dressed to go to the ceremony but ended up taking it off before making it out the door, Parton said.
“I knew right then that I’m just gonna keep him private as best I can, never ask him to do nothing,” she said. “But he was very proud of me. We got along great, because we didn’t have nothing to fight over like that.”
Parton released a song dedicated to Dean, “If You Hadn’t Been There,” days after his death.
“Oh you are my rock / A soft place to land / My wings, my confidence / You understand / Your willingness / Beyond compare / No I wouldn’t be here / If you hadn’t been there,” she sings on the heartfelt track.
Kardashian is a longtime Parton fan. In 2024, her sister Kim Kardashian threw her a “Khloéwood”-themed 40th birthday party inspired by Dollywood in Tennessee. Kardashian and Parton collaborated earlier this year on a new denim line for Kardashian’s Good American fashion label: Dolly’s Joleans.
“They make your butt look good,” Parton said of the jeans, which she was wearing during the interview. “Even if you don’t have a good butt, they make it look good. And if you got a good butt, it’s amazing.”
During the hourlong conversation, Parton and Kardashian discussed everything from the singer’s love of makeup to Whitney Houston’s cover of Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” Parton also shared her reaction to Beyoncé’s version of her 1973 hit “Jolene,” which appeared on “Cowboy Carter” last year.
“She flipped it around, thinking, ‘You think you can take my man?’ ” Parton said. “But she’s that cool. … I loved it, because as a songwriter, you love to hear how other people interpret your songs. And the fact that she did it, I knew I was gonna make a lot of money.”
In February, Parton was featured on the deluxe edition of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet.” She joined the 26-year-old pop star on a twangy reimagination of her chart-topping single “Please Please Please.”
When asked about her plans for the future, Parton said she didn’t know but that she has faith there’s more in store for her.
“I always look at my life like it’s been a tree. It had roots, deep roots, then it had all the limbs, then it had all the little leaves. Everything branches out to something else,” Parton said. “I know God’s gonna give me something else. I try to leave myself wide open. I try to keep myself very private in my world so I can hear what I’m supposed to know. And that I can act on. And I’ll go for it, and I’ll work it to death.”
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The Netherlands triumph in the Low Countries derby and keep the Finals in sight
With the victory and the three points earned against the Belgians, the Netherlands moved three spots up in the standings, going from 12th to ninth with five victories and 13 points. They closed the gap to seventh-placed Germany (five wins, 16 points) and eighth-placed the United States (five wins, 14 points), which both still play on Thursday. Belgium are 14th, with three victories and eight points.
The good work of setter Sarah van Aalen was instrumental in the Dutch victory as she helped each of the team’s five starting hitters end the match with double digits in scoring – team captain Nika Daalderop led them with 18 points, followed by fellow outside hitter Helena Kok (14), opposite Elles Dambrink (12) and middle blockers Britte Stuut (12) and Suus Gerritsen (11).
“I’m very happy that we got to play for this crowd in this city that feels like home to me,” said Gerritsen, who played for Apeldoorn’s Draisma Dynamo from 2020 to 2025. “We had some difficulties in the third set, but I’m happy that we picked it back up in set four. That was a great job from our team, but Belgium also fought hard and played an amazing game.”
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This influencer shares her active life. Offline, she’s fighting for treatment of a painful condition.
A scroll through Aurora McCausland’s wildly popular social media accounts — she has more than 300,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram — shows an active young mom dancing, cleaning and tackling major renovation projects in her Utah home.
Behind the scenes, though, is a painful reality: McCausland has lipedema, a progressive and debilitating disease that causes fat in connective tissue to build up disproportionately, most often in the legs, ankles and hips.
She said her legs throb with pain, swell unpredictably and feel heavy, like they’re filled with cement. It’s a major source of frustration for the mother of two young children. Standing up can cause her to black out.
“Things that I feel like I should be able to do cause pain pretty quickly, and then I kind of have to tap out,” said McCausland, 30, of West Valley City, Utah. “Getting down to play with my kids is really hard.”
Aurora McCausland first noticed symptoms of lipedema as a teenager. It took more than a decade for her to be diagnosed.Courtesy Aurora McCausland She’s tried to manage the pain with compression garments, lymphatic drainage and anti-inflammatory diets.
“Those are helpful at potentially slowing down the disease,” her physician, Dr. David Smart, said. “But really, only surgery helps to reverse the disease process.”
Smart is a dermatologic surgeon at the Roxbury Institute in Murray, Utah. He performs a specialized type of liposuction that removes the diseased tissue to restore mobility.
The procedure is not cosmetic, and despite the buildup of fat, lipedema is not related to obesity. It’s not caused by overeating or inactivity. It’s a hormonally-driven inflammatory condition, one that’s largely resistant to diet and exercise.
“It goes against the more traditional health dogma that’s out there about normal fat,” Smart said.
Lipedema is almost exclusively seen in women, but scientists don’t have a good handle on how many are affected. Some estimates suggest it may affect up to 11% of women.
“There are no large-scale, population-based epidemiologic estimates. We don’t have blood tests. We don’t have imaging studies,” said Dr. Aaron Aday, co-director of vascular medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
Denied relief
Many women first notice symptoms of lipedema at puberty, and the disease often worsens during major hormonal shifts like pregnancy or menopause.
McCausland said her symptoms first appeared during her early teens: leg pain, swelling and bruising from the slightest touch. “I thought it was just growing pains,” she said. Fat built up around her ankles. No matter how physically active she was — dancing and CrossFit were two hobbies — she couldn’t make the fat in her lower legs go away.
Still, she was told it was just excess weight. “That if I worked out more, ate less, it would go away,” she said. “But no matter what I did, my legs just hurt more. I was doing everything right and getting worse.”
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McCausland’s five sisters experienced similar symptoms. She said none knew what the problem was until one of the sisters got liposuction to slim down her lower legs.
But lipedema fat isn’t the same as typical fat. Instead of feeling soft, it can feel like hard nodules under the skin. Regular liposuction can be risky to use on lipedema patients.
It took far longer than it should have for her sister’s doctor to do the procedure, McCausland said.
“The doctor ended up giving her third-degree internal burns all on her legs, because he didn’t know that it wasn’t normal fat. He just kept going, having to go over and over and over trying to remove it,” she said. “It was just this horrible thing that happened. Obviously the doctor had no idea that she had this condition, and neither did my sister.”
Aday — who hasn’t treated McCausland — said that a specialized type of liposuction, performed by a surgeon with extensive knowledge of lipedema, is the most effective way to treat the disorder. It can reverse symptoms in many people. Some patients, he said, may have to have the procedure repeated.
The Roxbury Institute said that McCausland would need two liposuction surgeries, totaling more than $35,000. But her former insurance provider, Cigna Healthcare, denied coverage for the procedure twice.
In an emailed statement, a Cigna representative said: “Lipedema is a painful condition that disproportionately impacts women, and we cover a range of treatment options, including liposuction, for patients that meet evidence-based clinical criteria. Ms. McCausland’s case was carefully reviewed by multiple doctors, including a plastic surgeon with expertise in lipedema. Based on the information submitted by her doctor, she did not meet the clinical criteria for liposuction at that time.”
McCausland believes her coverage was denied because she didn’t look sick enough, adding that she suspects it’s based on her social media posts.
They said “that it’s not medically necessary,” McCausland said. “That’s absurd. They’re not looking at how I live. They’re looking at a photo and deciding I don’t look bad enough to be helped.”
Cigna told NBC News that social media isn’t considered when making coverage decisions. “Our coverage decisions are based on the clinical information submitted by a patient’s treating physician in accordance with coverage policies and the patient’s plan design,” the representative said.
Her health insurance has since switched to MotivHealth, because of her husband’s new job. McCausland said MotivHealth has already suggested to her in a phone call that it’s not a procedure it usually covers but she can submit additional documentation. A representative for the company did not respond to several requests for comment.
A long under-recognized disease
Lipedema is categorized in four stages, based on visual appearance. Stage 1 looks like minor fat accumulation and Stage 4 appears as severe leg disfigurement. Appearance, however, doesn’t always match the severity of symptoms.
“You can have a Stage 1 patient that has very severe and crippling symptoms of pain and swelling, and somebody who is maybe more progressed visibly that doesn’t have such severe symptoms,” Smart said.
McCausland is a prime example. She doesn’t look sick, according to some commenters on her social media videos.
McCausland said her legs throb with pain, swell unpredictably and feel heavy, like they’re filled with cement.Courtesy Aurora McCausland “I’ve gotten a handful of people saying, ‘Well, I’ve looked at your other videos, and I agree with your insurance company,’” she said.
“This is very likely the reason why lipedema has been so under-recognized for such a long time,” Smart said. “So many people, so many insurance companies, so many physicians, have been telling lipedema patients for decades to just ‘work out, eat better, lose weight,’ when that’s not actually the problem.”
He said waiting until the condition progresses is dangerous. Without treatment, lipedema advances, causing more inflammation, worsening pain and permanent joint damage. The longer surgery is delayed, the harder it is to restore mobility in later stages.
“It’s really unfortunate for Aurora, because at that early stage, it is less likely that she gets insurance coverage,” Smart said. “They’re not looking at the severity of her symptoms. They’re not looking at the severity of her pain, the decrease in mobility, her lack of ability to be able to perform those daily activities of living.”
Jonathan Kartt, chief executive officer of the Lipedema Foundation, said that the pain experienced by women with lipedema can be measured objectively.
Using a tool to measure how patients perceive stimuli like temperature and touch, researchers in Germany found that women with lipedema had a lower pain threshold compared with other women. The pain was specific to areas affected by the disease.
“The differences were so stark,” Kartt said, that it’s possible to use “this test to actually diagnose or confirm a diagnosis of lipedema.”
Aday, of Vanderbilt, is leading an effort to create a national biobank of information on lipedema patients. The team takes blood samples and urine, as well as fat and skin biopsies.
“It’s meant to be a living research resource,” he said. “We want other investigators to use these data, build upon it and generate new data.”
There is also growing excitement in the lipedema field to see whether the blockbuster GLP-1 drugs, like Ozempic and Wegovy, might be useful. The drugs are mainly used to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity, but have been shown to provide benefits for other diseases. Aday is working to secure funding for such a study.
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Flutter secures 100% ownership of FanDuel through new agreement with Boyd
New York, July 10 2025: Flutter Entertainment (NYSE: FLUT; LSE: FLTR) (“Flutter”) the world’s leading online sports betting and iGaming operator today announces the extension of its long-term strategic partnership with Boyd Gaming Corporation (“Boyd”) to 2038 and the buyout of Boyd’s 5% stake in FanDuel Group (“FanDuel”), together “the Agreement”.
Under the terms of the Agreement, Flutter will pay Boyd approximately $1.755bn1 to acquire Boyd’s 5% stake2 in FanDuel and to revise various existing commercial terms, taking Flutter’s holding in the #1 sports betting and iGaming business in the US to 100%3 at an attractive implied valuation of approximately $31bn. The Agreement also provides for the extension of the strategic partnership between FanDuel and Boyd at significantly reduced market access costs in the states where FanDuel’s market access is provided by Boyd4. This is expected to contribute to annual savings for Flutter of approximately $65m beginning July 1, 2025.
The Agreement delivers on key strategic objectives at attractive economics:
- Increased ownership of the market #1: This transaction secures 100%3 ownership of FanDuel, the premier asset in the US sports betting and iGaming market. FanDuel is the clear number one in the market with a 43% market share in sports betting and 27% in iGaming5, driven by key sustainable competitive advantages, including access to the ‘Flutter Edge’.
- Leveraging scale to drive more efficient market access costs, benefiting long-term adjusted EBITDA6 margin: This transaction delivers more attractive market access terms in states where FanDuel’s market access is provided by Boyd4 and is expected to contribute annual operating cost savings of approximately $65m. The savings are expected to be generated from July 1, 2025, and further underpin Flutter’s confidence in the long-term profitability profile of its US business, demonstrating the ability to help mitigate both recent and future tax increases7.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of certain regulatory approvals, is expected to complete in Q3 2025, and will be funded by additional debt financing. Leverage8 is expected to increase but then reduce given the highly visible profitable growth opportunities that exist across the Group, and Flutter remains committed to its medium-term leverage ratio of 2.0-2.5x.
Peter Jackson, CEO, commented:
“Our acquisition of FanDuel in 2018 is one of the most transformational events in our Group’s history, with its natural competitive advantages combined with access to Flutter Edge capabilities driving impressive growth to become the well-established and clear leader in US online sports betting and iGaming. I am really pleased to drive future value for our shareholders by increasing our ownership of FanDuel to 100%. Boyd have been fantastic partners for FanDuel, and we are delighted to be extending our important strategic partnership through to 2038.”
Bridge Credit Agreement
On July 10, 2025, Flutter and certain of its subsidiaries also entered into a definitive bridge credit agreement (the “Bridge Credit Agreement”) with certain banks to obtain binding commitments in respect of a senior secured first lien term loan comprising an aggregate principal of US$1.75 billion (the “Facility”).
Flutter plans to use the Facility to (directly or indirectly):
- finance or refinance amounts payable in connection with the transactions described above
- pay fees and/or expenses in connection with the foregoing; and
- finance general corporate purposes and working capital of the group
The Facility will:
- mature 12 months after first utilization of the Facility, with two additional six-month extension options; and
- bear interest at a per annum rate equal to Term SOFR plus an applicable margin equal to 1.25%, which shall be subject to certain step-ups over the term of the Facility.
The other terms of the Bridge Credit Agreement are substantially similar to the terms of the Term Loan A, Term Loan B and Revolving Credit Facility Agreement dated as of November 24, 2023 (and as amended from time to time) entered into between, amongst others, Flutter and J.P. Morgan SE as Administrative Agent.
- Consideration comprises approximately $1.55bn attributable to the acquisition of Boyd’s 5% stake in FanDuel and approximately $205m attributable to the revision of various existing commercial terms. These include reduced future market access costs to FanDuel which are expected to result in an annual operating cost saving of approximately $65m for Flutter from July 1, 2025, and the cessation of FanDuel’s operation of all retail sportsbooks in Boyd states from Q2 2026. The revenue and adjusted EBITDA impact of the closure of these operations is not expected to be material.
- Boyd’s investment in FanDuel comprises of 4.5% ownership in the form of Investor Units of FanDuel and the remaining in the form of warrants that allow Boyd to acquire 0.5% Investor Units of FanDuel.
- Fox has an option to acquire an 18.6% equity interest in FanDuel (the “Fox Option”) on or before December 3, 2030. The price to be paid to exercise the Fox Option is the fair market value of FanDuel at December 3, 2020 which was determined to be $20bn plus an annual escalator of 5%. This currently equates to an exercise price of $4.5bn. Cash payment is required at the time of exercise and the Fox Option can only be exercised in full. Exercise of the Fox Option requires Fox to be licensed. See Part II, “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data – Fair Value Measurements” of Flutter’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 filed with the SEC on March 4, 2025 for additional information regarding the Fox Option.
- States where FanDuel will use Boyd for market access are Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana and Pennsylvania
- US market position based on available market share data for states in which FanDuel is active. Online sportsbook market share is the gross gaming revenue (GGR) market share of our FanDuel brand for the three months to March 31, 2025 in the states in which FanDuel was live (excluding Tennessee as they no longer report this data), based on published gaming regulator reports in those states. iGaming market share is the GGR market share of FanDuel for the three months to March 31, 2025 in the states in which FanDuel was live, based on published gaming regulator reports in those states. US iGaming GGR market share including PokerStars US (which is reported in the International segment) for the three months to March 31, 2025 was 27%.
- Adjusted EBITDA and leverage are non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure cannot be provided without unreasonable effort. This is due to the inherent difficulty of accurately forecasting the occurrence and financial impact of the adjusting items necessary for such reconciliations to be prepared of items that have not yet occurred, are out of our control, or cannot be reasonably predicted
- Flutter will provide an update on recent tax changes and their anticipated impact at its upcoming Q2 earnings in August.
- Leverage for a specified reporting period is defined as net debt for the period divided by last twelve months Adjusted EBITDA. Net debt is defined as total debt, excluding premiums, discounts, and deferred financing expense, and the effect of foreign exchange that is economically hedged as a result of our cross-currency interest rate swaps reflecting the net cash outflow on maturity less cash and cash equivalents.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements reflect our current expectations as to future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. In some cases, you can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “outlook”, “believe(s)”, ”expect(s)”, “potential”, “continue(s)”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “could”, “would”, “seek(s)”, “predict(s)”, “intend(s)”, “trends”, “plan(s)”, “estimate(s)”, “anticipates”, “projection”, “goal”, “target”, “aspire”, “will likely result”, and or the negative version of these words or other comparable words of a future or forward-looking nature. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties and there are or will be important factors that could cause actual outcomes or results to differ materially from those indicated in these statements. These factors include, among others: completion of the proposed transaction is subject to various risks and uncertainties related to, among other things, its terms, timing, structure, benefits, costs and completion; the receipt of certain regulatory approvals, to the extent required, and the timing and conditions for such approvals; and the satisfaction of the closing conditions to the proposed transaction. The ability to predict results or actual effects of our plans and strategies is inherently uncertain. Accordingly, actual results may differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements. In addition, the ability to achieve estimated cost synergies in the timeframe described in this press release, or at all, is subject to various assumptions, which involve risks and uncertainties. In addition, we may incur additional or unexpected costs in connection with the matters discussed in this press release. The ability to predict results or actual effects of our plans and strategies is inherently uncertain. Accordingly, actual results may differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements.
Factors that could cause Flutter’s results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in Part I, “Item 1A. Risk Factors” of Flutter’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and other periodic filings with the SEC, which are accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Flutter undertakes no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.
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