Flutter’s Cash4Clubs initiative honored with Best Grassroots Initiative award at 2026 Women’s Football Awards

(AsiaGameHub) –   The gambling operator’s enduring corporate social responsibility initiative has been honoured as the Best Grassroots Initiative.

UK.- Flutter Entertainment’s longstanding Cash4Clubs programme has been awarded the Best Grassroots Initiative prize at the 2026 Women’s Football Awards. The accolade was presented by Gabby Logan and Jamie Carragher, and accepted by Flutter’s communications team: Rachael Kane, Camilla Toogood, and Steve Hawkes.

Cash4Clubs was first introduced in 2008 as Betfair’s inaugural corporate social responsibility project, several years before Paddy Power and Betfair merged in February 2016 to form the company later renamed Flutter Entertainment. The programme awards £2,000 grants to local community clubs and organisations. To date, it has channelled more than £7m into grassroots sports throughout the UK and Ireland.

Working with the charity Sported, the 2025/26 round of the programme attracted close to 1,500 applications. The funding is projected to support over 50,000 people involved in more than 40 different sports. Beneficiaries included female-founded clubs such as Chorley Women FC, Alway FC, Brighton Seagals FC, and St James Swifts Ladies FC.

The 2026 Women’s Football Awards ceremony, held in London, commenced with a speech from Prince William applauding the expansion of women’s football.

Carragher commended the impact of Flutter’s scheme, saying: “Through their contributions to sport at a grassroots level, Flutter’s Cash4Clubs programme received the award for Best Grassroots Initiative because it has created transformational impact for hundreds of grassroots sports groups and thousands of individuals across local communities, providing safe, inclusive and accessible opportunities for women and girls to participate in sport, while tackling barriers linked to poverty, inequality, confidence and belonging.”

Flutter UK CEO Kevin Harrington outlined the programme’s key role within the company’s broader community investment strategy, which seeks to positively influence 10 million lives by 2030.

“Cash4Clubs is a cornerstone of our commitment to reach the lives of 10 million people in the communities where we operate by 2030,” Harrington said. “Community clubs are the bedrock of sport in the UK and Ireland. Many operate on shoestring budgets, yet they deliver extraordinary impact for their members and wider communities. Unfortunately, without support from programmes such as Cash4Clubs, many of these vital community institutions simply won’t survive. We’re proud to play our part and honoured to be recognised at the Women’s Football Awards.”