A summer blockbuster
Bally’s sells old ‘Gamesys’ business to Intralot for €2.7bn
Cash and shares deal sees Bally’s become Intralot’s majority shareholder.
In +More: Cirsa sets an IPO price, Entain in talks over Irish shops sale.
Puts+takes: Truist Sportradar and Genius Sports initiations.
Venture playground: The in focus company this week is Sbarter.
Hard Rock Bet is growing – we know you know! And we want to bring in some more maestros to make beautiful music in our Sportsbook. You need to be among the very best in the industry to be considered for these roles. Are you up to it?
A bigger boat
Intra dig: Bally’s has sold its international interactive – but effectively UK-facing – business to Intralot for €1.53bn of cash and a further €1.14bn of shares. Following the transaction, which is expected to close in Q4, Bally’s will become the Greek gaming firm’s majority shareholder.
The deal will be financed via €1.6bn of debt provided by a consortium of banks, including Citizens Bank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies.
Intralot will also launch a €400m equity raise on the Athens stock market.
Bally’s has also secured a $500m debt facility in order to pay down existing commitments and a further $100m in secured debt.
Greeks bearing gifts: On a pro forma basis, the deal creates a company that generated €1.1bn in revenue in 2024 with pre-synergy EBITDA margins of ~38%, which implies an EBITDA of ~€418m.
There is effectively zero overlap between the two companies. In 2024 Intralot generated revenue of €376m and adj. EBITDA of €131m, with 90% coming from B2B lottery provision.
Bally’s international interactive business is entirely B2C and is ~90% exposed to the UK after it sold its Asian-facing business via an MBO in November for an undisclosed sum.
Parental guidance: The deal is a related party transaction. Bally’s owner Standard General was already a 27% shareholder in Intralot and the press release yesterday said it has “recently been informed” that the shareholding had been increased to over 33%.
The press release noted a mandatory tender offer obligation to buy the whole of Intralot had thus been triggered.
Intralot said yesterday it intends to remain listed on the Athens Stock Exchange.
Parachute: Bally’s CEO Robeson Reeves will become CEO of the new Intralot, with previous CEO Nikolaos Nikolakopoulos taking on the role of CEO of the lotteries division. Chrysostomos Sfatos, currently deputy CEO at Intralot, will take on the role of CFO.
Intralot’s founder and previously largest shareholder Sokratis Kokkalis will take a place on the reconstituted board alongside Bally’s chair Soo Kim.
Shakermaker: The deal once again throws the spotlight on the consummate dealmaker Soo Kim and his hedge fund Standard General, which remains the majority shareholder in Bally’s via another related party transaction when it merged with Queen Casino & Entertainment in February.
A rump of free float stock remains listed. Those shares rose 16% on the news yesterday.
Stretched: Back in April last year, the team at CBRE suggested a sale of the international business might be on the cards given Bally’s $1.3bn of commitments to fund a permanent casino facility in Chicago.
At the same time, Bally’s is seeking an unknown amount of financing to build a new property to go alongside the A’s MLB stadium project in Las Vegas.
It is also a bidder for a New York license and recently committed A$300m (€167m) to part finance the rescue of Star Entertainment in Australia.
Holding it together: Regulus Partners said the new Intralot will have a debt load of ~€2bn, which suggests an EBITDA multiple of ~4x and what the team estimates will be over 4x free cash flow.
The analysts added that there was “not much to bring Intralot and Bally’s International Interactive together” other than Bally’s need for cash to fund its B&M casino developments.
Stranger things: Regulus noted Kim’s role, suggesting he is a “specialist in distressed assets” alongside gaming, and pointed out his timing in the original acquisition of a stake in Intralot in 2022 had “proved sound” given the doubling of the price since then.
“Stranger deals have led to greater synergies and bigger opportunities,” they added.
But the team noted the recent history of the break-up of lottery and gaming entities, including IGT and Light & Wonder.
Venture capital firm Yolo Investments manages in excess of €500m in capital across 100 exciting fintech, gaming and blockchain companies. The Yolo Investments' Gaming fund, regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, has taken positions in fast-growth suppliers and operators, including Dabble and Enteractive. Yolo Investments (yolo.io) wants to hear from readers of this newsletter. Get in touch with your pitch, or for a chat about innovative products which can plug into our investment ecosystem.
+More
Cirsa float
Cirsa will offer its shares at €15 and value the business at €2.5bn, as owners Blackstone get set to offload €400m of shares in a primary offering and a further €53m via a secondary offering. Cirsa said on Monday that the offering was still subject to approval from the listing authorities in Spain.
The prospectus will be published shortly, possibly later today. This will be covered in detail for E+M PRO subscribers.
The offering consists of €400m of newly issued shares where the proceeds will go towards paying down some of the company’s €2.39bn debt.
The secondary offering of €53m of existing shares will be sold by Blackstone.
Entain is reported to be in discussions with Bar One Racing, the betting company owned by the industry veteran Barney O’Hare, over the sale of Ladbrokes’ 174-strong retail estate in Ireland. The Times reported the talks to be at an advanced stage, while Entain offered no comment. The Irish estate consists of 108 shops in the Republic and a further 68 outlets in Northern Ireland.
Bubble telescope: Meanwhile, Ireland-based bookmaker Boyle Sports has announced a £100m UK relaunch, including a new brand – see the new space in the name – a plan to open 200 new betting shops across the UK over the next three years (see Monday’s E+M teardown) and a front-of-shirt sponsorship with EPL club West Ham. The shirt sponsorship sees Boyle Sports replace Super Group’s Betway, as the EPL enters its last season before its self-regulating gambling sponsor ban comes into force.
Non-stick: George Daskalakis, the founder of Stoiximan and later Kaizen Gaming, has announced he is stepping down from the now Opap-owned Stoiximan to concentrate his energies on the latter firm. “I am getting off the ship, leaving it in great shape,” he said via LinkedIn.
Resorts World New York City has said it would be ready to launch fully-fledged casino operations within six months were it to be awarded one of the three available New York downstate casino licenses.
Data points: Macau revenue jumped up 19% YoY in June to $2.62bn, the second-highest post-pandemic monthly total. It leaves YTD revenues up over 4%. Analysts said the surge was driven by a strong event schedule, which translated into higher VIP volumes.
Earnings extra – puts+takes
This isle is full of wonder: A sector initiation from the new team at JP Morgan sets out the case for why the gaming sector contains opportunities despite being “full of risks,” from macro uncertainty to rising tax rates for the online sector. Plus, a Sportradar initiation note and quick takes on MGM Resorts, Penn and Flutter.
See yesterday’s Puts+Takes edition of Earnings Extra (PRO subscribers only).
Sportradar and Genius Sports: The sport-betting data and tech twins each received Buy notes from the team at Truist, with in-play betting and further legalization identified as catalysts for both companies.
Entain: Peel Hunt has taken a look at the news from New Zealand that the iCasino legislation has received Royal Assent and has also confirmed the Entain-owned TAB as the sole OSB operator under the new regime. The team said the move would improve the company’s returns from the country, which currently contributes ~3% of online NGR.
EveryMatrix delivers iGaming software, solutions, content and services for casino, sports betting, payments, and affiliate/agent management to 300+ global Tier-1 operators and newer brands. The platform is modular, scalable, and compliant, allowing operators to choose the optimal solution depending on their needs.
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Venture playground
Debut UK betting and casino operator BetTOM has announced it is now live with a full EveryMatrix turnkey solution. Led by Paul Colley, BetTOM has plans to build market share among UK recreational players with a focus on personalised marketing activation.
ALT Sports Data has announced that the FIM World Supercross Championship is its latest partner for betting data and markets. The agreement marks the first time World Supercross will provide pre-race betting markets and subsequent distribution, through major, regulated global sportsbooks and daily fantasy platforms.
WA.Technology has launched a new sportsbook managed service to allow operators to improve their offering and maximise profitability through a team of industry-leading experts. The service has been offered to existing clients, across Brazil, Mexico, India, Eastern Europe and Africa, for five years as part of other packages.
OtherLevels, the leader in creating personalised content and media for sports and iGaming customer experiences, is to power Island Luck Casino and Sportsbook with its Experience Platform for the 2025-26 NFL season.
In focus – Sbarter
Who are you? Swiss-based non-profit Sbarter is a decentralized play-and-earn ecosystem that enables skill-based wagering within video games founded by Alessandro Fried, the former CEO at BtoBet.
What’s the big idea? Sbarter’s proposition is simple but disruptive: create a regulated infrastructure that allows players to legally wager in skill-based games. This offers a monetization pathway for video game publishers beyond in-app purchases or advertising, both of which are facing increasing saturation and player fatigue.
The system is designed to be publisher-friendly. Through a lightweight API, developers can integrate Sbarter’s functionality while offloading complex regulatory responsibilities such as KYC and AML.
Meanwhile, players can use a tokenized economy to place small bets in competitive matchups, earning rewards while engaging in gameplay.
Funding backgrounder: Sbarter has already secured early-stage capital through a pre-seed round, fully covering the development and initial launch of its platform. This funding came via a private sale of SBT tokens, which act as the utility and governance tokens of the ecosystem.
Looking ahead, the company plans to launch a final private placement in September, targeting €40m.
This round will focus on strategic investors who can help drive broad industry adoption.
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Upcoming earnings
Jul 17: Evolution
Jul 18: Betsson
Jul 23: Kambi, Las Vegas Sands, Churchill Downs
Jul 29: BetMGM
Jul 31: Vici Properties (call)
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