Swell opportunity
Cirsa follows Hacksaw Gaming down the IPO path
Blackstone hopes to sell €400m-worth of Cirsa shares via a Spanish float.
May flies: Fanatics continues its rise but at what price?
Yolo II fund hits €100m fundraising target.
The challengers: a look at UK-focused sportsbook and iCasino operator Midnite.
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Catching the wave
Ripple motion: Cirsa has set the wheels in motion on the second gaming and getting sector IPO this month. as the private equity owners of the Spain-to-LatAm slots, B&M casinos and online gaming business seek to offload a chunk of their ownership via a listing across four Spanish bourses, including Madrid.
Cirsa is currently undertaking an investor roadshow after Blackstone said it was hoping to sell €400m-worth of shares at an as yet undisclosed price.
Gross proceeds for €375m will go towards paying down debt, while the company spoke about using a warchest of €400m-€500m for M&A in the B&M casino space.
Riding the crest: Cirsa generated revenues in 2024 of €2.15bn, up 8%, and EBITDA that rose 11% to €699m. It said it was targeting revenue of €2.268bn-€2.33bn and EBITDA of €740m-€750m.
The company said it expects mid-single-digit growth in its B&M casinos and slots hall businesses in LatAm, Spain and Italy, while the OSB and iCasino unit would see growth in the low-to-mid-20% range.
The latter has benefitted from the July 2024 acquisition of Apuesta Total in Peru and the more recent deal for Casino Portugal.
Bank roll: On the M&A front, it said it would continue with its strategy of pursuing “selective, accretive acquisitions,” adding that it expected to be able to deploy ~€400m-€500m between now and 2027.
A long time in the making: This latest attempt to get a float away was prefigured in December last year when it was reported that Blackstone would be looking to float 25% of the company. It previously parked plans for an IPO late in 2023.
The latest attempt would suggest Blackstone plans a more limited sale.
Mouths to feed: One source noted there were eight banks involved in the deal, including Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley as the global coordinators, and Jefferies, BBVA, Mediobanca, Société Générale and UBS as joint bookrunners.
Taster menu: This is the second major IPO this month after iCasino games and RGS supplier Hacksaw Gaming confirmed it would be seeking an IPO on the Nasdaq Stockholm, which it hopes will value the firm at SEK22bn or ~€2bn.
Its first day of trading comes next Wednesday, June 25.
The float will test the appetite of investors not just in betting and gaming but specifically for companies where there is an exposure to cryptocasinos.
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🎯 Fund times: Yolo Investments has announced it has hit its €100m target raise, including €50m from external sources and bringing together a network of 23 investors including founders and other industry notables. Fund II has already deployed money into a dozen companies in the online gaming, blockchain and fintech sectors.
From the betting and gaming space specifically it has put money into Dabble and ParlayPlay.
Fund II expects to make a further 10 investments in the next 12 months.
Check the record: Tim Heath, whose Yolo Group matched the external financing, said it was all the more significant that the fund hit its target given the “challenging” market conditions, pointing to the “significantly” greater headwinds. “But investors have looked at our previous funds’ track record and the strength of our ecosystem, and have strongly backed us,” he added.
Lottomatica has begun its share buyback program, which authorizes the company to repurchase €500m in shares over the next 18 months.
Esports and Gen Z-leaning Rivalry said it hopes to publish its delayed Q1 earnings on or prior to July 14. The management cease-trade order imposed by the Toronto listing authorities will remain in place until the Q1 filings are completed.
Puts+takes – Fanatics share
Three is the magic number: Looking at the aggregated figures for OSB in May, Citizens made the point that Fanatics is now the clear #3 with 7% market share, more than double its share this time last year.
QTD it was up over 125bps to 7.2% vs. market leaders FanDuel on 42% and DraftKings on 33.5%, and with BetMGM in fourth spot on 5.9%.
Jury still out: Tom Johnson, CEO at HoldCrunch, pointed out the data suggested Fanatics was still giving away higher promos and had worse pricing, “which makes sense” as Fanatics wouldn't want to give away lots of promos and offer the best prices at the same time.
“The point being we don't know how good they are versus peers,” he added.
“They may be very good, or not as good: with such a high promo multiple it’s difficult to judge their performance or where market share would land once promos were at the same level.”
Read across
Kalshi vs. the world: The Third Circuit Court of Appeals became ground zero in the fight over prediction markets, as on Wednesday five separate amicus briefs landed in support of New Jersey’s effort to kick out Kalshi. Submissions came from 34 state attorneys general, major tribal coalitions, casino operators and anti-gambling advocates, all warning Kalshi’s sports contracts threaten state and tribal authority. From yesterday’s Compliance+More.
What we’re reading
The scheme that broke the Texas lottery. In the New Yorker.
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The Innovation Group has appointed Brian Wyman as CEO. He replaces Michael Soll, who will stay on as an advisor after taking a leadership role at a responsible gaming education organization. John Wang has been given a NED gig at Melco Resorts. Hard Rock Digital has made two appointments: Sara Durkin, previously at Better Collective, is the new SVP of growth and Zachary Sold, ex-Caesars, becomes the SVP of marketing and engagement. Raketech has appointed Kathryn Baker as chair of the board and Magnus Alebo as a board member.
Group Head of Sportsbook Trading – Prague, Czech Republic
Head of Performance – Europe
Head of Marketing Campaigns – San José, Costa Rica
The challengers – Midnite
The Robinhood of UK Betting: Nick Wright, co-founder and CEO of Midnite, has a clear mission: to challenge the status quo in UK betting by blending cutting-edge tech, premium user experience and a brand identity rooted in what he calls “tastemaker DNA.”
For Wright, this isn’t just about taking share – it’s about redefining what a next-gen tier-1 operator can look like.
“We are definitely a challenger brand and still very much in our lifecycle,” he says.
“But we think the market share dynamics in the UK will shift towards companies like us, who lead with product.”
A new formula for tier 1: Midnite is staking its future on four pillars: in-house technology, a distinctive brand, top-tier venture capital backing (notably from Raine Group) and an ethos borrowed from the fintech playbook. Wright likens Midnite’s development path to the rise of Revolut and Monzo: product-first, relentlessly user-focused and highly iterative.
“No one really builds in-house tech in betting,” he says.
“The economics worked for a long time – small user bases, off-the-shelf software – but we think that’s led to complacency.”
That’s where Midnite aims to break the mold. “We want every touchpoint – onboarding, compliance, support – to feel as smooth and intuitive as Monzo,” Wright adds.
“The consumer doesn’t care about the backend. They care about whether it works – and feels great.”
From stickiness to scale: Having found product-market fit in slots, football and horse racing, Midnite now measures success by user retention and marketing payback. “It’s stickiness,” says Wright. “We’ve seen it in football and slots. The ecosystem is live and the quality is there.”
The company’s focus for the next 12–24 months is singular: win in the UK.
While international expansion is on the radar, Midnite is doubling down on its home market where it sees room to build a £500m+ business.
Learning From challenger peers: Wright looks outside of traditional betting for inspiration, citing PrizePicks, Underdog and Dabble as brands pushing the envelope in product and presentation. But he’s equally impressed with European operators such as Betano and Superbet, which have proven that owning your tech stack can drive scale and leadership.
Long-term vision: With a younger, digital-native audience driving trends such as bet builder and player props into the mainstream, Wright sees Midnite’s product-led and culturally attuned approach as a winning recipe.
“We think of ourselves as the Robinhood of the space,” he says. “Bold, brave and focused. The incumbents are slow. This is our opportunity.”
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Connections
Renewals: IGT PlaySports has extended its agreement with Boyd Gaming for the provision of retail and online sports-betting platform services in Nevada until 2028. IGT PlaySports also powers Boyd’s retail sportsbooks in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Kambi has announced a multi-year sportsbook partnership extension with Dutch operator JOI Gaming, the online arm of gaming and entertainment group JVH, home to Jacks.nl. The original agreement dates back to 2020.
Tie-ups: Inspired Entertainment has launched its first branded hybrid dealer roulette game on Loto-Québec’s platform. Separately, it has also launched its hybrid dealer roulette 4-Ball Extra Bet game in the US with BetMGM under a three-month exclusive agreement. EveryMatrix’s SlotMatrix has launched in West Virginia through a partnership with Delaware North’s Betly offering. QTech Games is to carry online slot games from Shady Lady on its aggregation platform Maverick Games has expanded its sports-betting operations into Ontario, Canada, through a partnership with Delasport.
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Sector watch – esports
Catena bids adios to esports: Catena Media has announced the sale of its prominent esports assets, esports.net and esportsbet.com, and exited the market. In an email sent to employees, CEO Manuel Stan announced it was a “strategic step towards focusing on the projects and products we believe will move the needle, but also an important financial injection that will benefit us greatly.”
How many costs could a cost cutter cut if a cost cutter could cut costs? All esports staff, including three full-time employees and several freelancers, have been laid off with the sale. The latest redundancies at the Malta-based affiliate come less than a month after the company revealed over 50 people would lose their jobs as part of further “cost-optimisation measures.”
Stan told investors in November 2024 that he did not anticipate further job cuts, before May’s announcement.
He stopped short of promising the same when quizzed by analysts on the earnings call last month.
Gambling on sweepstakes: Stan has been bullish on the company’s focus on sweepstakes, brushing off potential regulatory pressure when quizzed by investors in Q424.
Since then, Montana has become the first state to officially outlaw sweepstakes casinos, while the New York legislature has passed a measure that would ban sweepstakes affiliation.
However, in Louisiana the governor vetoed a measure put to him by the legislature.
Although esports was likely a minor revenue contributor, it reaffirms the company’s ‘eggs in one basket’ strategy.
A new contender emerges: Catena has not disclosed who the purchasing entity is, nor the fee involved. Other prominent esports business media properties, such as Esports Insider and Esports News UK, have been acquired in recent months, and it doesn’t take an Inspector Clouseau to spot the similarities.
All eyes will be on Catena’s Q2 earnings statement and call in early August to see whether more details are revealed.
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