FROM TERRASSA'S MACHINES AND ROME'S LOTTO TO WORLD OLYMPUS: THE PARALLEL TRAJECTORY OF CIRSA AND LOTTOMATICA TOWARDS THEIR HISTORIC FUSION

The operation that will unite Cirsa and Lottomatica cannot be understood without looking back. It is the confluence of two industrial biographies that began more than a decade apart and more than a thousand kilometres apart – one in a warehouse in Terrassa, the other in the tobacconists of Rome – and that, almost half a century later, lead to a conglomerate with a combined business of close to 34,000 million euros.

Cirsa: from the arcade factory of Terrassa to Ibero-American leadership

Cirsa was born in 1978 in Terrassa (Barcelona), promoted by Manuel Lao Hernández, taking advantage of the legalization of gambling in Spain after the Transition. In its origins as an International Recreational Company, the company based its drive on its own manufacturing – through Unidesa – and on the mass distribution of machines for the hospitality channel.

From this manufacturing roots, Cirsa expanded its domains towards the direct exploitation of halls, bingo halls and casinos, and at the end of the eighties began a bold internationalization towards Latin America that made it a benchmark firm in markets such as Panama, Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica and Peru. In 2018, Manuel Lao sold the group to funds managed by Blackstone – an operation that left out the Argentine business, which remained in the hands of the family – giving way to a stage of institutional professionalization under the executive presidency of Joaquim Agut.

The numbers support this maturity. In 2024, Cirsa earned €2,150 million (+8%) and increased its operating profit (EBITDA) to €699 million (+11%), although net profit fell by 84% to €12.6 million, due to the weight of its financial structure. Its Online Gaming & Betting division was the big driving force, with revenues of €420 million (+29%), driven by the purchase of Apuesta Total in Peru and 68% of Casino Portugal, while Slots España shone with models such as Manhattan Boom, Mirage or Pyramid Cash Bar. On this basis, the group took the leap it had been preparing for years: its debut on the Spanish stock market on July 9, 2025, at 15 euros per share.

Lottomatica: from the Lotto monopoly to the digital empire built by Apollo

At the same time, Lottomatica's trajectory began in Rome in 1990 with an eminently state and institutional nature. Founded as a consortium to computerize and manage the historic Italian national lottery (Il Gioco del Lotto), it revolutionized the transalpine market by transforming tobacconists and cafeterias into a gigantic automated retail network. Its global leap was consolidated in 2006 with the purchase of the American technology titan GTECH, a brand it adopted in 2013 before absorbing International Game Technology (IGT) in 2015 and adopting that name.

The real turning point for the current corporation came in May 2021: funds managed by Apollo Global Management, through its subsidiary Gamenet, acquired IGT's face-to-face and digital business assets in Italy for €950 million, resurrecting the Lottomatica brand and launching an acquisition offensive – Betflag (2022) and SKS365/Planetwin365 (2024) – culminating in its IPO debut at Euronext Milan in spring 2023, an IPO valued at around €2.26 billion. Today it is the leading operator of legal gambling in Italy, with about 45,000 million euros in bets, about 2,600 direct employees and more than 17,500 in its franchise network, with more than 4,000 betting points of sale and 1,100 rooms.

A perfect circle of complementarity

The confluence of both biographies closes an almost perfect geographical and business fit. While Cirsa forged its leadership by dominating industrial manufacturing, the territorial management of salons, the casino park and bar machines – with a strong Iberian and American presence – Lottomatica rose to prominence by dominating lottery, large-scale sports betting and interactive online gambling in Italy. One provides the physical and industrial muscle; the other, the power of the digital channel.

The keys to the historic merger

The operation, articulated as a cross-border merger by absorption, values Cirsa at around 2,780 million euros (a premium of 21%), with an exchange of 0.668 new shares of Lottomatica for each share of Cirsa, so that the shareholders of the Spanish company will control about 32.5% of the capital of the resulting company. Blackstone will be the largest shareholder, with 24%, and the board will have 13 members (eleven from Lottomatica and two proposed by the fund). Both companies foresee synergies of 115 million euros per year and distributions to shareholders of more than 1,000 million. The head office will be set in Rome and the secondary one in Terrassa, and the merger is expected to be effective in the second quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory authorizations.

With its headquarters in Rome and its operational and industrial engine anchored in Terrassa, the new conglomerate has more than eight decades of accumulated experience to unite the power of the transalpine digital channel with the Iberian and American physical deployment: the birth of the second largest private gaming giant on the planet.