SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Lottomatica movements are being monitored closely as speculation mounts that the heritage Italian gambling group will order an IPO listing on the Borsa Milan Exchange.
Citing ‘sources close to Lottomatica’, Reuters International has reported that controlling shareholder Apollo Global seeks an April listing for its Italian asset.
A trading update published in January confirmed Milan IPO rumours, as Lottomatica’s board outlined that it had been ordered “to review all strategic options by Apollo Global”.
A Milan listing would see Apollo exit the Italian gambling market, in which the US PE fund backed Italian gambling group Gamenet’s €1bn acquisition of Lottomatica’s B2C assets, undertaken in 2021.
The acquisition transformed the landscape of Italian gambling, as GameNet took the heritage name of Lottomatica to become the market’s biggest land-based operator.
As such, a transformed Lottomatica currently operates a franchise network of 3,000 betting points, 1,400 gaming halls, 13,600 tobacconists/bar gaming machines and 120 gaming venues.
Dealmakers are reportedly seeking a €5bn valuation for Lottomatica (including corporate debt), which will likely become Borsa Milan’s biggest listing in 2023.
Lottomatica rides high as it anticipates FY2022 results to outperform corporate expectations, in which the company is expected to announce full-year revenues of €1.4bn alongside an EBITDA result in the region of €458-€462m.
Further positives brightening Lottomatica prospects saw the Italian government announce that it had appointed a ministerial committee to revise gambling laws and taxes in 2023 urgently.
The review will be led by Treasury Deputy Italo Volpe who is charged with reorganising the Italian gambling sector while addressing long-standing issues on operator licensing, taxes and technical compliance.
Taking on the assignment, Volpe told peers that his review would be focused on “bringing stability to the marketplace” and adressing the “lack of market competition that has characterised the last few years of its current regime.”
