SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Heritage Spanish gambling group CIRSA SA continues its ‘global sportsbook expansion’, having agreed to acquire Guadalajara-based GanaBet.mx for a reported €20m.
The deal had previously been disclosed in CIRSA’s FY2022 Interim update, in which the Blackstone-owned Spanish gambling group revealed that it had reserved €20m in cash to acquire GanaBet.
Licensed by SEGOB, Mexico’s Ministry of the Interior, GanaBet currently operates as Mexico’s ‘fifth largest online betting house’ and holds further licenses for online casino games, slots and bingo.
The deal will see CIRSA expand its sportsbook portfolio to three main brands, as GanaBet.mx joins Sportium, CIRSA’s flagship domain for Spain, and newly acquired EPlay24 for the Italian market.
At the close of 2022, CIRSA entered the Italian online gambling marketplace by striking back-to-back deals, acquiring the business of Go-Goal and a 60% majority shareholding in EPlay24.
2022 saw CIRSA announce its ‘best year in business’, declaring an operating income of €550m. Under the ownership of Blackstone, the Spanish gambling group has enlarged its global footprint as recent M&A buys in Morocco see CIRSA operating in “nine countries, operating 146 casinos, more than 81,000 recreational machines, 78 bingo halls, 241 lounges, nearly 3,000 sports betting points”.
In Spain, Blackstone movements are being closely monitored as speculation mounts as to whether the US private equity fund will pursue an IPO for CIRSA in 2022.
Blackstone has remained tight-lipped on the future of CIRSA, a business acquired in 2018 from founder Manuel Lao Hernandez in a deal reported to be around €2bn. Having returned the company back to profits, news sources report that the US fund could target a €5bn listing.
