Flutter Entertainment said today it would buy Snaitech for €2.3 billion including debt from gambling technology group Playtech, cementing its position as the leading gambling firm in Italy.
The deal is to close by the second quarter of 2025 and will add to earnings per share immediately for Flutter, the world's largest gambling company.
It will also see one of Italy's biggest gambling companies change hands and leave Playtech to focus on its operations as a business-to-business software provider.
The Italian gambling market is the largest in Europe, but online penetration lags behind countries such as the UK and Australia, analysts said.
"It is expected that over the next three years, there will be a larger digital presence driving the online market growth," Davy Research analyst Paul Ruddy said in a note, referring to the regulated Italian market.
It marks the second deal in a week for Flutter, which announced last Friday it would buy a 56% stake in Brazil's NSX Group, the operator of Betnacional, for about $350m to expand in the soon-to-be regulated Brazilian market.
The move comes as Flutter, which has seen an influx of new customers and revenue from the US, continues its aggressive international expansion.
Earlier this year, the company, whose brands include Paddy Power and Poker Stars, shifted its primary listing to New York from London.
The acquisition will strengthen Flutter's standing in Italy, giving it an online market share of about 30% when combined with existing Italian operations, Flutter said. Flutter already owns Sisal, one of the largest online gambling operators in Italy.
Italy's market dynamics include a relatively high spend per adult as a percentage of GDP and a growing share of online revenue from mobile devices, Berenberg wrote in August.
The brokerage also said that the recent regulatory reform of online gambling in Italy should provide stability over the next nine years, particularly on issues such as taxation.
Flutter operates in more than 20 countries globally, including the booming US market where it operates the FanDuel brand.
Playtech has operations in 19 countries. Snaitech, its business-to-consumer unit, made €946.6m in revenue last year.
The two parties have been in talks regarding Snaitech since August.
Shares in Playtech fell 2.9% today, while the owner of FanDuel and Paddy Power gained 0.7%, reaching their highest level since March 2024.
Snaitech is the biggest online operator in the Italian market with a 9.9% share in 20232 and 291,000 average monthly players.
Peter Jackson, Flutter's CEO, said that Snai is one of the leading players in Italy - Europe's largest regulated market.
"This transaction is compelling strategically and financially. It fits perfectly within our strategy for value creating M&A and creates a significant opportunity to accelerate Snai's growth by providing them with access to Flutter's market leading products and capabilities both in the US and globally," he said.
