Consolidation has been supercharged in 2025, with a handful of seismic acquisitions shifting the gaming landscape and surprisingly positioning legacy lottery groups as long-term winners across all online opportunities.
Regulatory changes like tax hikes are also causing the sector to shrink as larger incumbents absorb small local players who can no longer thrive in the regulatory environment. We have also started to see various localisation efforts amid a pivot to less volatile markets, largely driven by M&A. Can we expect more of this into 2026?
Brendan Bussmann, Managing Partner, B Global
What will the next wave of industry M&A/consolidation look like?
There were significant changes within the supplier community last year as we have seen M&A as well as delisting. However, I do believe there may be opportunities for strong operators to pick up distressed assets to maximise their opportunity.
Innovation also provides opportunity but the challenge that exists, especially on the US side, is that those “innovative” companies are all grey- and black-market operations that make them untouchable.
Will we see further impacts from external macroeconomic developments in 2026?
World, regional and the local geopolitical and economic conditions are always a factor. The industry continues to do its best in navigating those.
Vegas has not seen a YoY increase in domestic travel other than once in over 14 months. Yet we continue to only look at the most recent spin, which continues to show a downturn in airlines that are not bringing 150,000 seats a month to the destination. As a destination, we need to work to fill that gap domestically.
We’ve been flirting with a recession for four years and have navigated through that under inflation that we haven’t seen in four decades. The recent US government shutdown by five members of the Senate posed a greater risk to this economy than anything we have seen in the micro.
Taxes pose the greatest risk to the industry globally. Increased taxes mean less investment, less purchasing from suppliers and cutting costs on the customer experience.
Matt Davey, Founder & Chairman and Robin Chhabra, President, Tekkorp Capital
Are the days of industry-changing, Tier-1 mergers behind us?
MD: The industry is moving from a land-grab/scale mindset to a specialisation and portfolio optimisation mindset. Companies may also acquire businesses in adjacent spaces to broaden their revenue streams. Geographic expansion for many operators will also continue to be done via M&A. We will also continue to see content aggregation (casino content studios consolidating), affiliate marketing companies rolling up, or B2B tech providers merging to offer one-stop solutions.
Which 2025 industry deal could have the biggest impact on the wider sector in the next five years?
RC: The standout set of deals is the consolidation of Allwyn, OPAP, Prize Picks and Novibet into a vehicle listed in Athens and most likely the US. This creates the second-biggest listed gaming group behind Flutter. They will have a job to do moving from being a PE-style business to an operating business but if they pull it off, they will be formidable.
Lottery M&A has dominated 2025. What is behind this emerging trend?
RC: Lottery M&A is happening because these businesses are cash-rich, ripe for modernisation, and undervalued relative to their potential. The 2025 deals show companies positioning themselves for the long term: creating global lottery giants that can also cross-sell. I suspect it’s only the beginning – this trend has legs, as many national lotteries are still out there, and the newly merged players will be hungry to acquire or manage them.
MD: Lottery is having its M&A moment because it is transitioning from old-school to new-school. There’s a realisation that the line between a lottery operator and a gaming operator is blurring thanks to digital.
Will we see private equity takeovers/investments increase in the 2026 gambling space?
RC: Yes. Private equity (PE) has had an interest in the gambling sector for a long time, and conditions now might be ripe for more PE activity. Valuations being depressed in some markets is exactly when PE likes to strike, scooping up companies they view as undervalued. We’ve seen a lot of activity in the highly cash generative machines sector with Brightstar Capital acquiring AGS and Apollo acquiring Everi and IGT. For the company, going private can be beneficial when navigating transformation.
Public markets often punish gaming companies for short-term earnings misses or high upfront investment. Under PE ownership, a company can make longer-term bets (like heavy tech investment, market expansion) without the quarterly scrutiny.
Paul Richardson, Managing Partner, Partis
Which 2025 industry deal could have the biggest impact on the wider sector in the next five years?
The one I thought was the most significant was the Prize Picks deal with Allwyn. It’s a massive statement of intent from them and if they can make it work, I think it could be transformational in terms of the product offering and what they could do in the North American market.
What’s the outlook for PE deals in 2026?
Pretty good. Look at the success that CVC had with Tipico and stack it on top of other deals they did in the past such as Sky Bet. But you know I think as an asset class private equity really likes gambling. Apollo, Blackstone and CVC are the three big players in the space. I think there are other sector specialists out there at the smaller end of the spectrum, who are doing well.
What you aren’t seeing are the midcap transactions being done by private equity because they will have either Middle Eastern money which stops them doing it or whatever. And you’re going to go to quite a lot of effort on a PE basis to make your fund stretch in the right way to get through licensing in Nevada or the UK or wherever it happens to be. And that requires an investment at the time they raise the money.
Having said that, we are still seeing it happening. So I’ve got two or three clients who I’m not going to name, who are private equity funds that want to be in that space but are sitting on their hands. They’ve done the work to be ready to go through licensing if they decide to do a deal.
Tom Waterhouse, Chief Investment Officer, Waterhouse VC
What will the next wave of industry M&A/consolidation look like?
On the B2C side, the “podium” strategy for global operators like Flutter remains important. When new market opportunities emerge, acquiring or partnering with a strong local brand is usually more effective than starting from scratch.
On the B2B side, there is notable consolidation in data, pricing and rights. Operators are doing similar things in‑house: Entain’s buyout of Angstrom Sports, DraftKings has rolled up Sports IQ Analytics, Simplebet and Dijon Systems/Mustard Golf to strengthen player props, micro‑betting and golf pricing.
For operators, that consolidation means fewer fragmented integrations by sport and league and more control over their trading stack. For rights‑holders and leagues, it means dealing with a smaller number of better‑capitalised partners. That’s where I’d expect a lot of the heavy M&A lifting over the next few years.
London’s Stock Exchange is shrinking by the day; do you expect to see this trend increase across gaming?
The LSE just had its quietest IPO year on record in 2024 with only 18 new listings, and 2025 will be quieter even as the FTSE 100 has pushed to record highs and is on track for its best year since the financial crisis.
That said, there’s clearly still enthusiasm for wagering in public markets; it’s just showing up elsewhere in Europe. Hacksaw AB’s heavily oversubscribed debut on Nasdaq Stockholm, at roughly €2 billion of market value, and Blackstone’s float of Cirsa in Madrid at about €2.5 billion both show the demand.
This is helped by a much softer rate environment in Europe, clearer regulatory frameworks in key gambling markets and private-equity owners who need to exit long-held assets.
Part one of the iGB 2026 gambling predictions series covered compliance and regulatory challenges in 2025 and how they will progress into this year. Part three tomorrow will spotlight operator CEOs as they reflect and look ahead at shareholder concerns and share wildcard predictions.
M&A advisors from Partis, Tekkorp Capital and others reflect on the most pivotal industry deals of 2025 and consider whether PE investment will pick up in 2026.