Lottomatica chairman and CEO Guglielmo Angelozzi has said the operator remains committed to a “disciplined” approach to M&A and will not rush into more deals. This follows last year’s purchase of SKS365, which played a major role in financial growth during the first nine months of 2025.
For the period ended 30 September, revenue amounted to €1.64 billion ($1.88 billion), the Italian-facing operator reported. This surpassed the previous year at Lottomatica by 16%.
Key to this growth, the operator said, was the SKS365 deal, which completed in April 2024. Now referred to as PWO by Lottomatica, integration by the operator has been completed sooner than anticipated.
As such, Lottomatica said synergies are being delivered ahead of schedule. Two-thirds of synergies from the acquisition are expected to be realised in 2025, with PWO now fully operational on the group’s proprietary platform.
Calm, collected approach from Lottomatica
Despite the success of the acquisition, and delivering targets earlier than expected, Lottomatica said it will not jump into another deal. Instead, as Angelozzi set out in an earnings call, the operator will retain its calculated approach to M&A.
Over the past five years, Angelozzi revealed, the group identified 57 targets for possible M&A. However, it elected to proceed with just three deals, despite having completed due diligence on 14 potential agreements.
The three that completed were all in Italy, including SKS365, now PWO. It also completed the purchase of Betflag in late 2022 and a 65% stake in Distante S.r.l earlier in 2025.
“With M&A, we are going to keep our disciplined approach, measured on value creation and benchmarked against share buybacks,” Angelozzi said. “We have a very selective approach, and we are committed to it.
“Share buyback continues to be remain the main benchmark for shareholder return with our M&A activity. Our focus is on Europe, regulated markets and B2C, within the key segments of operation at Lottomatica.”
His comments reflected similar remarks made after both Q1 and the first half. Post-Q1, Angelozzi spoke about “interesting opportunities” for the group, while at the mid-point of 2025, he refused to rule out more M&A activity in the not-too-distant future.
Double-digit online growth in 9M
Looking to performance for the nine-month period, online was the star of the show for Lottomatica. Revenue climbed 27% to €688.9 million, making it the primary revenue source for the business.
As well as the contribution from PWO, the group said other factors were in play to support the year-on-year increase. These included growth across all product segments and legacy brands, notwithstanding the unfavourable impact deriving from Euro 2024. However, this was partially offset by the FIFA World Club Cup in Q2 2025.
There was also double-digit growth in the sports betting segment, with revenue up 22% to €381.7 million. Again, the PWO purchase helped push revenue up, while Lottomatica also noted an overall favourable sport betting payout.
The group also reported growth within its gaming business, but at a much lower rate than the other segments. Gaming revenue increased 2% to €569.6 million, sandwiched between online and sports betting.
As for player activity, some 32.48 billion bets were placed during the nine-month period. Of these, 21.63 billion were online, 8.05 billion for gaming activities and 2.81 billion sports bets.
Net profit more than doubles
Looking towards the bottom line, spending was higher in almost all areas. The main outgoing was cost of services at €962.6 million, while personnel and other costs were also both higher year-on-year. However, some savings were made in terms of financial expenses.
As such, pre-tax profit for the nine-month period was €158.4 million, a 59.5% increase from last year. Lottomatica paid €60.1 million in tax and deducted €5.0 million in revenue attributable to non-controlling interests.
This meant it ended the nine months with €93.3 million in net profit, up by 102.8% year-on-year.
“Looking forward, we continue to see solid drivers of growth supported by market tailwinds in online, continued improvement in our cash flow conversion and growth and a disciplined approach to capital allocation focused on shareholder returns,” Angelozzi said.
Revenue reached €1.64 billion at Lottomatica during the nine-month period, some 16% more than last year.