Allwyn International is financing its accusation of American daily fantasy sports (DFS) platform PrizePicks via a multi-million dollar loan, as the firm views the takeover as a huge and logical step for its business.
The international division of Luxembourg-headquartered, Czech-founded lottery operator Allwyn Entertainment, revealed earlier this week that it had secured a Term Loan B consisting of €1.6m from its parent group.
This loan will be used to finance the $1.6bn (£1.19bn) takeover of a 62.3% stake in PrizePicks, one of the two biggest companies in the hugely lucrative American DFS space, the other being Underdog Sports.
Allwyn expects to close the takeover of PrizePicks in the first quarter of 2026 in a move which will significantly expand its portfolio of non-lottery companies. The firm has forayed into sports-related endeavours before, particularly sports betting, but this is a huge expansion of its presence in this area.
The company’s existing stakes in sports betting include a shareholding in Greek firm Kaizen Gaming, ownership of Greek National Lottery and betting operator OPAP, and forthcoming share in another Greek firm, Novibet, though this has yet to secure all approvals.
Once regulatory approvals are secured for the takeover of PrizePicks, Allwyn’s footprint in sports will not only expand significantly but so will its future prospects – PrizePicks is laying down the foundation to expand in the burgeoning US predictions market.
In an update to investors published this week, Allwyn explained why it was chasing leads in the DFS space. To give the firm’s ambitions credit, the revenue does speak for itself – market revenue of $2bn and a compound annual growth rate of 50% over three years.
The takeover will also significantly alter Allwyn’s geographic profile, with only around 5% of its pro-forma revenue from the previous 12 months coming from the US as of the end of H1 2025. Post-acquisition, this will rise to 17%.
With the PrizePicks takeover underway, Allwyn is also preparing to release its financials for Q3 2025. The firm seems more than confident in achieving its vision of becoming a global lottery-led entertainment firm, with its contracts with the likes of the UK’s National Lottery forming the bedrock of its product, while endeavours on betting and fantasy sports continue to grow.
Its statement read: “Since the start of the year, our business has continued to perform and develop well overall, although trading in September was affected by exceptionally customer-friendly sports results, which impacted sports betting margins, as seen industry-wide.
“In general, variation in sports betting margins due to customer/operator-friendly sports results averages out over time and Allwyn’s diversification, particularly its significant exposure to lottery and other verticals, also reduces the impact of such fluctuations. Other than the impact from sports results in September, underlying trends remain positive.”