Pan-European lottery operator Allwyn has been on the offensive around M&A and market expansions over the past couple of years, but today it hit the brakes on something.
In a joint statement published this morning, Allwyn and Novibet announced that the former would no longer be pursuing a 51% stake in the latter, one of the biggest betting firms in Greece.
Terms around a deal were first announced back in December 2025. The deal was set to expand Allwyn’s positioning in both Greece and in the wider international betting space, with the firm already a 51% stakeholder in Greek lottery and betting firm OPAP at the time.
Acquiring a 51% stake in Novibet would give Allwyn a greater stake not only in Greece but also in Latin America, where Novibet is active in Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Mexico. However, it also caught the attention of the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC).
In December last year, the HCC issued a statement raising a number of concerns about Allwyn’s potential majority stakeholder acquisition in Novibet. The HCC did not believe that any firm other than Novibet was capable of competing with Allwyn’s on equal terms in the Greek betting space.
Allwyn subsequently told the HCC that it would be willing to make ‘certain commitments’ to keep the acquisition on track. However, it appears that four months later both Allwyn and Novibet believe that these commitments are no longer suitable for their ambitions.
A joint statement read: “While Allwyn and Logflex MT Holding Limited set out carefully considered proposals to the HCC, Allwyn is committed to only pursuing transactions that would deliver clear value for shareholders.
“Allwyn and Logflex MT Holding Limited therefore no longer expect the previously announced transaction to proceed.”
The huge change in Allwyn’s strategy over the past year may have also played a factor, with the firm having acquired PrizePicks for $1.6bn in September 2025 and agreeing to merge with OPAP the following month.
Allwyn now stands out as one of the biggest betting, gaming and lotteries PLCs globally – with lotteries being the lead product. Its merger with OPAP has also set it up in an enviable position in Greece, with OPAP having recently re-secured a 12-year contract to run the country’s National Lottery.
With all this in its pocket, an amended Novibet deal may just not have made the same commercial and financial sense to Allwyn in March 2026 as it did in December 2025.