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Lottomatica reported a sharp rise in first-quarter normalized earnings, helped by strong growth in its online gaming business and market share gains in Italy’s newly regulated betting market.
The Italian gambling group said normalized adjusted EBITDA rose 22% year-over-year to 253 million euros ($298 million) in the first quarter of 2026, while reported adjusted EBITDA increased 7% to 236 million euros ($278 million) from 220.5 million euros ($260 million) a year earlier.
Group revenue rose 3% to 602 million euros, while normalized revenue increased 10% to 623 million euros. Gross gaming revenue grew 2% to 1.24 billion euros, and adjusted net profit rose 12% to 106 million euros.
The company said its online gaming division was the strongest-performing segment during the quarter, offsetting weakness in sports betting caused by unfavorable payout rates.
Online revenue rose 10% to 265 million euros on a reported basis and 17% on a normalized basis, while online adjusted EBITDA increased 18% to 152 million euros. The segment’s EBITDA margin expanded to 57.5% from 53.6%.
By contrast, revenue in the sports franchise division fell 5% to 142 million euros from 150.4 million euros, while EBITDA declined 23% to 35 million euros. Gaming franchise revenue was unchanged at 195 million euros, though EBITDA edged up 4% to 48 million euros.
“In the first quarter of 2026, we continued to see strong momentum in our addressable markets, supporting a double-digit growth YoY in Adj. EBITDA of +22%, on a normalised basis,” Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Guglielmo Angelozzi said.
Italy’s betting market has been adapting to a new regulatory framework introduced in November 2025, with online casino gaming proving more resilient than sports betting.
Lottomatica’s online market share reached 31.8% in the quarter, up 1.4 percentage points year-over-year, while its iGaming market share rose to 32.2%. The online sports betting market share increased to 32.5%.
The company also highlighted progress from its 640 million euro acquisition of SKS365 in 2024, which was rebranded as PWO.
PWO’s iGaming market share recovered to 5.5% in the first quarter after platform migration issues had reduced it to 5.0% in 2025. Total sports market share returned to 9.0%, matching pre-migration levels.
“PWO continues to perform well, having fully recovered its market share in total Sports compared to pre-migration levels, and with a good progression in iGaming,” Angelozzi said.
The company added that it refinanced debt through 765 million euros of senior secured notes due 2032, a move expected to reduce annual interest costs by around 5.5 million euros. Net financial debt fell to 2,051 billion euros from 2,105 billion euros at the end of 2025, while leverage improved to 2.3 times from 2.4 times.
Lottomatica reiterated its expectation that full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA would reach the top end of its 940 million euro to 980 million euro guidance range.
“With a positive outlook for FY 2026, we expect to close the FY 2026 Adj. EBITDA at the top end of the guidance and to return up to €1bn to shareholders in 2026 and 2027, starting this week with the launch of the newly approved buyback programme,” Angelozzi said.
The company plans to return up to 1 billion euros to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks over 2026 and 2027, and declared a dividend of 0.44 euros per share.