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Allwyn hopes its lottery deal is a winning ticket
The Observer
|October 19, 2025
Despite promising revenue from EuroMillions, the UK lotto operator is mired in a court battle over the way it got its licence and beset by complaints about its new gaming terminals
Allwyn has been lucky since it became the National Lottery operator 18 months ago. The EuroMillions numbers have delivered four jackpot rollovers, an unusually high number. Rollovers drive ticket sales and Allwyn International listed “favourable jackpot cycles” in EuroMillions as one of the primary reasons why its revenues rose by 14% year-on-year in its September accounts.
Last week, Allwyn rode that luck by announcing a merger with Opap, a Greek gaming firm, to become the second largest gambling company globally with a valuation of £13.8bn.
For Karel Komárek, the company’s media-shy Czech founder, the merger is a crowning success. When Sazka, the Czech lottery, went bankrupt in 2012, Komárek swooped on the lottery rights, picking them up for less than £150m, and used Sazka to assemble a European gaming empire that dwarfs his original oil and gas fortune.
Denne historien er fra October 19, 2025-utgaven av The Observer.
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