FanDuel Parent Buys Italian Gambling Company in Bid for International Growth

Flutter, the Dublin-based parent company of U.S. sports betting giant FanDuel, announced a $2.6 billion deal Tuesday to acquire the Italian gambling company Snaitech from Playtech in a bid to ramp up international growth. The move comes a week after Flutter bought a majority stake in Brazilian operator NSX Group for about $350 million.

A Flutter spokesperson told CNBC that the company is “hugely excited” to add Snaitech “in what is Europe’s latest regulated market.” Italy has a huge gambling market, but only about one-fifth of it is online. Snaitech held about 10% of the market share in Italy last year with close to 300,000 active users per month.

In a company press release, Flutter said the acquisition will lead them to “assume the gold medal position in Italy” with roughly 30% of the online market share when added to its current business in the country, including the gambling company Sisal. Flutter said Italy boasts Europe’s largest gambling market with about $23 billion in gross gaming revenue in 2023.

The landscape is different in Brazil, which is finally getting a regulated market at the beginning of next year. NSX Group has a 12% market share and operates Betnacional, which Flutter plans to merge with its current property Betfair Brazil.

At the same time, Flutter is seeking global dominance, FanDuel is still caught up in a duopoly with DraftKings in the U.S. The rival has been hit with more lawsuits in recent months, but both are named in the MLB Players Association’s suits this week along with Bet365 and Underdog Fantasy over the use of player images without permission.