Skulls Up

What is Skulls Up?

The growth, driven predominantly by remote (online) gambling activities, contrasts with a decline in physical gambling premises, highlighting shifting consumer preferences and market dynamics.

When excluding all reported lottery activity, GGY increased to £13.2 billion, up 4.7% year-on-year.

Remote casino, betting, and bingo activity was the standout channel, generating £8.3 billion in GGY, a 6.9% year-on-year increase and accounting for approximately 63% of the non-lottery industry yield.

What is Skulls Up?

Lottomatica and Cirsa have agreed a blockbuster merger that would create the second-largest listed gaming and sports betting operator in the world.

Announced on Wednesday, the all-share deal is expected to close in Q2 2027, forming a combined group with a pro forma adjusted EBITDA of around €2 billion ($2.3 billion).

Cirsa’s implied pro forma value, before synergies, corresponds to an multiple of approximately 6x its expected 2026 EV/EBITDA which will be between €800 million and €820 million, according to the operator’s most recent earnings.

About Skulls Up

This report arrived amid the UK government’s 2023 white paper on gambling reform, which introduced a statutory levy for funding research and treatment. 

A cross-party of MPs similarly branded gambling advertisement as a “public health issue” in a recent parliamentary debate. The comment came after the publication of the All-Party Parliamentary Group’s May report.

The report cited concerns that current measures inadequately protected children and young people from the marketing tactics of the gambling industry.