Lottomatica online revenue jumps 17% in Q1
Table of contents
- Lottomatica reported normalised Q1 2026 revenue of €623m, up 10% year-on-year, against reported growth of 3% to €602m.
- The online segment posted a normalised adjusted EBITDA margin of 57.5%, with iGaming market share rising to around 32%.
- The group raised its full-year outlook, targeting adjusted EBITDA at the top end of its €940m–€980m guidance range.
Lottomatica Group has reported strong first-quarter 2026 results, driven by accelerating growth in its online division, with the Italian gaming operator lifting its full-year earnings guidance and committing to return up to €1bn to shareholders across 2026 and 2027.
The Milan-listed company posted reported revenues of €602m for the three months to 31 March, up 3% year-on-year. On a normalised basis — adjusting for sports betting payout rates of 80.5% for retail and 85.5% for online — revenues reached €623m, a 10% increase. Shares rose more than 6% on the day of announcement.
Online leads growth
The online segment was the clear standout. Revenues reached €265m, up 10% on a reported basis and 17% at normalised payout. Normalised adjusted EBITDA surged 29%, and the segment’s margin expanded to 57.5%, up from 53.6% in the prior-year period, reflecting product mix improvements and operational leverage.
Online bets grew 15% year-on-year, and the group’s iGaming market share advanced around 2 percentage points to approximately 32%. Online sports betting market share also improved by around 0.7 percentage points to approximately 32.5%.
The company’s Planetwin365 brand, which had lost ground during a platform migration in 2025, continued its recovery. Its iGaming market share reached 5.5% by the end of Q1, having bottomed at 5.0% in August 2025. Total sports market share, combining online and franchise channels, returned to the pre-migration level of 9%.
The group’s overall normalised adjusted EBITDA reached €253m, a 22% increase year-on-year. On a reported basis, EBITDA grew 7% to €236m — roughly 2% ahead of analyst consensus — with adjusted net profit of €106m, up 12%.
Retail under pressure
Not all divisions kept pace. The Sports Franchise segment, which covers retail betting shops, saw revenues fall 5% on a reported basis to €142m, with EBITDA declining 23% to €35m. Margin compressed from 30.4% to 24.6%, reflecting less favourable sports betting payouts during the quarter.
The Gaming Franchise segment held steady, with revenues flat at €195m and EBITDA growing modestly to €48m. Its margin improved to 24.8% from 23.7%.
Total bets across the group rose 11% to €12.4bn, with gross gaming revenue up 2% to €1.25bn. The Italian online market as a whole saw bets grow 15% year-on-year to €28.7bn, indicating Lottomatica is broadly tracking wider market expansion.
The quarter also carried a non-recurring charge. Extraordinary items of €28m related to the closure of the company’s Serbian branch, following the completion of the SKS365 platform migration that resulted in 348 redundancies in Belgrade in March, weighed on reported net profit.
Guidance and shareholder returns
Guglielmo Angelozzi, chairman and chief executive of Lottomatica Group, said:
“In the first quarter of 2026 we continued to see strong momentum of our addressable markets, supporting a double-digit growth year-on-year in adjusted EBITDA of 22%, on a normalised basis.
“With a positive outlook for FY 2026, we expect to close the FY 2026 adjusted 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.”
The group revised its full-year revenue guidance to a range of €2.39bn–€2.46bn, with adjusted EBITDA expected at the top of the €940m–€980m range. Shareholders have approved a buyback covering 12.5% of share capital.
A cash dividend of €0.44 per share — approximately €111m in total — was declared, with an ex-dividend date of 18 May 2026 and payment on 20 May 2026.
On the capital structure side, the company completed a senior secured note issue due 2032, a refinancing expected to generate several million euros in annual interest savings. Net financial debt fell from €2,105m at end-2025 to €2,051m at 31 March, with the leverage ratio improving from 2.4x to 2.3x.
The Q1 figures confirm that Lottomatica’s online-first strategy is generating returns that comfortably offset retail headwinds.
Smaller Italian operators continued to lose ground on the company’s internal market-share estimates, with emerging operators’ iGaming slipping — a trend that points to further consolidation ahead.
For investors, the combination of expanding online margins, a recovering Planetwin365 brand and a clearly defined return programme leaves the group well positioned heading into the second half.
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