Buyers used to pay for markets and licences. Now they pay for LTV and brand equity.
Scale and a licence used to set the price. Now the diligence is about whether the brand and the customers survive the integration. Gaming M&A is busy again in 2026, and the question buyers ask before they pay has changed. This week Kambi signed two multi-year deals, one with Pure Casino in Alberta and one with RETABET in Spain and Peru. Alberta reached 24 live operators just ten days after opening. What deal-makers now say out loud is simple: a licence and a market are no longer enough to set the price.
Who is quietly buying the infrastructure that certifies this industry is fair?
Two of gaming’s recognised testing houses now sit under one owner. Private capital is treating trust as a business while operators file it as overhead. Two of gaming’s best-known testing houses now sit under one owner. Visualize Group bought eCOGRA, the London testing and certification firm, its second such deal after BMM Testlabs. The same pattern runs across the trust business. Corsair Capital took a majority of the ID-check firm IDnow at $295M. Sumsub passed a $1B valuation in January 2026. And a new EU agency, AMLA, took over anti-money-laundering rules across Europe on 1 January 2026, raising the bar everyone has to clear.
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Evolution kept its margins and still got marked down. The story slipped.
Reported revenue fell 1.2%. At constant currency it grew 2.4%, and the Galaxy deal is now in doubt. Evolution reported Q2 2026 revenue of €517.8M, down 1.2% on last year as reported but up 2.4% once you strip out currency swings, just short of the €520M the market expected. Profit (EBITDA) was €341.0M, a 65.9% margin. Its planned Galaxy Gaming purchase, already delayed to 17 July 2026, is now in doubt. Growth in the Americas keeps making up for a soft Europe.
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Apollo’s IGT still tells three stories. Buyers pay for one.
The $6.3B take-private closed twelve months ago. The combined company still tells three stories, and the exit clock has started. Apollo closed its $6.3B all-cash deal for IGT’s Gaming and Digital business and Everi on 1 July 2025. Everi shareholders were paid $14.25 a share, a 56% premium, and the stock was taken off the market. The combined company now runs privately as IGT, out of Las Vegas, in three parts: Gaming, Digital and FinTech. Hector Fernandez, formerly of Aristocrat Gaming, became CEO in late 2025.
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Betr bought its way into prediction markets, and the compliant US entry path became a template.
Betr bought an introducing broker to reach prediction markets. The compliant route is now a purchase, so the advantage moves up into brand and category. Betr bought a registered broker, Ascent Capital Management, to shortcut its way to a CFTC licence and launch Polymarket-powered prediction markets, turning a months-long approval into a purchase. Meanwhile the CFTC’s 10 June draft rule would allow most sports event contracts (final scores, win-loss, season stats) while banning player-prop, injury and referee bets. Prediction markets reportedly passed gambling for the first time at $36.6B in the quarter. Kalshi is teaming up with Nasdaq, Polymarket with Dow Jones.
The Evolution / Galaxy Gaming deal is taking 18 months, resetting US gaming M&A timelines
18 to 24 months is now the documented duration for a US state-licensed gaming acquisition. Evolution AB’s acquisition of Galaxy Gaming (announced July 2024) has been extended again, current deadline July 17, 2026, pending remaining US state regulatory approvals. Mississippi secured approval in November 2025. The July 17 deadline coincides with Evolution’s Q2 2026 earnings release, creating a binary event: deal closes and earnings land together, or the deadline extends again while results publish independently.
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Bally’s Intralot to acquire Evoke (William Hill, 888) for £243M
A 138% takeover premium is the market pricing brand equity above EBITDA. Bally’s Intralot agreed an all-share takeover of Evoke plc, owner of William Hill, 888 and Mr Green, valuing it at ~£243M ($326M), a 138% premium to its price the day before it launched a strategic review prompted by a UK remote-gambling tax hike. Shareholders get a partial cash alternative (~£117M aggregate); the buyer secured ~£889M financing (TPG Credit, Oaktree, OHA) to fund the deal and refinance Evoke’s ~£1.86B debt. Completion is expected Q4 2026 / Q1 2027.
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