Lottomatica Group Financial Results: Revenue, Cash Flow and Debt

Latest results at a glance: nine months to September 2026

The most useful growth comparison is 9M 2026 against 9M 2025. Comparing nine months of 2026 with twelve months of 2025 would confuse seasonality and the reporting periods. The full-year history is shown separately below.

Source: Lottomatica Group, 9M 2026 results press release, issued 3 November 2026. Amounts expressed in millions of euros; growth calculated from unrounded values.

These results show improved statutory revenue and profit, but not equal growth across every definition. Reported adjusted EBITDA increased faster than IFRS sales; statutory operating cash generation increased much more slowly. It would be premature to call that a deterioration in cash quality without examining tax timing, capital expenditure and working capital.

The longer record provides context, but is not a continuation of the nine-month series:

FY2025 was the latest completed audited financial year in the published reports available as at 11 November 2026. Its approximately 12.1% revenue growth over FY2024 is a like-for-like year-length comparison, although acquisitions and changes in the business perimeter still affect underlying comparability. The group overview explains the three operating channels behind these totals.

Why Lottomatica reports two revenue figures

The first apparent discrepancy occurs in the company's own earnings announcement. Its headline management revenue for 9M 2026 was €1,717.781 million. Yet the consolidated income statement lists €1,686.608 million. The difference is €31.173 million, not an error or unexplained cash inflow.

Management follows a segment-reporting perimeter that includes selected activities of entities accounted for differently in consolidation. The issuer's footnote identifies Sportbet S.r.l. and Bgame S.p.A. SB in Online, and Cristaltec group and Agesoft S.p.A. in Gaming Franchise, as included for management monitoring purposes. Consequently, its segment measures and the IFRS income statement do not use precisely the same scope.

On the statutory measure, year-on-year revenue growth was approximately 3.2%. On the management measure it was approximately 4.7%. Both are legitimate when labelled, but applying the issuer's rounded 5% headline to the IFRS revenue line overstates that specific growth rate.

There is a second distinction: bets and gross gaming revenue (GGR) are not accounting revenue. Customers placed approximately €35.204 billion in bets during the first nine months of 2026. GGR, which the company defines as bets less winnings, was €3.516 billion. Neither figure is the group's consolidated top line. Gaming duties, distribution economics, product differences and recognition rules intervene. The business-model analysis explains why these measures diverge.

Profitability: adjusted EBITDA, net profit and the three segments

Adjusted EBITDA is an alternative performance measure selected and defined by the issuer. Lottomatica reported €665.477 million for 9M 2026, up from €617.265 million one year earlier. It is useful for analysing operating trends, but does not equal net profit, cash generated or money available for dividends.

The statutory consolidated net profit was €155.327 million, versus €98.284 million for 9M 2025. Net profit attributable specifically to owners of the parent was €148.158 million, another valid but different figure. Management's adjusted net profit was €262.600 million, versus €257.443 million in the comparative period, an increase of approximately 2%. The gap between statutory and adjusted profit in 9M 2026 was €107.273 million and reflects the issuer's specified adjustments, rather than a second pool of distributable profit.

Segment performance clarifies the concentration of earnings:

Source: Lottomatica Group, 9M 2026 management segment reporting. Adjusted margins use the company's segment denominators and are not IFRS net margins.

Online supplied approximately 66.6% of group adjusted EBITDA, even though it accounted for less than half of management revenue. The company reported Online revenue growth of around 13% and Online adjusted EBITDA growth of around 17% year on year. By contrast, Sports Franchise adjusted EBITDA fell approximately 16%, with segment revenue down around 1% despite an 11% rise in sports-betting stakes. The divergence illustrates the sensitivity of betting economics to customer winnings and payout conditions.

Management also published a hypothetical result using normalised sports payouts. The scenario assumed payouts of 80.5% for retail sports and 85.5% for online sports, producing approximately €715.1 million of normalised adjusted EBITDA. This is not the actual €665.477 million earned during the period. Readers comparing the issuer's “normalised” growth rates with competitors must keep the counterfactual assumption in view.

Our conclusion is that the higher-margin digital business is doing much of the work, while retail sports results can shift with payouts. That is an operating-mix observation, not a forecast that the Online margin will remain fixed.

Cash flow: what reached the company, and what was adjusted

Lottomatica's €544.907 million headline operating cash flow is a company-defined measure. It is calculated from adjusted EBITDA after two specified categories of investment:

This is a useful description of management's operating earnings after selected spending, but it does not include every working-capital, tax or financing movement. The legally presented cash-flow statement follows IAS 7. It records €513.242 million of net cash from operating activities over the same nine months. The measures are constructed differently, so the €31.665 million difference should not be called an accounting shortfall or simply attributed to one expense.

The statutory cash-flow statement supplies the broader picture:

Within investing cash flow, the purchase of intangible assets was €114.288 million, while property, plant and equipment used €36.879 million. Together those payments were €151.167 million. Subtracting them from IAS 7 operating cash flow leaves an illustrative €362.075 million before other investing and financing considerations. This is not an issuer-reported free cash flow measure and should not be relabelled as such.

Timing matters too. Cash generated from operations was €415.723 million in H1 2026, leaving approximately €97.519 million of incremental IAS 7 operating cash flow during Q3. The H1 interim report discusses a favourable €125.8 million timing effect relating to betting duties and a €26.1 million movement in ADM guarantee deposits. These are useful warnings against annualising one six-month cash number as though working capital and tax dates never change.

For a gambling group with substantial concessions and distributions, cash should be judged across reporting dates, not only from one headline adjusted EBITDA-to-cash conversion ratio. The distinction between recurring, concession and statutory cash investment also requires care.

Debt, net leverage and the 2030-2032 maturity schedule

At 30 September 2026, Lottomatica reported €2,441.8 million of gross financial debt under its net-debt presentation and €277.7 million of cash, giving €2,164.1 million of net financial debt. The issuer's reconciliation includes borrowings, lease liabilities and a small buyback-related obligation; its definition should not be confused with all balance-sheet liabilities.

Source: issuer's 9M 2026 net financial debt reconciliation; component rounding may produce a small difference from the stated total.

The maturity schedule matters more than a single leverage headline. In May 2026, the company issued €765 million of 4.625% fixed-rate senior secured notes due April 2032. Part of the transaction refinanced €400 million of floating-rate notes, which were repaid. The redeemed floating-rate tranche should not still be counted as outstanding debt at the September reporting date. Issuance proceeds are financing cash inflows, not operating revenue.

Lottomatica described net leverage as 2.4 times at September 2026. This ratio uses approximately €911.2 million of last-twelve-months run-rate adjusted EBITDA as the denominator, including the issuer's specified pro-forma bolt-on and synergy assumptions. Dividing €2,164.1 million by €911.2 million gives approximately 2.4x. It is not the same calculation as dividing net debt by historical IFRS operating profit or simply annualising the 9M result.

An additional disclosure trap concerns H1 2026. The interim report presented an ESMA-definition net financial indebtedness of €2,160.735 million at 30 June and a management-definition figure of €2,110.397 million at that same date. Those two values differ by definition, not by fifty million euros of unexplained new borrowing. September's €2,164.1 million management net debt should therefore be compared only on a consistent reporting basis.

The debt profile extends through 2032, but refinancing rates, future cash needs and any acquisition financing remain material risks. The published balance is a snapshot before any completed CIRSA combination; it is not a verified pro-forma debt estimate for a future merged entity.

Where the money went: investment, buybacks and dividends

Strong operating cash generation did not mean every euro remained on the balance sheet. During the first nine months of 2026, Lottomatica reported approximately €368.2 million paid for share repurchases and €105.064 million in dividends. Together, these shareholder distributions used approximately €473.264 million of cash. Neither is a recurring expense of operating a betting product.

The same financing section includes €765 million in new notes proceeds and €400 million of debt redemption, alongside interest, leases and other financing items. The net financing cash outflow of €200.564 million reflects these offsetting movements. Looking only at bond issuance could incorrectly suggest a much larger increase in available operating funds; looking only at buybacks could obscure the related refinancing.

Investment spending also matters. The statutory cash flow records €178.899 million used in investing activities, including tangible and intangible assets, interests in associates, deferred acquisition consideration and smaller acquisition-related movements. Not every investing payment is maintenance expenditure, and the management-defined recurring/concession capital expenditure total is not identical to cash invested under IAS 7.

By 30 September 2026, cash was €277.677 million, up from €143.898 million at the end of 2025. The balance sheet also carried €2,089.496 million of goodwill and €237.262 million of total group equity. A high goodwill balance signals meaningful past acquisition accounting exposure; it does not, by itself, establish impairment. The smaller equity base should likewise be read alongside buybacks and the full equity movements, not treated as a one-number solvency test. The ownership and shareholders report covers the capital base separately.

What the figures suggest: and what they cannot prove

Three conclusions emerge from the latest disclosed numbers. First, Online produced roughly two-thirds of adjusted EBITDA, making the digital channel central to group earnings. Second, sports payouts can disrupt the link between stakes and revenue, as the Sports Franchise results demonstrate. Third, cash generation has to be weighed against capital spending, distributions and more than €2.1 billion of net financial debt.

None of these conclusions is a share-price forecast. Management's expectation that FY2026 normalised adjusted EBITDA would finish towards the upper end of its guidance range was a forward-looking statement, not an audited full-year outcome. Similarly, the proposed combination with CIRSA remained conditional as at 11 November 2026; its prospective earnings, debt or synergies are not included in the actual September financial position presented here.

Our assessment is that Lottomatica has demonstrated real operating momentum, but a clean evaluation must start from statutory revenue and cash flow, then work through the issuer's adjustments, debt definition and uses of cash. The adjusted figures add insight only when their construction is visible. Further detail on the transaction and regulatory exposure appears in history and acquisitions and risks and prospects; market information belongs on the separate shares and outlook page.

Primary documents reviewed: Lottomatica Group FY2025 Annual Report; H1 2026 Interim Financial Report; 9M 2026 Results Press Release dated 3 November 2026. Source titles are provided for verification.