Cirsa continues its policy of expansion on the Italian market through new acquisitions. In 2022 it acquired 60% of the online operator E-Play, one of the 10 largest, it has now closed three new operations, increasing its presence both on the online gaming market than in the sector of 'traditional' gaming machines.
The company controlled by the Blackstone fund has concluded three acquisitions in recent months with a combined investment of more than 60 million euros. In its traditional business, that of slots, the most important corporate operation was the acquisition of the operator Modena Giochi, a company with a large presence in the Emilia-Romagna region.
Cirsa has also made two investments in the 'digital' sector. The first was SportItaliaBet, an online betting brand, which will be added to the portfolio of brands that E-Play already owned at the time of purchase. The second, of lesser importance, is a small part of the E-Gaming group.
The organization based in Terrassa (Barcelona) thus continues its expansion throughout Italy, a country in which it has operated since 1997. According to available data, it closed the 2023 campaign with 10.986 slot machines compared to 7.204 in 2022. It also has a dozen bingo halls and more than 500 employees in the country.
With this commitment, the Italian market went from representing 4,5% of sales in 2022 to 7,2%, positioning itself in fifth place in terms of relevance behind Spain, Panama, Colombia and Mexico.
The company founded by Manuel Lao thus continues its expansion policy, focusing on medium-sized acquisitions or even SMEs instead of operations of large companies. This is what it has done in the last two years, in which in addition to growing in Italy it has been active above all in Spain, its main market, and in Mexico.
In recent years the name Cirsa has appeared among those expected to debut on the stock exchange, something which seems to have cooled in recent years. Reuters has in fact explained that Blackstone is evaluating various options to deal with the exit from the shareholder structure after six years.
In the latest meeting with analysts, Antoni Grau, chief financial officer, said: “We believe that market conditions are not those that could give us the valuation that we believe the company deserves. So we are not in a rush to do an IPO.” There are therefore other options on the table."
