The news that Allwyn and its Greek subsidiary OPAP are merging in a €16 billion marriage à la mode has returned the spotlight to the contentious UK Lottery runner and its former links to Putin’s Russia.
Owned by billionaire Karel Komárek, who once had business ties to Russia’s state Gazprom energy company through a jointly-owned gas storage facility in his Czech homeland–and multi-million dollar loans with two Kremlin banks, as reported by Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Allwyn has skirted controversy ever since winning the licence to run the British national lottery in 2022.
Allwyn wrested control of the UK Lottery, European gambling’s richest cash cow, from long-time operator Camelot, while beating-off competition from a cluster of bidders, most of whom cried foul following the result.
Porn Baron
Even today, after neutralizing the ensuing legal threat of Camelot by the simple expedient of buying the company, Allwyn UK Ltd. still faces aspersions cast by former porn baron Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell group, which is currently suing the regulatory Gambling Commission (UKGC) over what it asserts was an unfair and flawed bidding process.
According to reports yesterday, the Allwyn-OPAP formalisation will create the world’s second-largest listed gambling group, worth €16 billion (£13.94bn/US$18.48bn).
And the new grouping, which will form the richest listing on the Athens Stock Exchange, is now looking to expand into the highly-lucrative U.S. sports betting market; which puts both London and New York in the frame for the company’s secondary stock market placement.
Allwyn and OPAP–a former state-owned gambling company that still retains the monopoly of all numerical lotteries and sports betting in Greece–first came together in 2013 when Komárek’s KKCG holding company built a controlling stake of almost 52 percent.
Damages
The new betting conglomerate will be called Allwyn, confirmed Komárek, and would “accelerate innovation and fuel significant international growth”.
That growth is now definitely targeting the U.S., where last month Allwyn acquired a 62.3 percent stake in US fantasy sports operator PrizePicks for an initial investment of US$1.6 billion (£1.2bn/€1.38bn).
Meantime, Northern & Shell is currently seeking massive damages, believed to be in the region of some £200 million (US$265.37m/€229.75m), from the UK’s regulatory Gambling Commission, who oversaw the lottery licensing process.
“It could be you”, is not an affirmation the UKGC are hoping to hear.
