Allwyn International has announced its withdrawal from a planned acquisition of a majority share in Novibet, citing feedback from the Greek competitions authority.
The board of Allwyn confirmed this morning that it and Logflex MT Holding, the parent company of Novibet, had jointly decided to withdraw from the transaction.
The takeover was under review by the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC). Upon receiving feedback, however, the duo have decided not to proceed with the acquisition.
A joint statement read: “While Allwyn and Logflex MT Holding Limited set out carefully considered proposals to the HCC, Allwyn is committed to only pursuing transactions that would deliver clear value for shareholders.
“Allwyn and Logflex MT Holding Limited therefore no longer expect the previously announced transaction to proceed.”
Greek Odyssey
Terms were first secured back in December 2024, with Allwyn agreeing to acquire a 51% controlling stake in the Athens-headquartered online betting and gaming group.
The stake would have enlarged Allwyn’s interests in the betting space, with the firm already being a dominant player in lotteries across Europe as operator of the UK, Czech and Austrian lotteries.
However, the company was already active in Greece as a 51% shareholder in OPAP – the operator of the Greek National Lottery, with its contract having just been renewed for 12 more years late last year, and also a major betting and online casino operator.
In December 2025, the HCC released a statement summarising its outlook on the prospective Allwyn majority shareholding in Novibet.
The watchdog determined that Allwyn would be acquiring ‘sole control over a close competitor’ and that the transaction would ‘strengthen Allwyn’s dominant position’.
It also labelled Novibet the only operator ‘capable of competing on equal terms’ with Allwyn in both a commercial and technological sense and concluded that no other firm in the Greek market would be able to exert the same competitive pressure on Allwyn as Novibet could.
At the time, the HCC shared that Allwyn had proposed undertaking ‘certain commitments’ to address the competition concerns around the Novibet acquisition. Four months down the line, it appears neither Allwyn nor Novibet felt these commitments would be beneficial to either party.
Allwyn priortises new status
Another element to consider is the changes to Allwyn’s strategic direction and priorities over the past year. As mentioned above, Allwyn had been a majority shareholder in Greek lottery and betting operator OPAP since 2020.
The arrangement expanded into a full blown merger in October last year. Terms saw Allwyn secure a 78.5% share in the new business, while OPAP shareholders held the remaining 21.5%, and Allwyn’s parent firm KKCG held majority voting rights. The majority ownership of OPAP will see Allwyn take its listing on the Athens Stock Exchange (ATX) in the first-half of 2026.
This merger also came just a month after Allwyn paid $1.6bn (£ whatever) for a 61% share in PrizePicks, one of the two biggest daily fantasy sports (DFS) platforms in the US alongside Underdog Sports. Shortly after, PrizePicks announced its intentions to get in on the growing US predictions market craze.
The PrizePicks takeover and OPAP merger has set Allwyn up as one of the world’s largest listed gambling firms, in the same realm as other global gaming giants Flutter Entertainment, Las Vegas Sands and Entain.
Given the strategic changes of the last year, the proposed changes to meet the requirements of the HCC may have just not made financial sense to Allwyn, and the commercial need to expand in Greece has been filled by the OPAP merger – OPAP having declared 2025 revenue of €2.4bn yesterday.
Following its M&A and Plc enlargements Allwyn carries a corporate value of circa €16bn, its 2025 prospectus cited that leadership continues to review further listing opportunities between either London or New York – with no plans as yet presented to investors.
Back to the drawing board for Novibet
So, what about Novibet? This is the second time the Athens-headquartered firm has been forced to back down from a public listing move, coming three years after a deal with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Artemis Strategic Investment Corporation, which would have seen it list on the Nasdaq, was terminated.
Commenting at the time to the SBC Leaders magazine, Novibet CEO George Athanasopoulos did not seem particularly fazed by this, saying that: “The decision for Novibet to become a public company was the right one, at the wrong time.
“The announced SPAC transaction would have provided us with growth capital and a ticket to become listed on one of the biggest exchanges in the world. Unfortunately and outside of our control, the SPAC market deteriorated to the point of becoming a negative return for target companies.”
Three years later it seems that history has repeated itself with Novibet being forced to step back from a major market move due to changing circumstances making said move no longer commercially or financially suitable.
Regardless, the firm remains a dominant player in Greece as the HCC noted, and also has a considerable presence across Latin America across Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Mexico.
Allwyn’s announcement of the Novibet withdrawal ahead of the publication of its financial statement for 2025 tomorrow (5 March).