Bally’s Intralot’s Online Gamble Delivers EBITDA Surge, but Leverage Clouds Its Next Deal

Bally’s Corporation-backed Intralot S.A. did not just post stronger first-quarter numbers. The company emerged from Q1 2026 looking fundamentally reshaped after the acquisition of Bally’s International Interactive (BII), with online operations now driving both revenue and profitability growth.

The Athens-listed gaming group reported Q1 revenue of €268.1 million, up 180.5% from €95.6 million a year earlier, while adjusted EBITDA climbed 231.8% to €100.2 million. EBITDA margin improved sharply to 37.4%, underlining how materially the BII acquisition has changed the earnings profile of the business.

The integration of BII was the defining factor behind the quarter. The acquired unit contributed €183.9 million in revenue and €72.7 million in adjusted EBITDA during the period, generating a 39.5% EBITDA margin and immediately becoming the group’s core profit engine.

Without BII, Bally’s Intralot’s legacy business continued to show pressure. Legacy operations declined 11.9% on a reported basis, or 7.1% at constant currency, as weaker US lottery activity, FX headwinds and operational changes at Turkish betting platform Bilyoner dragged on performance. Bilyoner revenue fell 19.2% year-on-year to €16.6 million.

The company’s B2B segment also softened during the quarter. Overall B2B revenue declined 10% to €63.5 million, while US B2B operations were down 6.2%. Management highlighted relative resilience in the lottery technology business, where EBITDA margins in legacy operations improved above 32% despite revenue contraction.

Debt Capacity Becomes the Market’s Main Focus

Online gaming remains the group’s clearest growth driver. UK digital revenue increased 10.5% year-on-year during Q1, while preliminary April trading showed revenue of £52 million, up 11.5%, despite tighter UK regulation and the introduction of the new 40% remote gaming duty.

That online momentum is central to Bally’s Intralot’s wider expansion strategy, particularly as the company continues pursuing a proposed £225 million acquisition of evoke plc, the parent company of William Hill. Negotiations were extended until 8 June, but investor attention is increasingly focused on leverage.

Bally’s Intralot ended March with total debt of €1.75 billion and adjusted net debt of €1.49 billion. The company pointed to €257.3 million in cash and an undrawn €160 million revolving credit facility as evidence of available liquidity, but the balance sheet remains stretched. Evoke itself carries roughly £1.9 billion in debt, meaning a combined group would be managing leverage exceeding £3.4 billion.

For investors, the key question is no longer whether Bally’s Intralot can integrate acquisitions successfully. Q1 largely demonstrated that it can. The bigger concern is whether the company has the funding capacity to continue consolidating assets without pushing leverage to uncomfortable levels.

Chief executive Robeson Reeves continues to position the BII integration as proof that Bally’s operational model can scale across larger gaming assets. On a pro forma basis, Bally’s Intralot and BII together would have generated €1.06 billion in revenue and €427.2 million in adjusted EBITDA over the 12 months ending 31 March 2026.

The company is also continuing to expand geographically. In April, Bally’s Intralot secured a 15-year electronic gaming machine monitoring licence in Victoria and signed a long-term lottery and sports betting technology agreement with Polla Chilena de Beneficencia.

The first quarter showed Bally’s Intralot has achieved the scale it was chasing through online expansion. The next phase is proving that the enlarged business can sustain that growth while carrying one of the sector’s heavier debt loads.

Source: sbcnews.co.uk

Bally’s Intralot’s Online Gamble Delivers EBITDA Surge, but Leverage Clouds Its Next Deal

Debt Capacity Becomes the Market’s Main Focus

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