An Athens listing has created the world’s second largest gaming company. Finally, Europe has a #2 global player 

Skoda, Urquell Pilsner and Václav Havel. The number of global brands associated with the Czech Republic are few. When Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, paid homage to Havel, the first democratically elected president of what was then Czechoslovakia, in a speech he made at Davos this year, many turned to Google to refresh their memories. Now, a new player may be added to the list.

Karel Komárek is a Czech billionaire who started buying stakes in country lotteries in 2011. The Czech Republic’s Sazka was the first, Greek gaming firm OPAP was the second. Renamed Allwyn, the company now also owns lotteries and gaming companies in the U.K., Italy, Austria, and the states of Michigan and Illinois. Its most recent acquisition was PrizePicks, the American fantasy sports operator.

Komárek is a rare breed. The owner of a Europe-based business (Allwyn’s headquarters are now in Lucerne, Switzerland) which has become a top-two operator in its field globally. In 2024, revenues topped $10bn. A year later, Allwyn’s valuation touched $18.6bn. Only the Irish-American gambling business, Flutter, is bigger.

Last month, Allwyn was listed on the Athens stock exchange. Now its leaders are eyeing the London and New York exchanges as potential secondary homes.

Source: Allwyn International Q4 2025 preliminary results

“We are definitely a story of inspiration for many Czech companies to show them it’s possible to grow internationally,” Robert Chvátal, Allwyn CEO, tells me. “Actually, it’s not just possible. It’s mandatory.” 

Swaddled in regulations and operating codes, national lotteries operate a little like utilities companies do—offering stable returns over long contract periods. Add in racier gaming and gambling interests too, and Chvátal argues, you have an attractive mix.

“Lotteries are great,” he says. “They have scale. But they are fairly mature businesses. It’s a good start. It’s a good base. But if you want to grow further, and if you say ‘We will be listed’, shareholders or investors will ask if there is a growth story. Or is it just a stable, almost utility-like, type of profile, which is more of a yield type of stock?”

“I say we are actually a combo of both. We are a solid yield—if you take the current stock price to the communicated dividend, it’s a 6% yield, not too bad in euro terms—but, at the same time, because of the product diversification and because of the geographical diversification, we are also a growth story.”

With the conflict in the Gulf cratering equity markets around the world and fears that investment overstretch could bring the technology hyperscalers to heel, uncomplicated bread-and-butter businesses like lotteries are a flight-to-safety option.

Whatever the level of geopolitical volatility, millions of people like to buy a chance to win big at astonishingly long odds. When Communist Czechoslovakia banned most lotteries and closed the state-run sports gambling company, Staska, in 1953, illegal gambling flourished. Sazka was launched three years later and a state lottery started in 1957. Even the Soviets couldn’t control the urge for a flutter.

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Jokes about Eastern European business standards are now a distant memory (“How do you double the value of a Skoda? Fill it with petrol” has a moldy feel, now that Skoda is owned by VW).

“What resonates with us, if you recall Mark Carney’s speech, is his reference to the ‘middle powers’,” Chvátal says. “He actually quoted our first president, Václav Havel, and his essay The Power of the Powerless. The middle powers could become relevant.” In its chosen field, Allwyn is more than a middle power. And for Europe, that is too rare an occurrence.

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