Betsson Completes Acquisition of Rhino Entertainment’s Canada Business
The deal announced in March is now done – handing Betsson an Ontario foothold and technology it can resell.
Betsson has completed its acquisition of Rhino Entertainment Group’s B2C business licensed in Canada, along with a set of technology assets earmarked for its B2B operations. The transaction, first announced on 12 March 2026, gives Betsson a licensed position in Ontario with scope to expand across the rest of Canada.
Why this deal matters now
North America remains the most-watched expansion arena in online gambling, and Canada – with Ontario as its most developed regulated market – is where European operators are increasingly placing bets. For Betsson, buying an already-licensed B2C business is a faster route in than building from zero. The acquired Rhino entities collectively hold the assets, licences, personnel and operational capabilities tied to Rhino’s B2C activity in Ontario and the wider Canadian market, and Betsson has flagged room to expand into further provinces as local frameworks evolve.
What the acquisition actually involves
The scope runs across two fronts. On the B2C side, Betsson takes on Rhino’s Canadian customer-facing business. On the B2B side, it acquires Rhino’s proprietary front-end and middleware technology – software Betsson expects to strengthen its own B2B offering and generate incremental licensing revenue from other operators.
On price, per Betsson’s 12 March announcement, the total consideration is approximately EUR 64.5 million, equal to roughly 4.7x EV/EBITDA on the target’s 2025 proforma results. Betsson is paying EUR 51.25 million upfront at closing, with the remaining balance deferred to six months after completion, and is funding the transaction from existing cash. The acquired assets generated an estimated EUR 13.7 million of proforma EBITDA in 2025. Gernandt & Danielsson Advokatbyrå acted as lead legal advisor to Betsson.
The operator read
Here’s the part operators care about: this is effectively two acquisitions inside one price tag. Betsson gets a paying, licensed customer base in Canada and a piece of technology it can turn around and license out. That B2B angle is easy to overlook but strategically neat – the same purchase that buys market access also buys a product Betsson can monetise across supplier relationships. On paper, a sub-5x multiple paid in cash rather than debt looks like a disciplined entry into a market where licences carry real value – though how disciplined it actually proves depends on the caveat below.
The caveat worth naming
The valuation reads well on paper, but the ~4.7x multiple rests on a ~€13.7m EBITDA figure that is explicitly proforma – a modelled, normalised number, not booked profit under Betsson’s ownership. If retention or margins soften once the business sits inside Betsson’s cost base and brand, the effective multiple rises. Beyond price, a licence and a customer base are a starting position, not a guaranteed outcome: Rhino’s Canadian presence is centred on Ontario, and expansion into other provinces depends on how – and how quickly – those regulatory frameworks open, which is outside Betsson’s control.
Future outlook
The immediate work is integration: folding Rhino’s B2C operation into Betsson’s structure and beginning to license the acquired front-end and middleware technology to B2B clients. Beyond that, the province-by-province nature of Canadian regulation means Betsson’s Canadian upside is a multi-year story rather than a single-market one. If the technology genuinely drives incremental B2B revenue as Betsson expects, the deal starts to look less like a one-market entry and more like a repeatable model – buy licensed access, absorb the tech, resell it.
Source: betssonab
