The Allwyn Story: From a Single Czech Lottery to a Global Lottery and Gaming Operator

The OPAP combination completed in 2026 creates the second largest listed lottery and gaming operator globally. Allwyn didn’t start anywhere near that scale. Its history is essentially the history of SAZKA, the incumbent Czech lottery operator, expanded market by market over roughly fifteen years under the ownership of KKCG, the group founded and chaired by Karel Komárek. What stands out across the timeline isn’t one landmark moment. It’s a repeatable pattern of stake-building and licence wins that quietly compounded into scale.

Why Allwyn’s Rise Matters for Regulated Lottery Markets

Consolidation is the defining theme in regulated lottery markets, and Allwyn is one of the clearest examples of where it can lead. The business went from co-owning a single national operator to holding positions across the UK, Greece, Italy, Austria, Croatia and the US, then combining with one of its largest partners. For anyone tracking how modern lottery groups are built, this journey is a useful map of the moves that actually moved the needle.

How Allwyn Grew: From SAZKA to a Global Lottery Operator

The foundation was Czech. KKCG became co-owner of SAZKA a.s. in 2011 and sole owner in 2012, taking full control of what KKCG describes as the largest Czech lottery company.

From there the group pushed outward. In 2013 its partner EMMA Capital completed the acquisition of a controlling 33% stake in OPAP, Greece’s largest lottery and gaming company, from the Greek state. In 2016 KKCG and EMMA Capital merged their lottery and gaming assets into SAZKA Group, which picked up a 32.5% stake in LottoItalia, awarded the Italian Lotto concession for nine years, alongside an 11.6% stake in Austrian Lotteries. In 2018 the group took a 67% shareholding in SuperSport, the largest sports betting provider in Croatia by profit before taxation. By 2019 KKCG had become sole owner of SAZKA Group, acquiring EMMA Capital’s remaining interest, though EMMA retained the SuperSport business at that point.

The rebrand to Allwyn came in 2021, the same year funds advised by Apollo Global Management closed a €500 million strategic investment in the business. In 2022 came two more milestones: the fourth UK National Lottery licence and a 36.75% interest in Betano. The Camelot deals followed, and here the sources differ slightly on timing. KKCG dates Allwyn’s announced acquisition of Camelot’s UK lottery business to 2022, while Allwyn’s own timeline places the completion of both the Camelot UK and Camelot Lottery Solutions acquisitions in 2023, the latter bringing with it the Illinois state lottery. Allwyn began operating the UK National Lottery Fourth Licence in 2024. The most recent chapter is the combination with OPAP, announced in 2025 and completed in 2026, which the companies say creates “the second largest listed lottery and gaming operator globally.”

Karel Komárek: The Founder Behind Allwyn and KKCG

Allwyn’s rise is inseparable from the person who built its parent. Karel Komárek is the founder and chairman of KKCG. On the group’s own account, his entrepreneurial path began in 1992, when he started his first company with CZK 300,000 borrowed from his father. The lottery business that would become Allwyn sits at the centre of the group he built from there.

What Allwyn’s Growth Strategy Signals for Operators

The interesting thing here isn’t any one acquisition. It’s the consistency of the method. Allwyn’s growth reads as a disciplined sequence: gain exposure to a strong regulated operator, build the position over time, win licences in mature markets, and eventually consolidate. The 2026 OPAP combination is the clearest example, arriving thirteen years after the group’s first OPAP investment through EMMA Capital. For operators and investors, the signal is that scale in lottery is built through patience and partnership as much as through single big bets.

What Allwyn’s Timeline Doesn’t Tell You

This is the companies’ own version of events, drawn from their history pages, and history pages are written to show a clean upward line. They don’t capture integration risk, regulatory conditions attached to licences, or how these acquisitions are performing financially. The two pages also differ on the exact timing of the Camelot UK deal, and SuperSport’s position shifted when EMMA Capital retained it in 2019. The “second largest listed lottery and gaming operator globally” line is the companies’ own framing of the combined entity, not an independently audited ranking. Anyone using this as more than a reference should pair it with the group’s financial filings and regulatory disclosures.

What’s Next for Allwyn After the OPAP Combination

The near-term story is integration. Allwyn is absorbing OPAP into a combined group while also folding in recent additions such as Instant Win Gaming and the majority stake in US daily fantasy sports operator PrizePicks. On the official record, the direction of travel is more of the same: deeper positions in regulated lottery and gaming markets, and a growing footprint across Europe and the US. Whether the combined entity converts its scale into performance is the question the next few years will answer.

Source: Official Company Announcements