7 Potential Acquisition Targets For Flutter In US Lottery Industry

The rich will just keep getting richer in the U.S. gambling landscape.

At least that’s the way it looks for Flutter, owner of FanDuel, whose share price has surged nearly 50% since switching to the New York Stock Exchange for its main listing in May.

Flutter’s upward trajectory is so strong, in fact, that analysts at Macquarie, a well-regarded investment banking and financial services company, recently predicted Flutter’s global serviceable market of $119 billion in 2024 will grow to $210 billion by 2030.

And a significant part of that growth could be a result of mergers and acquisitions, Macquarie analysts said, according to a recent Earnings+More newsletter. In fact, Flutter’s proven track record with successful M&A endeavors is the “most compelling, unspoken reason” to buy shares, Macquarie analysts said.

Those analysts pinpointed two areas where they project Flutter to get involved with more M&A opportunities — and specifically more “transformational” opportunities: retail gaming and lottery in the U.S.

Since this site is called Lottery Geeks, we’re going to dive into the second category and review seven potential merger and acquisition targets Flutter could have in the U.S. lottery market. A merger with or acquisition of any of these companies would immediately create a seismic shift in the U.S. lottery landscape. 

Jackpot.com

This one just makes sense. DraftKings cannonballed into the lottery industry in February by purchasing lottery courier Jackpocket for a whopping $750 million. Jackpocket is the market leader among couriers, as it is live in 19 states.

But Jackpot.com is also a strong player in the market. It’s currently up and running in seven states, including lottery behemoths New York, New Jersey, and Texas. 

Also, in late November, the platform announced a partnership with 7-Eleven to serve as the convenience store chain’s exclusive online lottery courier provider. The partnership will allow customers at more than 600 7-Eleven and Speedway stores in Ohio and Massachusetts to get a free lottery ticket when they sign up for Jackpot.com. The hope is that this opportunity will expand to more 7-Elevens in more states in the future.

Lotto.com

Lotto.com is a bit of a dark horse in the courier industry. Jackpocket and Jackpot.com get most of the press, but Lotto.com is live in 11 states — including New York, Texas, and New Jersey.

The app cleared the 2 million customer mark back in July, and it took less than a year to double up from 1 million, so we’d anticipate it’ll clear 3 million before long. That’s a significant customer base for, one, lottery revenue opportunities and, two, cross promotion to Flutter’s other offerings, namely FanDuel Casino and FanDuel Sportsbook.

theLotter

TheLotter is a smaller lottery courier site. It’s currently active in five states — New Jersey, New York, Texas, Minnesota, and Oregon — but it has announced its next states will be Florida and Arizona. Entering the Florida market would be massive.

NeoGames

Acquiring a lottery courier may be a bit more seamless, but it doesn’t feel out of the realm of possibility for Flutter to purchase a lottery vendor either.

NeoGames would be mildly shocking, just because Aristocrat Interactive acquired it this past spring, so that would be a whole lot of activity in a short time. But taking all of NeoGames’ contracts would certainly give Flutter a leg up, with the online lotteries of New Hampshire, Michigan, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina all using its platform via a partnership with Pollard Banknote Limited (called NeoPollard).

Aristocrat Interactive acquired NeoGames for $1.2 billion.

Pollard Banknote Limited

Pollard Banknote Limited is a smaller vendor in the U.S. lottery market but definitely one with lots of momentum and, thus, an intriguing option for acquisition.

It was recently awarded the iLottery contract in Kansas, where it will provide the online lottery platform when that state launches in early 2025. It also helped launch Michigan’s online lottery back in 2014 and it powers the iLotteries in Michigan, Virginia, West Virginia, New Hampshire, and North Carolina as part of NeoPollard.

Beyond its online presence, Pollard Banknote Limited is also a strong force in the retail lottery space. It recently extended its contract to provide instant ticket games to Canada’s Interprovincial Lottery Corporation until 2028. A partner to the Michigan Lottery in some capacity since 1996, Pollard Banknote Limited also won the primary contract to provide instant games to the Michigan Lottery for the next five years back in March. 

Intralot

When it comes to presence in the U.S., Intralot is the end-to-end operator of the Illinois State Lottery and it also is responsible for the Ohio Lottery’s instant retail games. 

Those are the two biggest U.S. headlines for Intralot, although it also recently secured a partnership extension to provide the online lottery platform for the British Columbia Lottery Corporation in Canada.

IGT

This would be the biggest splash on this list.

IGT is a giant in the U.S. lottery industry — with most of its domination taking place in the retail space, but it also holds its own with iLotteries too. (For instance, it powers Georgia’s online lottery platform.) Currently, it is the primary technology provider to 25 lotteries in the U.S. (including California) plus the Atlantic Lottery Corporation in Canada.

The wrinkle here is that IGT recently announced a partnership with William Hill. In states where the state lottery operates sports betting, this partnership will allow IGT and William Hill to combine to offer an all-in-one technology provider for that state’s lottery and sports betting needs. So any acquisition of IGT would have to somehow navigate this new arrangement.