(Reuters) -The world’s largest online betting company Flutter said on Friday it will buy a 56% stake in NSX Group, the operator of Brazilian gaming group Betnacional, for about $350 million as it seeks to expand in the soon-to-be regulated market.
Flutter, owner of FanDuel and Paddy Power, said it would merge Betnacional with its existing Betfair Brazil brand and invest heavily to drive market share growth, similar to its strategy in the U.S. where it is now the No. 1 operator.
Sports bets were legalized in soccer-mad Brazil in 2018 but will only be full regulated in early 2025. Dozens of betting brands, including Betfair, bet365 and Betano, have been aggressively expanding in the country in recent years.
NSX is the No. 4 player, with a 12% share of the sports betting market. It is expected to generate revenue of around $256 million in 2024 – more than three times that of Betfair Brazil – and a core profit of around $34 million in 2024, Flutter said.
Flutter, which will be able to increase its shareholding after five and 10 years of completing the deal, said it expected the new Flutter Brazil unit to make a loss of around $90 million-$100 million in 2025 due to its investment drive.
The Irish betting group said last month that it also in talks to buy UK gambling technology firm Playtech’s Italian unit Snaitech.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin in Dublin and Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Susan Fenton)
