Lottomatica has terminated 348 employees at its Serbian subsidiary PWO in Belgrade, citing the need to centralise specific functions within the group’s corporate structure following the completion of its post-acquisition integration.
The Dismissals
The terminations occurred during a single working day. Accounts from individuals who identified themselves as former employees on the Serbian programming forum r/programiranje described losing VPN access mid-shift, with dismissal notifications arriving by email several hours later. One account described a colleague unable to leave the office after their access card was deactivated and their computer locked at the same time.
Lottomatica confirmed the scale of the redundancies through a statement provided to Serbian outlet Telegraf, attributing the decision to a strategic reorganisation of PWO.
“The decision was made for strategic reasons, as part of a deeper integration of PWO, with the aim of fully internalizing specific key activities within the central corporate functions. The process was carried out in line with all valid laws and regulations, as well as relevant legal and procedural frameworks.”
The company provided no further detail on severance terms or transition support for affected employees.
Union Response
Italy’s Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), which represents workers across the Lottomatica Group, confirmed the redundancies in a public statement and raised concern over the timing and the company’s stated rationale. USB noted that the announcement came days after Lottomatica reported record financial results for FY 2025, with adjusted EBITDA of €856 million and adjusted net profit of €369 million.
In its statement, USB said the company had justified the layoffs by citing redundancy and economic pressures — a framing the union described as inconsistent with a business reporting strong profit growth and a share price at €25 at the time of the announcement.
The union called for formal negotiations on three issues: the role of artificial intelligence in workforce decisions across the group, employment guarantees for all group employees, and protective measures for those at risk of job loss. USB also flagged the LAMP platform, referenced in Lottomatica’s 2024 annual report as a system that “strategically integrates AI into all business units, from customer support to logistics,” as context for its concerns. A Q1 2025 results disclosure cited an AI model managing support tickets and delivering decisions within 150 milliseconds.
Acquisition Context
Lottomatica acquired SKS365 — the Italian sports betting operator behind the Planetwin365 brand — for €639 million in April 2024. The Belgrade team, operating under the PWO by Lottomatica entity, was responsible for migrating the group’s systems onto Lottomatica’s proprietary platform. According to Lottomatica’s Q3 2025 results, that migration was completed in July 2025, ahead of the originally projected timeline.
The company’s FY 2025 annual report, published on 3 March 2026, confirmed that the PWO integration delivered €87 million in synergies — 34% above the announced target — with the full effect of those synergies expected in 2026. Lottomatica’s full-year 2025 revenues reached €2,255.3 million, up 12% year-on-year, while online segment revenue grew 22% to €955 million.
Lottomatica has not commented on whether further headcount reductions are planned across the wider group. The USB statement indicated the union would pursue the matter through formal industrial relations channels.
Source: Lottomatica / USB / Telegraf
