CIRSA’s net revenue rose 12.0% to €628m in the third quarter of 2026, and adjusted EBITDA grew 11.1% to €203m, according to the CIRSA Q3 2026 results presentation the Spanish operator published on 4 November. Adjusted net profit increased 20.0% to €57m.
CIRSA said it was the 73rd consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth. The figures are among the last the company will report as a standalone group: its shareholders vote in November on an all-share merger into Lottomatica, due to close in the second quarter of 2027.
CIRSA Q3 2026 results: where the growth came from
Organic growth added €45m of the €68m revenue increase, or 8.1%, according to the revenue bridge in the presentation. Bolt-on acquisitions contributed €25m (4.5%), and the earthquake in Colombia took €3m off the total.
Adjusted EBITDA followed the same pattern on a smaller scale. Organic growth added €12m (6.6%), acquisitions €11m (5.9%), and the Colombian earthquake cost €3m. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 32.4%, slightly below the 32.7% implied by the €183m of EBITDA on €560m of revenue a year earlier.
| Q3 (€m) | Q3 2025 | Q3 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group net revenue | 560 | 628 | +12.0% |
| Group adjusted EBITDA | 183 | 203 | +11.1% |
| Retail net revenue | 451 | 486 | +7.6% |
| Retail EBITDA | 166 | 183 | +9.8% |
| Online net revenue | 121 | 144 | +18.9% |
| Online EBITDA | 24 | 24 | +0.2% |
Figures from CIRSA’s Q3 2026 results presentation, July to September 2025 and 2026.
Online turnover up a third, profit flat
Online turnover rose 32.5% to €3.27bn in the quarter, from €2.47bn a year earlier, with casino up 39% and sports betting up 17%. CIRSA credited a World Cup marketing campaign that it said enlarged its customer base.
Net revenue from online grew 18.9% to €144m, about 23% of the group total. Online EBITDA stayed at €24m, and the margin fell from 19.5% to 16.5%. CIRSA put the gap down to sports results that went in customers’ favour in August and September, which cost €10m of EBITDA across all regions.
On a normalised pay-out, the company calculates online net revenue at €158m (up 30.5%) and online EBITDA at €34m (up 43.6%), a 21.5% margin. Group adjusted EBITDA growth would have been 17% without the pay-out effect, according to the presentation.
Online is the part of the business CIRSA is growing fastest. The presentation lists more cross-selling of online casino to the existing customer base and mobile-first product work as the next steps for the division.
Retail: Spanish slots carry the margin
Retail net revenue rose 7.6% to €486m, of which 3.8 percentage points were organic and 4.5 points came from acquisitions. Retail EBITDA grew faster, by 9.8% to €183m, and the margin widened by 73 basis points to 37.6%.
Within retail, casino EBITDA rose 9.1% at a 42.0% margin. Slots Spain, the Spanish machine business, grew EBITDA 11.8% at a 53.6% margin, the highest of any unit CIRSA reports.
Latin America grew faster than Europe. Net revenue in the region was up 15.5% in the nine months to September, and CIRSA pointed to economic and social stability in its Latin American markets in a year with elections in Peru and Colombia. A bill in Colombia would also put 19% VAT on online deposits. Europe generated 62% of net revenue in the nine months, up 5.6%.
Cash, debt and the dividend
Over nine months, CIRSA generated €431m of operating cash flow, up 4.7%, after capex of €169m, up from €137m. Capex rose to 8.9% of revenue from 8.0%, and cash conversion eased to 72% from 75%.
Interest paid on financial debt more than halved, from €135m to €63m, which lifted free cash flow 32.4% to €233m. CIRSA spent €107m on other investing activities, mainly acquisitions, against €182m a year earlier, leaving €126m of free cash flow after M&A, compared with a €6m outflow in the first nine months of 2025.
The company said the proceeds of its July 2025 IPO and a series of bond refinancings have cut annual financial costs by €68m. Net financial expense fell to €113m from €152m in the nine months, and to €103m excluding €9.4m of one-off refinancing costs booked in Q3.
The debt ratio fell from 2.74 times EBITDA in December 2025 to 2.66 times at the end of September, and to 2.59 times pro forma for a full year of acquired EBITDA. CIRSA’s long-term target is 2.0 to 2.5 times.
Lower interest pushed nine-month net profit up 73.6% to €128m, and profit attributable to the parent more than doubled to €92m from €44m. Adjusted net profit, which adds back €74m of purchase-price depreciation, rose 35.9% to €202m, or €1.20 per share against €0.89. CIRSA plans a dividend of up to €100m for 2026, 33% more than for 2025.
How does CIRSA compare with its 2026 guidance?
Through September, CIRSA is ahead of both full-year ranges. Net revenue was up 10.0% to €1.89bn against guidance of 7% to 9.5% growth (€2.5bn to €2.56bn), and adjusted EBITDA rose 9.3% to €599.4m against 6% to 9% (€800m to €820m). The company said it is on track for the top of both.
At constant exchange rates, nine-month growth was 8.7% for revenue and 8.0% for EBITDA. On the company’s figures, the top of the revenue range needs about €672m in the fourth quarter, compared with €628m in Q3. Reported EBITDA for the nine months was €591m after €7.9m of adviser costs for the Lottomatica merger.
What Lottomatica gets
Under the deal announced in September, each CIRSA share will be exchanged for 0.668 new Lottomatica shares, and CIRSA shareholders will own about 32.5% of the combined group, according to the presentation. CIRSA will pay an extraordinary dividend before the merger takes effect. The common draft terms and directors’ reports are on CIRSA’s merger page.
CIRSA describes the combined company as the second-largest listed gaming and sports betting operator in the world, first in Italy and Spain. Italy and Spain would supply 80% of combined EBITDA, and 97% of EBITDA would come from markets where the group ranks first, according to the presentation. The two companies plan up to €4.0bn of distributions to shareholders.
The boards approved the common merger plan in October, according to the Italian news agency Teleborsa. CIRSA shareholders who vote against can exit at €13.20 per share, and the deal requires that withdrawals stay at or below 5% of CIRSA’s shares. Blackstone, CIRSA’s reference shareholder, can name two members of an enlarged 13-seat Lottomatica board. Antitrust filings have been made in Italy, Spain, Mexico and Morocco, along with a foreign subsidies notification to the European Commission. In Italy, the deal comes as the 46 online licensees head into the 2027 test of the online reform.
Next steps
Extraordinary shareholder meetings of both companies are due by the end of November 2026 to approve the merger. Closing is expected in the second quarter of 2027, after regulatory approvals. CIRSA’s 2026 dividend of up to €100m is due by 30 June 2027, according to Teleborsa.
Source: CIRSA
