Italian gambling giant Sisal has delivered strong financial results since Flutter Entertainment forged a €1.91bn deal to buy the Milan-based company in December 2021.

Flutter completed the acquisition from private equity owners CVC Capital Partners yesterday (4 August).

Flutter intends to achieve an overall online market share of 20% in Italy, when Sisal revenue is combined with the operator’s Italian-facing PokerStars and Betfair brand operations.

The FTSE 100 operator also said the deal fully aligns with the group’s strategy of investing to build leadership positions in regulated markets globally.

Moreover, the acquisition of the omni-channel provider increased Flutter’s recreational customer base by adding a monthly average of 300,000 online players and over 9.5 million retail customers.

Italy is the second largest regulated gambling market in Europe after the UK, with total estimated gross gaming revenue of €19bn in 2019.

“Sisal has performed strongly since the transaction was announced,” Flutter said.

Sisal, which has a staff count of 2,500, posted revenue of €476.7m, which represents a 58% year-on-year increase for the first half of 2022.

EBITDA climbed 51% to reach €142.3m over the same period.

The transaction has been completed using debt facilities agreed at transaction announcement, bringing Flutter’s expected weighted average cost of debt to approximately 3.4% for H2 2022.

Meanwhile, Flutter’s biggest rival Entain has been linked with a move for Playtech-owned Snaitech as it looks to muscle in on some Italian market share of its own.

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