Allwyn has abandoned its planned acquisition of Novibet after months of pressure from Greece’s competition watchdog. On 4 March, Allwyn said it and Novibet owner Logflex MT Holding had jointly withdrawn the deal from review by the Hellenic Competition Commission after feedback from the regulator, and no longer expected the transaction to go ahead.
The deal had been on the table since 30 December 2024, when Allwyn agreed to buy 51% of Logflex for an initial €217 million, with up to €110 million more tied to performance. At the time, Allwyn said Novibet would bring its own technology stack, more than 1,000 employees and operations in markets like Greece, Brazil, Cyprus, Ireland and Mexico.
Greece had already shown where the case was heading
This did not fall apart overnight. In October 2025, the Hellenic Competition Commission opened an in-depth investigation and laid out why it was worried. The regulator said Allwyn already had a deep position in Greece through OPAP and its subsidiaries, which operate online betting and casino products under the Stoiximan and Pamestoixima brands, while Novibet was active in the same online segments.
The commission’s first view was blunt. It said the combined group was expected to hold more than 70% of both the online betting market and the online casino market, excluding poker, and added that Novibet was an important competitor whose presence had changed the balance of the market. By December, the case had moved to a plenary review after a Statement of Objections that proposed blocking the deal.
Why Novibet mattered to Allwyn
When Allwyn announced the deal, it sold the acquisition as a way to deepen its online betting and gaming capabilities and add more proprietary technology to the group. That fitted with a wider plan to build out digital and gaming assets alongside its lottery business.
By the third quarter of 2025, Allwyn had already put money behind that plan. In its interim report, the company said it had made a €20 million down payment toward the Novibet deal, provided a €10 million loan to Logflex in January 2025, and then extended another €40 million loan in the second quarter. That shows this was a live project inside the group.
Greece was both the prize and the problem
The problem for Allwyn was that Greece was also the market where it was already the strongest. Through OPAP, the group already had a large local presence, and in July 2025 OPAP moved to buy the remaining 15.51% of Stoiximan, taking full ownership of the business. OPAP said that transaction would strengthen its leading position in Greece and Cyprus and sharpen its focus on online sports betting and iGaming.
From the regulator’s point of view, this was not just a company expanding into online. It was the market leader trying to absorb one of the remaining rivals in the same country, in the same niche, while already controlling Stoiximan and Pamestoixima through OPAP. That is why the HCC focused not only on market share, but also on the loss of a competitor which it said had already changed market conditions.
Why the parties walked away
Allwyn’s statement on Tuesday was short, but the key line was that it would only pursue transactions that delivered value for shareholders. The company also said the parties had put forward proposals to the HCC. The regulator had already disclosed in December that Allwyn had offered commitments in response to the competition concerns.
Allwyn did not spell out what those proposals were, and the HCC never issued a final ruling because the parties withdrew first. It is reasonable to infer that any proposal good enough to satisfy the commission would also have weakened the deal too much for Allwyn to keep it alive.
Greece wants a market with fair competition
For Allwyn, the setback does not end its reign over the Greek market. In January, it completed its majority acquisition of PrizePicks, and in February it said the remaining approvals for its business combination with OPAP were progressing as expected.
For Novibet, the outcome is simple, it stays independent. Greece’s regulator has shown that consolidation still has a hard limit when one group already sits too close to the top of the market.
