ZEAL Network said it will take full ownership of SevenCanyon, a UK prize draw operator, in a move that gives the German lottery group a direct entry into the British market. The company invited investors, analysts and journalists to a conference call on Thursday to discuss the acquisition and its plans for the United Kingdom.
ZEAL already held a 3.5% stake in SevenCanyon before agreeing to buy the rest. According to Gaming Intelligence, the deal calls for an initial cash payment of £33.8 million, plus an earn-out of up to £4.8 million.
Some reports put the maximum value of the transaction at £38.6 million once the earn-out is included. iGamingBusiness said the earn-out would be payable within six months after completion.
The purchase will be financed mainly through a new €40 million, seven-year term loan arranged by Deutsche Bank. ZEAL’s finance chief, Andrea Behrendt, said that structure would preserve flexibility for further capital allocation.
ZEAL describes itself as the market leader for online lotteries in Germany, with around 1.5 million active customers and about 300 employees at three locations. Its brands include LOTTO24 and Tipp24, and the company said it is building a broader technology platform through new product lines such as social lotteries and virtual slot games.
SevenCanyon is a UK-based operator of prize draw offerings. The company runs 7days Performance, Redline Competitions and UK Carp Competitions, and its digital formats offer prizes such as cars, houses and lifestyle products.
The business appears to have grown quickly. In the 12 months to 31 March 2025, SevenCanyon posted revenue of about £98.3 million and operating profit of roughly £10.2 million, while other filings cited by InterGame showed revenue up 33.7% from £73.5 million and post-tax profit down 14.2% to £7.2 million.
ZEAL has been open about the strategic logic of the purchase. Chief executive Stefan Tweraser called SevenCanyon one of the most successful prize draw operators in the UK and said the deal would let ZEAL “hit the ground running” in a “highly attractive and growing market”.
The company also said the acquisition would accelerate its strategy of diversifying into new products and new markets. ZEAL’s board expects SevenCanyon to make a meaningful contribution to revenue and EBITDA after consolidation.
The deal lands in a market that reports say is worth about £1.3 billion a year and attracts around 7.4 million adults annually. One report said the sector operates outside the Gambling Commission’s scope, while Gambling Commission guidance says free draws and prize competitions do not need a licence if they meet the Gambling Act 2005.
iGamingBusiness said the Department for Culture, Media and Sport put a voluntary code in place in May. ZEAL also said it expects a move toward more formalised rules to benefit businesses of its scale, and it kept full-year EBITDA guidance at €70 million to €75 million while flagging mid-single-digit millions of euros in transaction costs.
