Chicken Chase

What is Chicken Chase?

Cirsa shareholders will receive 0.668 newly issued Lottomatica shares for each of their shares in Cirsa.

Meanwhile Blackstone, Cirsa’s largest shareholder, is expected to become the largest shareholder of the combined company, maintaining around 24% of the share capital.

The deal is expected to provide around €115 million of pre-tax cash synergies per year from opex and interest cost savings. These synergies are expected to be realised by the third full year following completion.

What is Chicken Chase?

All submissions must also now include an exit plan – a new obligation that applies across the board. This requirement, intended to ensure orderly market withdrawal, marked a move toward embedding long-term risk management into the licensing process.

It requires operators to describe in detail how they will responsibly wind down their operations should their licence not be renewed or be revoked. Or if they decide to leave the market midway through the five years between renewals.

The regulator noted that several operators received “additional points for attention”, indicating that while these applicants met minimum legal thresholds, the KSA expected continuous improvements in compliance practices.

What is Chicken Chase?

“Casinos, junkets, cryptocurrencies and underground banking are the most critical parts of the money laundering infrastructure that fuels international organised crime,” he said at the time. “The global gambling market will reach $205 billion in 2030.”

The government blocked 548,420 illegal betting and gambling websites between 2006 and 2025, including 84,000 in 2025 alone. 

These comments echo a similar sentiment emphasised at the country’s Directorate of Communications panel event on illegal betting and addiction on 10 September. Deputy Minister of Interior Ali Çelik suggested that curbing addiction would lead to a decrease in illegal betting activity.