The Italy Lotto has renewed its contract with the LottoItalia consortium, a group of four companies including both international and domestic players.

Brightstar Lottery leads the consortium, which also counts Swiss-based international lottery group Allwyn and local firms Arianna 2001 and Novomatic Italia as members.

The new contract will last for nine years, running until 2034. Lotto Italia had first named the LottoItalia consortium as its operating partner in July this year, but has been working with Brightstar for over three decades.

The deal also comes shortly after the launch of Italy’s new gaming market, with 46 companies holding 52 licences for different online betting and gaming sites. The market is shaping up to be a particularly lucrative one for various international and local firms.

Renato Ascoli, CEO of Global Lottery at Brightstar, said: “We are delighted to finalize our agreement with ADM and honored to continue being entrusted to operate Italy Lotto, one of the world’s largest lotteries.

“We look forward to driving Lotto wager growth with new player touchpoints and digitization of the retail experience, growing iLottery sales, and providing iCasino, sports betting, and other digital games to players in Italy.”

Brightstar gets a year-end boost

The deal comes with just under two months left at the end of what has been a very active and significant year for Brightstar. The firm underwent a huge transformation early this year, adopting a new structure and name.

Originally known as International Game Technology (IGT), Brightstar adopted its new name after divesting its Gaming and Digital division to global hedge fund Apollo Global Management. This business continues to operate as IGT.

Under its new identity, Brightstar has been focusing on lotteries only, and the Rhode Island enterprise has secured renewals of deals from its IGT days such as with the Texas Lottery – via a partnership with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) last week – and now with the Italy Lotto.

The deal, which should reap millions in revenue, is a huge boost for Brightstar as it looks to start 2026 on a high note and continue to solidify its status in the global lottery solutions sector, a competitive space where it finds itself going up against the likes of Intralot and others.

Allwyn’s all guns blazing

Another significant stakeholder in the LottoItalia consortium is, of course, Allwyn. The Swiss-based, Czech-founded company has, like Brightstar, had a huge year, having closed one of its most significant acquisitions in American daily fantasy sports (DFS) platform PrizePicks.

It has also been a tricky one for the firm in other regards, however. Its management of the UK National Lottery has been going fairly smoothly, but is also facing a legal challenge from former lottery licence contender Richard Desmond.

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) is also initiating enforcement action against the company due to the technological upgrade conditions of the licence not being met on time. This process also saw some complaints from retailers during the transition, though more positive reports came in later on.

Allwyn’s Q2 revenue this year came in at €2.27bn, up 6% on €2.15bn the year prior. Leadership is likely confident that ownership of PrizePick in the US and management of National Lotteries in the UK, Czech Republic and now Italy, should secure a solid revenue stream to drive similar results next year.