iGaming Payment Solutions
iGaming Payments M&A Tracker
Payment providers serving gambling keep changing hands, and every control change eventually reaches the cashier: risk appetite, contracts, roadmaps and licenses all move with the owner. This tracker keeps the verified record in one place, with the discipline the trade press skips: a signed deal is not a closed deal, and each row cites the parties' own announcements and filings. Deal-driven changes flow into the affected provider reviews the same day a row moves.
Read the sections as states, not just years. Signed-not-closed deals are plans with regulatory homework outstanding; they belong in your vendor-risk file, not your integration roadmap. Closed deals are new facts about who your counterparty answers to. The landmark section holds older transactions because ownership chains compound: understanding who owns a brand today usually takes two or three hops back.
The one-line "what it means" on each row is our read for operators, not the deal parties' framing. For how ownership interacts with licensing, the register-audit series is the companion: a control change is precisely when a license claim is most likely to go stale, in either direction.
- Deals tracked
- 36
- Signed, not closed
- 5
- Closed 2024-2026
- 19
- 2026 deals with disclosed value
- 9
Signed, not closed
Announced deals still waiting on regulatory approvals or closing conditions. A signed deal changes nothing at the cashier yet; these rows move down only when a closing is confirmed by a primary source.
- AcquisitionPending: closing expected mid-2027
Nuvei (Advent-owned) acquires Payoneer ($2.75B)
The biggest iGaming-focused PSP adds cross-border payouts and multicurrency accounts in 150+ countries; affiliate and partner payout rails converge with operator processing. $7.40 per share in cash, agreement dated June 12.
- DivestiturePending: closing proposed, timing not fixed
Cuscal acquires Worldline's New Zealand payment activities
Another piece of Worldline's seven-perimeter shrink-to-core program. Not operator-facing for iGaming, but the program explains the posture of a catalog acquirer mid-restructuring.
- AcquisitionPending: closing expected late 2026
Mastercard acquires BVNK (Up to $1.8B (price per CNBC; Mastercard's release omits it))
Stablecoin settlement infrastructure moves inside a card network. BVNK's crypto-to-fiat rails, used by iGaming-adjacent merchants, get bank-grade ownership; what happens to its high-risk appetite under Mastercard is the question operators should ask.
- DivestiturePending: closing expected H2 2026
BillDesk acquires Worldline's Indian payment activities (~€60M estimated equity value at closing)
Worldline exits India processing with a long-term software supply agreement attached. Little direct iGaming relevance (India's PROG Act bans real-money processing from May 2026), but it completes the Worldline ownership picture.
- DivestiturePending: closing was expected March 2025; completion never separately confirmed
KORT Payments (led by Paysafe founder Joel Leonoff) acquires Paysafe's direct-marketing payment processing line (Paysafe Direct) (Undisclosed (consideration mostly earnouts over five years))
Paysafe shedding its riskiest non-gaming merchant book would leave a cleaner risk profile around the iGaming-heavy remainder. We keep this row pending because no closing was ever separately announced; presumed done, unproven.
Closed in 2026
Completed control changes, newest first. Each one already changed who your contract is really with.
- AcquisitionClosed Jan 2026
Paystack (Stripe subsidiary) acquires Ladder Microfinance Bank (Nigeria), rebranded Paystack MFB
Paystack picks up a Nigerian banking license (deposits and lending), deepening local-rail control in a key grey-market betting geography. Sourcing caveat: reported by TechCabal with Paystack's COO on record; neither Stripe nor Paystack has issued a release.
- AcquisitionClosed Jan 2026
Flutterwave acquires Mono (Nigerian open-banking infrastructure) ($25-40M all-stock (reported))
Account-to-account and bank-data rails folded into Africa's biggest PSP, strengthening pay-by-bank options for operators taking NGN and KES volume.
- DivestitureClosed Mar 2, 2026
Incore Invest acquires PaymentIQ (divested by Worldline) (~€160M enterprise value)
The iGaming industry's default orchestration layer leaves crisis-era Worldline for a payments-focused Swedish owner. Cross-reference worth knowing: Incore is also a backer of Brite Payments, so two catalog-adjacent A2A assets now share an investor.
- AcquisitionClosed Mar 3, 2026
TrueLayer acquires Zimpler
Two catalog brands merge: the UK's open-banking payments leader absorbs the Nordic iGaming pay-by-bank specialist, closing after Swedish FSA change-of-control approval. One Pay by Bank network now spans the UK, the Nordics and Zimpler's Brazilian Pix rail.
- DivestitureClosed Mar 2, 2026
Shift4 acquires Worldline's North America activities (~€70M enterprise value)
Worldline's US and Canada merchants move to Shift4, itself a sports-betting-capable acquirer through its SkyTab and Finaro stack. Gaming-capable North American acquiring keeps consolidating into fewer hands.
- DivestitureClosed Jun 1, 2026
Magellan Partners Group acquires Worldline MeTS (Mobility & e-Transactional Services) (€400M enterprise value at close)
Not operator-facing payments; on the tracker because it is the biggest piece of Worldline's shrink-to-core program (about €590-640M guided proceeds across seven disposals), the context behind every other Worldline row here.
- AcquisitionClosed Jan 9, 2026
Global Payments acquires Worldpay (100%: 55% from GTCR, 45% from FIS) ($24.25B)
The largest gaming-capable acquirer changes hands for the third time in seven years and lands inside a pure-play merchant-solutions company; Global Payments simultaneously sold its Issuer Solutions to FIS for $13.5B. Legally closed January 9 per the SEC filing; the completion releases ran January 12.
Closed in 2025
The consolidation year that set up 2026: platform roll-ups and gaming-payments specialists changing hands.
- AcquisitionClosed Jul 2025
Pavilion Payments (Parthenon-owned) acquires CasinoSoft (Title 31/AML compliance software, 90+ US casinos)
Casino payments and casino compliance software under one roof: Pavilion adds automated CTR, SAR, W-2G and jackpot reporting to the VIP Preferred network, a one-stop stack for US land-based and iGaming operators.
- Majority stakeClosed Feb 2025
Existing shareholders (Cannae, NRT Technology, Genting and others) acquires Sightline Payments (recapitalization; board reconstituted)
Not a sale: a management and shareholder-led recommitment. The control fact is the board: NRT Technology's John Dominelli became first executive chairman, pointing the Play+ ecosystem harder at land-based casino cage integration.
- AcquisitionClosed Q1 2025
Worldpay acquires Ravelin (AI fraud prevention, London)
An in-house AI fraud stack for Worldpay merchants, covering the bonus-abuse and chargeback-control ground iGaming operators otherwise buy from standalone vendors.
- AcquisitionClosed Aug 2025
Banking Circle (EQT-owned) acquires Australian Settlements Limited (ASL)
Banking Circle picks up an Australian ADI license with NPP, PayID and PayTo access: local rails in a market where offshore wagering payments are heavily policed. Agreement signed December 2024, completed August 2025.
- DivestitureClosed Mar 14, 2025
Rapyd acquires PayU GPO (Prosus's global payments organization: LatAm, CEE, Africa) ($610M)
Nineteen months and seven regulatory approvals after signing, the PayU merchant business across roughly 30 countries is Rapyd's. Read your contracts accordingly: the LatAm and Africa rails sold under the PayU name now answer to Rapyd, while the PayU brand remaining with Prosus is India-only.
Closed in 2024
The take-private wave and the first Brazil-driven deals.
- AcquisitionClosed Dec 2024
IXOPAY (K1-backed) acquires Aperia Compliance (PCI DSS validation and risk)
PCI compliance tooling added to the orchestration-plus-tokenization platform that multi-PSP operators route through; the second bolt-on of K1's platform build.
- AcquisitionClosed Dec 19, 2024
PayRetailers acquires Transfeera (Brazilian authorized payment institution)
The LatAm iGaming PSP buys itself direct Pix access and a BCB-authorized captive: after CADE and Central Bank approvals, the group's Brazilian instant-payment rail runs on Transfeera's license, the structure our BCB register audit maps in detail.
- Majority stakeClosed 2024
TokenEx (K1-backed) acquires IXOPAY (merger; platform continues as IXOPAY)
The merger that created the IXOPAY in our catalog today: Austrian payment orchestration combined with US tokenization under K1 as controlling investor.
- Take-privateClosed Nov 15, 2024
Advent International (with Philip Fayer, Novacap, CDPQ rolling over) acquires Nuvei Corporation (take-private) (~$6.3B enterprise value ($34.00/share))
The biggest iGaming-focused PSP leaves public markets, and with it goes the annual disclosure everyone quoted (its 48-state licensing figure froze at the 2023 filing, as our US register audit documents). The PE playbook led straight to the 2026 Payoneer deal.
- AcquisitionClosed Jan 11, 2024
Trustly acquires SlimPay (French SEPA recurring-payments specialist) (~€70M (reported))
SEPA recurring mandates added to Trustly's A2A stack after French ACPR approval; the subscription-style rails matter for EU deposit-limit and installment use cases.
- Majority stakeClosed Jan 31, 2024
GTCR acquires 55% of Worldpay Merchant Solutions (carved out of FIS) ($18.5B enterprise value)
The carve-out that re-created standalone Worldpay after the FIS years, with FIS keeping a non-controlling 45%. Two years later GTCR sold the whole thing to Global Payments; this row is the hop in the ownership chain that explains the 2026 deal.
- Take-privateClosed Sep 17, 2024
Brookfield-led consortium acquires Network International (LSE take-private; parent of DPO Group) (£2.2B)
Control of DPO Group's parent changed hands: Africa's biggest online PSP for gambling operators now sits inside a Brookfield structure, combined with Magnati post-close.
Earlier landmark deals (2018-2023)
Older transactions kept because they explain who owns whom today: the ownership chains behind current brands trace back through these.
- DivestitureClosed Apr 3, 2023
Parthenon Capital Partners acquires Global Payments' gaming business, relaunched as Pavilion Payments ($415M)
The deal that created Pavilion as an independent gaming-payments pure play: the VIP Preferred e-check network and casino cage business spun out of Global Payments. Three years later Global Payments bought Worldpay; the gaming unit it sold became the US default rail.
- AcquisitionClosed Feb 22, 2023
Nuvei acquires Paya Holdings (~$1.3B ($9.75/share))
US ACH and integrated-payments scale for Nuvei, underpinning the pay-by-bank half of its US iGaming stack. Notably, Paya's own name has since vanished from state gaming registers; the footprint lives on Nuvei entities.
- AcquisitionClosed Jan 31, 2022
Paysafe acquires SafetyPay (LatAm open banking and eCash) ($441M)
Together with PagoEfectivo, this made Paysafe the biggest owner of eCash and open-banking rails in LatAm, deposit methods operators actually run in Peru, Brazil and Mexico.
- AcquisitionClosed H2 2021
Nuvei acquires Simplex (fiat-to-crypto on-ramp) (~$250M)
A crypto on-ramp inside a mainstream iGaming acquirer: crypto deposit options for operators without direct exchange integrations.
- AcquisitionClosed Sep 1, 2021
Paysafe acquires PagoEfectivo (Peru)
Peru's leading alternative-payments brand for iGaming deposits folded into Paysafe's LatAm arm.
- AcquisitionClosed Aug 3, 2021
Nuvei acquires Mazooma Technical Services (US gaming-only instant bank transfer) ($54.5M)
A pure iGaming asset: instant bank pay-ins and payouts for US operators, the core of Nuvei's US gaming rails. The name still surfaces in registers: New Jersey lists Nuvei US LLC under the trade name Mazooma to this day.
- AcquisitionClosed 2020
Stripe acquires Paystack (Nigeria) (>$200M (reported))
The landmark that put Stripe behind Africa's key card and bank collection PSP, the one operators' Nigerian entities actually integrate.
- AcquisitionClosed Nov 2020
Nuvei acquires Smart2Pay (200+ alternative payment methods)
The base of Nuvei's current APM catalog: local-method breadth across 50+ markets in one buy.
- AcquisitionClosed Sep 2021
Network International acquires DPO Group (Africa's largest online PSP) ($291.3M)
DPO's pan-African operator coverage moved under Network International, which itself went to Brookfield in 2024: two hops that define who owns the rails behind African gambling payments today.
- AcquisitionClosed Aug 2019
Nuvei acquires SafeCharge International ($889M)
The deal that created modern Nuvei: SafeCharge was the original iGaming acquirer-gateway, and its book is the reason a Canadian processor became the vertical's biggest PSP.
- AcquisitionClosed 2019
Investor group coordinated by CORDET Capital Partners acquires Secure Trading Group, rebranded Trust Payments
The ownership event that defines Trust Payments today: gateway, acquiring and the US gaming operation continued under the new brand and CORDET's sponsorship.
- Majority stakeClosed 2018
Nordic Capital acquires Trustly Group (majority) (~€700M (reported))
Defines Trustly's PE ownership to this day, and the context for the exit explorations reported since 2024 (see the watch list).
Watch list: reported talks, not transactions
Sale processes and explorations reported by wire-grade sources. Nothing here is a deal until the parties say so; items graduate to the tracker only on a primary-source announcement.
Trustly: sale or US IPO explored
Nordic Capital was reported exploring options for Trustly in October 2024, with a value around $10B discussed. No transaction has followed as of July 2026; the 2018 majority stake still defines ownership.
Bloomberg, Oct 2024Banking Circle: EQT sale process
EQT was reported exploring a sale from late 2024, with $3-4B discussed and advisers mandated. No outcome announced; the company kept building (the Australian ASL acquisition closed August 2025).
Bloomberg, Dec 2024Paysafe: weighing a sale
Reported in February 2025 to be working with an adviser after takeover interest, alongside non-core disposals (the KORT divestiture fits that pattern). No transaction as of July 2026.
Bloomberg, Feb 2025Worldline: capital rebuild, PE interest
Early-stage private-equity interest was reported through 2024-2025. In March 2026 Bpifrance, Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas subscribed a ~€108M reserved capital increase, the first step of a contemplated ~€500M raise: a French-institutional anchor forming, not a control change yet.
Worldline, Mar 2026How we maintain this
Every row is verified against primary sources before it earns a place: the parties' own press releases (both sides where both published), stock-exchange and SEC filings, and regulator merger approvals. Deal values appear only as disclosed; where the parties said nothing, the row says undisclosed rather than repeating a number some outlet guessed.
The pending and closed sections are a hard boundary. A row moves down only when a closing is confirmed by a primary source, never on an expected date arriving, because expected closings slip. When a row moves, the affected provider reviews get updated in the same pass, which is the tracker's second job: it is the event feed behind the event-driven update layer our editorial policy promises.
Spot a deal we are missing, or a closing we have not caught? Tell us with a link to the parties' announcement; that is the fastest way onto the page. Errors, once published, go to the public corrections log.
FAQ
The headline 2026 moves: Global Payments completed its acquisition of Worldpay, TrueLayer completed its acquisition of Zimpler, and PaymentIQ moved from Worldline to new ownership. The biggest signed-but-not-closed deal is Nuvei's $2.75B agreement to acquire Payoneer, expected to close in 2027. The tracker above carries the full verified list with dates and sources.
Control changes move four things operators price in: risk appetite (a new owner can exit gambling verticals or double down), contract counterparty (the entity on your agreement may be merged or renamed), roadmap (integrations and local-method expansion follow the new owner's strategy), and compliance posture (licenses do not always transfer automatically; our register audits catch the gaps). A deal announcement is the earliest signal to re-check all four.
Announced and signed mean the parties agreed; the deal still needs regulatory approvals and closing conditions, which take months and sometimes fail. Closed means ownership actually changed. The tracker keeps the two states in separate sections and never describes a signed deal as done, because operators have been burned by planning around deals that later collapsed or dragged.
Every row is verified against primary sources: the parties' own press releases, stock-exchange and SEC filings, and regulator merger approvals. Rows move from pending to closed only when a closing is confirmed by a primary source, and each move updates the affected provider reviews the same day. Corrections, if we get a deal wrong, go to the public corrections log under our editorial policy.
Who owns your PSP is half the story
What they may legally do is the other half. The register-audit series checks license claims against the regulators' own files.