iGaming Payments M&A Tracker

Nuvei (Advent-owned) → acquires Payoneer

Deal value: $2.75B · Closing expected mid-2027

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.

Sources: Nuvei announcement · Payoneer IR

KORT Payments (led by Paysafe founder Joel Leonoff) → acquires Paysafe's direct-marketing payment processing line (Paysafe Direct)

Deal value: Undisclosed (consideration mostly earnouts over five years) · Closing expected March 2025, no closing announced

Paysafe shedding its riskiest non-gaming merchant book would leave a cleaner risk profile around the iGaming-heavy remainder. Paysafe has never announced a separate closing.

Sources: Paysafe IR

Mastercard → acquires BVNK

Deal value: Up to $1.8B, including $300M in contingent payments

Stablecoin settlement infrastructure moves inside a card network, five months ahead of the year-end guidance. BVNK's crypto-to-fiat rails, used by iGaming-adjacent merchants, now run under bank-grade ownership; whether the high-risk appetite survives Mastercard's registration-program posture is the live question for operators on its payout rail.

Sources: Mastercard announcement · Mastercard completion release

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 gray-market betting geography.

Sources: TechCabal

Flutterwave → acquires Mono (Nigerian open-banking infrastructure)

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.

Sources: Flutterwave (PRNewswire)

Incore Invest → acquires PaymentIQ (divested by Worldline)

Deal value: ~€160M enterprise value

The iGaming industry's default orchestration layer leaves crisis-era Worldline for a payments-focused Swedish owner. Incore is also a backer of Brite Payments, so two A2A assets in the iGaming stack now share an investor.

Sources: Worldline completion · Announcement notice

TrueLayer → acquires Zimpler

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 and the Nordics. Zimpler's Brazilian Pix rail came with the deal, though Brazil closed Pix to betting on September 25, 2026.

Sources: Zimpler announcement · TrueLayer completion

Seven buyers → acquires Worldline's disposal program (MeTS, North America, Cetrel/EDM, New Zealand, the ANZ joint venture, India and CAWL)

Worldline shrank to its core merchant business and expects €590-640M of net proceeds in 2026 from seven disposals. For iGaming cashiers the part that counts is North America, where Worldline's US and Canada merchants moved to Shift4, a sports-betting-capable acquirer through SkyTab and Finaro. PaymentIQ, the program's one iGaming asset, has its own row. Crédit Agricole's buyout of CAWL came on top of the seven.

• BillDesk → acquires Worldline's Indian payment activities

  Announced Feb 25, 2026 · Closed Aug 3, 2026 · Deal value: ~€37M enterprise value

  BillDesk keeps licensing Worldline software under a long-term agreement. India's PROG Act has banned real-money gaming processing since May 2026.

  Sources: Worldline announcement · Worldline completion

• ANZ → acquires Worldline's 51% of ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions (Australia)

  Announced Apr 29, 2026 · Closed Jul 31, 2026 · Deal value: A$89M for the 51% stake (~€107M enterprise value on a 100% basis)

  The Australian merchant-acquiring joint venture went back to the bank and ended Worldline's APAC acquiring footprint. Worldline keeps a transitional technology role.

  Sources: Worldline announcement · Worldline completion

• Crédit Agricole → acquires CAWL (Worldline's French merchant-payments JV, 100%)

  Announced Jun 30, 2026 · Closed Jun 30, 2026

  Announced and closed the same day, outside the seven-disposal guidance. Worldline stays on as CAWL's acceptance-technology supplier.

  Sources: Worldline announcement

• Cuscal → acquires Worldline's New Zealand payment activities

  Announced Apr 14, 2026 · Closed May 29, 2026 · Deal value: ~€17M enterprise value

  Finalized six weeks after the announcement.

  Sources: Worldline announcement · Worldline completion

• SIX → acquires Worldline's Electronic Data Management (ex-Cetrel Securities)

  Announced Nov 6, 2025 · Closed May 4, 2026

  Securities-data services with no payments role for operators.

  Sources: Worldline Capital Markets Day release · Worldline completion

• Shift4 → acquires Worldline's North America activities

  Announced Oct 21, 2025 · Closed Mar 2, 2026 · Deal value: ~€70M enterprise value

  Worldline's US and Canada merchants moved to a sports-betting-capable acquirer, and gaming-capable North American acquiring consolidates into fewer hands.

  Sources: Worldline completion

• Magellan Partners Group → acquires Worldline MeTS (Mobility & e-Transactional Services)

  Announced Jul 29, 2025 · Closed Jun 1, 2026 · Deal value: €400M enterprise value at close

  The biggest piece of the program, with no operator-facing payments.

  Sources: Worldline completion

Global Payments → acquires Worldpay (100%: 55% from GTCR, 45% from FIS)

Deal value: $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. Global Payments closed the deal on January 9 and announced completion on January 12.

Sources: Global Payments IR · SEC 8-K

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.

Sources: Business Wire

Rainbow CE B.V. (vehicle led by Rapyd CEO Arik Shtilman) → acquires PayU's CEE business (Poland, Romania, Czechia, Hungary; incl. the KNF-licensed PayU S.A.)

The missing leg of the GPO sale: carved out of Rapyd's March 2025 closing and bought separately by a vehicle of Rapyd's own CEO, cleared by Poland's UOKiK (decision DKK-106/2025) and closed in November 2025. The BLIK rail Polish licensed bookmakers deposit over now answers to the Shtilman side of the PayU brand, not Prosus.

Sources: UOKiK clearance record · Prosus FY26 reporting

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.

Sources: Sightline (PRNewswire)

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.

Sources: Worldpay

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.

Sources: Banking Circle

Rapyd → acquires PayU GPO, LatAm and Africa perimeter (divested by Prosus)

Deal value: $610M

Nineteen months and seven regulatory approvals after signing, the PayU merchant business across LatAm and Africa is Rapyd's. The 2023 announcement covered CEE too, but that leg was carved out of this closing (Poland's KNF never even received the filing) and sold separately months later; see the Rainbow CE row. Prosus kept PayU India, Southeast Asia and Turkey's iyzico.

Sources: Rapyd completion · Rapyd announcement

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.

Sources: K1

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. Brazil closed Pix and every other payment rail to betting on September 25, 2026.

Sources: Company release (FF News)

TokenEx (K1-backed) → acquires IXOPAY (merger; platform continues as IXOPAY)

The merger that created today's IXOPAY: Austrian payment orchestration combined with US tokenization under K1 as controlling investor.

Sources: K1

Advent International (with Philip Fayer, Novacap, CDPQ rolling over) → acquires Nuvei Corporation (take-private)

Deal value: ~$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). The PE playbook led straight to the 2026 Payoneer deal.

Sources: Nuvei SEC 6-K

Trustly → acquires SlimPay (French SEPA recurring-payments specialist)

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.

Sources: Trustly completion

GTCR → acquires 55% of Worldpay Merchant Solutions (carved out of FIS)

Deal value: $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.

Sources: FIS completion

Brookfield-led consortium → acquires Network International (LSE take-private; parent of DPO Group)

Deal value: £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.

Sources: Closing record (Linklaters)

Parthenon Capital Partners → acquires Global Payments' gaming business, relaunched as Pavilion Payments

Deal value: $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.

Sources: Parthenon closing

Nuvei → acquires Paya Holdings

Deal value: ~$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.

Sources: Deal coverage (Finovate)

Paysafe → acquires SafetyPay (LatAm open banking and eCash)

Deal value: $441M

Together with PagoEfectivo, this made Paysafe the biggest owner of eCash and open-banking rails in LatAm, deposit methods operators run in Peru and Mexico.

Sources: Paysafe completion

Nuvei → acquires Simplex (fiat-to-crypto on-ramp)

Deal value: ~$250M

A crypto on-ramp inside a mainstream iGaming acquirer: crypto deposit options for operators without direct exchange integrations.

Sources: Nuvei SEC 6-K

Paysafe → acquires PagoEfectivo (Peru)

Peru's leading alternative-payments brand for iGaming deposits folded into Paysafe's LatAm arm.

Sources: Paysafe completion (PDF)

Nuvei → acquires Mazooma Technical Services (US gaming-only instant bank transfer)

Deal value: $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.

Sources: Nuvei SEC 6-K

Stripe → acquires Paystack (Nigeria)

The landmark that put Stripe behind Africa's key card and bank collection PSP, the one operators' Nigerian entities actually integrate.

Sources: TechCrunch

Nuvei → acquires Smart2Pay (200+ alternative payment methods)

The base of Nuvei's current APM catalog: local-method breadth across 50+ markets in one buy.

Sources: Completion coverage (FNG)

Network International → acquires DPO Group (Africa's largest online PSP)

Deal value: $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.

Sources: Network International record

Nuvei → acquires SafeCharge International

Deal value: $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.

Sources: Nuvei completion

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.

Sources: Finextra

Nordic Capital → acquires Trustly Group (majority)

Defines Trustly's PE ownership to this day.

Sources: Nordic Capital