ZEAL Network SE has signed a share purchase agreement to acquire the remaining 96.5% of shares in UK digital prize draw operator SevenCanyon Limited for up to £38.6 million, giving the Hamburg-based online lottery broker immediate access to a £1.3 billion market that sits outside the Gambling Commission’s remit but is moving steadily toward formalised standards.
The deal is structured as an initial cash payment of approximately £33.8 million, subject to post-completion adjustments including one for vehicle inventory, with an earn-out of up to £4.8 million payable over six months after completion. ZEAL already held a 3.5% stake in SevenCanyon and is financing the full acquisition through a €40 million, seven-year term loan arranged by Deutsche Bank.
SevenCanyon operates several UK digital prize draw platforms – 7days Performance, Redline Competitions, and UK Carp Competitions – offering non-cash prizes including houses, cars, and lifestyle products. The company generated EBITDA of more than £10 million in its most recent financial year, covering April 2025 to March 2026, according to ZEAL.
ZEAL chief executive Dr Stefan Tweraser said: “SevenCanyon is one of the most successful prize draw operators in the UK – we have known them for years. With the acquisition, we hit the ground running in a highly attractive and growing market. We also accelerate the implementation of our strategy to selectively diversify our business model through new products and new markets.”
Chief financial officer Andrea Behrendt described SevenCanyon as a highly profitable business with a proven model, adding that financing the deal primarily through a new loan preserves ZEAL’s financial flexibility for future capital allocation. ZEAL forecasts a positive EBITDA contribution in the high single-digit millions of euros in the first full financial year after completion and has kept its group EBITDA guidance unchanged at €70–75 million for 2026, assuming a normal jackpot environment in Germany.
A Sector Attracting Institutional Capital
ZEAL’s move is the third significant institutional play in the UK prize draw space within nine months. Jumbo Interactive completed its acquisition of Dream Car Giveaways on 14 October 2025 for an enterprise value of £53.9 million, then followed with the purchase of US operator Dream Giveaway for US$55.4 million two weeks later. Winvia Entertainment, majority owned by Playtech founder Teddy Sagi, floated on AIM in the second half of 2025, raising £40 million gross to fund a roll-up strategy in the same vertical.
The sector is estimated to involve 7.4 million adult participants annually and generated roughly £1.3 billion in revenue in 2025. An estimated 61.4% market share sits with Omaze, according to a London Economics report commissioned by DCMS and published in June 2025, with Best of the Best – now part of Winvia – holding 4.7%.
Regulatory Posture and the DCMS Voluntary Code
UK prize draws operate outside the Gambling Act 2005 and therefore require no Gambling Commission licence. DCMS published a voluntary code of practice for the sector in November 2025; it came into effect on 20 May 2026 and had already attracted more than 100 signatories – including Omaze, BOTB, and Raffle House – by that date. The code requires proper age verification, player spending limits, and a cap on credit card payments of £250 per month. The government did not opt to bring the sector within the Gambling Act.
ZEAL argues that rising compliance expectations favour operators with a regulated background, citing its experience in the German lottery market. The position is commercially credible: as the voluntary code matures, operators without established compliance infrastructure face mounting operational risk, even in the absence of formal licensing obligations.
Source: European Gaming
Petra Vanhoof has spent the better part of a decade following the shifting tides of gambling regulation across Europe and beyond. She came up through the compliance side of the industry before pivoting to writing, which gives her a grounded, no-nonsense perspective on the rules, loopholes, and political maneuvering that shape how operators actually do business. She is particularly drawn to the gap between what regulators say and what the market ends up doing in response.