The name of the local company – and therefore of the signs that will appear in the approximately one thousand points of sale envisaged – is still being defined, but Sisal is already working to land operationally on the Tunisian market starting from January 2023, after having been awarded in recent days. the tender for the management of games in the country, promoted by the Tunisian government through the subsidiary Promosport.
The entry into Tunisia (a potential market of 50 million euros a year) marks a further, important step in the internationalization strategy launched in 2017 by the Italian group which, with 683.8 million euros in revenues in 2021 and over 2,500 employees, is one of the main international operators in the regulated gaming sector. Founded in 1946 by three sports journalists who invented the “Sisal ticket” to help rebuild the stadiums destroyed by the Second World War (since 1948 evolved into the famous Totocalcio), the company has been part of Flutter since last August Entertainment, one of the largest online gaming and betting operators in the world, headquartered in Ireland and listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The acquisition by Flutter has accelerated the path of strengthening on foreign markets with high growth potential, such as Tunisia, where today there is no regulated gaming market, even if in fact many activities of gaming they are practiced by a part of the population. Hence the interest of the Tunisian government to regulate a phenomenon that is now underway, by putting out to tender a ten-year concession for all segments: sports betting, numeric games, instant lotteries and online games. Race won by Sisal, which overcame the competition of some of the main world players in the sector, including the Greeks of Intralot and the Americans of Sgi. “This is a very important result for us, first of all for the duration of the concession and secondly because it will allow us to develop a complete range of products in an area with high development potential”, explains Marco Caccavale, International managing director of Sisal. Sisal’s commitment to responsible gaming also played an important role in the award, an aspect that Caccavale is very keen to do: “The approach is to empower our customers, protecting people at risk, both in the formulation of games, both in their communication and marketing – specifies the manager -. For example, in online activities we put a ceiling on the value of the bets and limit the time that can be spent playing ». Approach developed in Italy, but which the group obviously also brings to foreign markets.
The first to enter the Sisal orbit was Morocco, where the group won the competition for the management of the national lottery in 2018: in 2019 it founded Sisal Maroc, based in Casablanca, and today has about 50 employees and 1,700 points sale in the country. Currently, it is also in the running to win the sports games concession, which will be awarded in a few weeks. “With the lottery we have achieved important results, but the greatest growth potential in this country is above all in the new online segments and in sport,” says Caccavale, specifying that Sisal is investing heavily in innovation and digitization. In 2019 the group entered the Spanish market by acquiring the licenses for online betting and casino & slots. In 2020 he also won a tender in Turkey where, in partnership with a local operator (of the Demirören group), he founded Sisal Şans, with which he manages and develops an articulated product portfolio consisting of lotteries, instant and non-instant, distributed through a network. retail of over 9 thousand points of sale and on the online channel. Here too, in line with the internationalization strategy, a local team has been set up, which now numbers over one hundred people.
Last year Sisal’s international segment reached 111.8 million euros (for over 100 million generated in Turkey), equal to 16.35% of total revenues, with a growth of 117% compared to 2020. And not it ended here: «With the arrival of Flutter we have entered a new era – explains Caccavale -. We will continue our expansion program, relying on more resources, but the strategy remains the same: we constantly monitor all the countries where there are expiring concessions or upcoming tenders, because we specialize precisely in this segment. For example, a call is expected shortly in South Africa and we are considering whether to take part in it. We look at the whole world ».