Another Land-Based Acquisition for Cirsa as It Eyes Portugal Expansion

Cirsa has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Sociedade Figueira Praia, S.A., the company that owns and operates Casino Figueira in Portugal, marking the Spanish gaming giant’s first land-based move in the country. The deal, announced Monday, builds directly on Cirsa’s existing online footprint in Portugal through CasinoPortugal, which it acquired in late 2024.

Casino Figueira sits in the coastal town of Figueira da Foz and has held a gaming license since 1948, making it one of the longest-running casino properties on the Iberian Peninsula. Cirsa said the transaction multiple is consistent with its previous acquisitions and will be funded entirely through existing cash resources, meaning it isn’t expected to have a material impact on the company’s leverage profile.

An Omnichannel Strategy Taking Shape in Portugal

Cirsa framed the Casino Figueira purchase as fully aligned with its omnichannel approach — pairing physical casino operations with its online sports betting and iGaming business under one roof in a single market. That’s the same playbook the company has already run in Spain, where its Sportium brand and land-based casinos operate alongside one another, and increasingly in Latin America.

The Portugal push started in earnest in December 2024, when Cirsa completed its purchase of a 68 percent stake in CasinoPortugal, one of the country’s leading online operators since its 2017 launch. CasinoPortugal posted gross gaming revenue north of €15 million in 2024, and Portugal’s broader regulated betting and iGaming market has been one of the fastest-growing in Europe, with quarterly revenue climbing 24 percent year-over-year to a record €266.3 million in the third quarter of 2024 alone.

Part of a Broader Global Expansion Pattern

Casino Figueira is the latest in a string of acquisitions for Cirsa, which has been aggressively diversifying beyond its home Spanish market — still roughly half of group EBITDA — into Latin America and now Southern Europe. The company bought a 70 percent stake in Peru’s Apuesta Total in mid-2024, giving it a foothold in one of Latin America’s newly regulated betting markets, before turning its attention to Portugal months later.

Founded in 1978 by Manuel Lao Hernández and owned by Blackstone since 2018, Cirsa now operates hundreds of casinos and tens of thousands of gaming machines across 11 regulated markets. The company went public on the Bolsa de Madrid in July 2025 and posted record 2024 revenue of €2.15 billion, with online sports betting and gaming revenue up more than 54 percent year-over-year — a growth engine the company clearly intends to keep feeding through deals like this one.

By pairing a historic land-based property with its established online brand, Cirsa is positioning itself to capture both sides of the Portuguese betting and casino market as the sector continues its rapid expansion. Bettors who follow the broader social casinos and international gaming space can expect Cirsa’s cross-border M&A activity to remain a storyline worth watching as European gambling markets continue to mature and consolidate.