iGaming licensing in M&A
Your licences set the closing date
Every regulated market treats a new owner as a licensing event. Map them early, brief the right regulator first, and the approvals stop being the thing that holds your deal back.
On this page
Buying or selling across several markets? We run the approvals timetable alongside the buyer process, from the first call.
Change-of-control planner
Which licences does the business hold?
Tick every market. The planner shows which approvals must land before you can close, which follow after, and the one filing that sets your closing date.
Solid bar is the typical fast case, faded bar the typical long case. Tap a market for what triggers the filing. Ranges are modelled from typical reviews; every regulator sets its own clock.
How buyers think about licences
Regulated permissions are where the premium lives
The licence is the asset
In gaming, the licences carry much of the enterprise value. Buyers pay a premium for clean, transferable permissions in regulated markets, and price in the time it takes to keep them.
Approvals set the closing date
Signing can happen on your timetable. Closing happens when the slowest regulator that needs prior approval is satisfied. That one filing is the critical path.
Clean files move fastest
Regulators spend most of their time on ownership charts, source of wealth and the people who will run the business. Prepared files routinely cut weeks off review.
The regulatory workstream
Planned with the deal, not after it
We coordinate licensing counsel in each market so the approvals timetable and the buyer timetable move together from the first conversation.
- 01
Licence map
Every licence, permission and B2B certificate the target holds, who regulates it and what counts as a change of control.
- 02
Regulator briefing
An early, informal conversation with each regulator that needs prior approval, so nothing in the file surprises them.
- 03
Filing packs
Ownership charts, personal disclosures, source-of-wealth evidence and business plans prepared once and adapted per market.
- 04
Signing with conditions
The purchase agreement sets which approvals are conditions to closing and what happens if one runs long.
- 05
Closing and notices
Close when the pre-approvals land, then file the post-completion notices on day one.
Questions
Gaming licences in a sale
Do gaming licences transfer when a company is sold?
In a share sale the licence usually stays with the licensed company, but the change of owner is a regulated event. Depending on the market you need prior approval before closing or must notify and be reviewed after it. An asset sale normally means the buyer applies for a new licence.
How long do iGaming change-of-control approvals take?
Typical reviews run from one to four months per market in Europe and Canada, and longer in some US states. The overall timetable is set by the slowest market that needs approval before closing, so mapping every licence early matters most.
Can a deal close before every regulator approves it?
Often, yes. Markets that review after completion do not hold up closing, and some US states allow interim authorisation or a trust structure. Markets that need prior approval are usually written into the agreement as conditions to closing.
What do regulators look at in a change of control?
Who ultimately owns and controls the business, where the purchase money comes from, whether the new owners and managers are fit and proper, and whether compliance, responsible gambling and anti-money-laundering controls stay in place.
Does Acquiry handle the regulatory filings?
We run the M&A process and coordinate the regulatory workstream with your licensing counsel in each market, so the approvals timetable and the deal timetable are planned together from the first buyer conversation.
Private, under NDA
Bring us the licence map. We’ll plan the route to close.
Operators, B2B suppliers and affiliates in any market, regulated or regulating. Share it privately and we’ll come back with how buyers and regulators will see it.