Italy has a new retail sports betting giant after Gamenet struck a €265m deal to acquire rival Goldbet.

On Tuesday, Italian media was abuzz with news that publicly listed Gamenet Group Spa had reached a deal to acquire Goldbet for an upfront price of €240m plus up to €25m in top-up payments depending on certain criteria.

Gamenet’s addition of Goldbet’s 990 Italian betting shops will create a combined retail footprint of around 1,700 shops, equaling roughly 21% of the country’s retail sports betting market. The combined entity would also control 7% of Italy’s online betting market and a one-third share of the lucrative virtual betting sector.

Goldbet reported annual earnings of €40m and a net profit of €23m in 2017, and its earnings through the 12 months ending June 30, 2018 are believed to have hit €50m. Gamenet’s annual figures for 2017 featured revenue of €624m and earnings of €82m.