Cirsa Snaps Up Slots del Sol Stake in Paraguay — and the Play Is Bigger Than Two Casinos

Key Points

• Cirsa has taken a majority stake in Slots del Sol, its first move into Paraguay’s newly opened gambling market.
• Paraguay’s gambling sector posted a record PYG215.9bn in 2025, a 22.9% rise year-on-year, after the state monopoly was scrapped.
• The acquisition is cash-funded and lands after Cirsa’s €500m bond placement and a record Q1 2026 net operating revenue of €623m.

Cirsa Enters Paraguay With Slots del Sol Stake, Seventh LatAm Market in Its Sights

Cirsa confirmed on 13 July 2026 that it had acquired a majority stake in Paraguayan operator Slots del Sol. The financial terms were not disclosed. Cirsa did say the valuation multiple mirrors those from its prior transactions, with the purchase covered entirely by cash on hand. Slots del Sol brings the online casino at slotsdelsolonline.com, two casinos, and two gaming halls, landing Cirsa a simultaneous presence across both digital and physical gambling in Paraguay from day one.

Paraguay: Record Revenue, No Longer a Monopoly

Paraguay’s parliament passed Law No 7348/2025 in May 2025, dismantling the state gambling monopoly and clearing the path for private operators. The market responded fast. Gambling revenue for the full year landed at PYG215.9bn ($32.6m), the highest number the country had ever recorded, and 22.9% ahead of 2024’s PYG175.8bn. Conajzar president Carlos Liseras had read the opportunity before the ink dried: “In addition to the fact that Paraguay has a law on the demonopolisation of gambling, the tax burden is the lowest in the region and Paraguay has become an important country for visiting.”

Legal reform, record revenues, and the region’s lightest tax load; those three factors stacked up squarely behind Cirsa’s rationale. The company pointed to Paraguay as a market with “a stable and growing economy with sustained development within a fully stable gaming regulation.”

What the Deal Does for Cirsa?

Paraguay is now the seventh country in Latin America to appear on the list of markets that operate under Cirsa. By the end of March 2026, the company had 176 casinos in Latin America; 78 casinos in Colombia, 36 casinos in Panama, 30 casinos in Mexico, 19 casinos in Peru, seven casinos in Costa Rica, and six casinos in the Dominican Republic.

Slots del Sol’s omnichannel setup mattered as much as the market itself. Cirsa has been leaning heavily on its digital business to lift margins, and acquiring an operator that already bridges online and retail removes a significant chunk of integration overhead.

CEO Antonio Hostench did not hold back on the target: “Slots del Sol has demonstrated exceptional performance, with outstanding capabilities in online operations. We are delighted to partner with its founding shareholders and are confident that we will be able to combine our global experience and best-in-class capabilities with their local knowledge and expertise to drive future growth. The transaction will contribute to improving the margins of our online gaming business.” Executive chairman Joaquim Agut kept his focus on the geography: “Paraguay represents an attractive and highly stable regulated market, with strong fundamentals, and Slots del Sol provides us with a leading platform from which to continue expanding our online capabilities in the region.”

The Financial Picture Around This Deal

The acquisition lands in the middle of a sharp run of financial activity. Cirsa completed an issuance of senior secured notes worth €500m on 8 July 2026, which was mainly used to repay a maturing €375m bond that would have come due in 2028. Demand was so high that it exceeded the available amount. According to Cirsa, the transaction reduced their funding costs by 325 basis points and extended their average maturity by six years.

Behind that sat a first quarter that the company will not want to downplay. Net operating revenue reached a record €623m, up 8% on the year before, and EBITDA rose 8.5% to €193.9m, while net financial debt fell from €2.64bn to €2.05bn across the same period. Cirsa confirmed the Slots del Sol purchase will not put material pressure on its leverage position, with Q2 2026 results due 30 July.

Over 130 Deals and Now Listed: Cirsa’s M&A Machine

Cirsa has been here before, more than 130 times since 2015. Previous deals brought in Peru’s Apuesta Total and CasinoPortugal, landing in January 2025 as the group moved into the Portuguese iGaming market. The July 2025 listing on Spanish stock exchanges targeted a market valuation of €2.5bn and raised €400m in new equity, built specifically to keep that acquisition pace going.

Slots del Sol pushes that run somewhere Cirsa had not been before, geographically and strategically. Paraguay was a blank space on the group’s map; it now holds a platform with live digital infrastructure, local market knowledge, and customers already through the door.

Expert Analysis

Cirsa is not acquiring it for the sake of adding a flag to the map. The Slots del Sol deal is built around online margin lift, not volume alone. Paraguay’s newly privatised market carries the lowest gambling tax burden in the region, which gives Cirsa room to work on Slots del Sol’s omnichannel base without absorbing a punishing cost structure. The timing holds up under scrutiny; the group just refinanced its balance sheet via a €500m bond, posted record Q1 revenue, and is sitting on falling leverage. Walking into Paraguay from that position is the tidiest execution of the M&A playbook Cirsa has been running for a decade. The real test comes when Paraguay’s record 2025 revenues meet a fully competitive market.