Brightstar Extends Its Central System Contract With Spain's ONCE but Discloses No Term or Value

Brightstar Lottery has renewed the technology contract behind the lottery of Spain's national organisation of the blind, a relationship that dates back to 2002. The release calls it multi-year and stops there: no end date, no value, and a scope limited to software and the central system.

• Brightstar Lottery has signed a multi-year contract extension with the Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE), according to its release of 22 October 2026
• The scope is software enhancements and the continuing evolution of ONCE's central gaming system; the length and value of the extension are not disclosed
• Brightstar, the former lottery business of International Game Technology, has supplied ONCE's lottery technology since 2002 and also prints some of its instant tickets under a 2024 contract
• ONCE is one of two operators Spanish law allows to run state-wide lotteries, and its GGR rose 2.84% to €1,288.9 million in 2025 while SELAE's fell, according to the regulator's annual report as reported by trade press
• It is Brightstar's third announcement this month, after a Pan Am licensing deal and a two-year New York Lottery extension, before third-quarter results on 10 November

A 24-Year Supplier Relationship Renewed on Undisclosed Terms

Brightstar Lottery PLC, listed on the New York Stock Exchange as BRSL, said on 22 October that its subsidiary Brightstar Global Solutions Corporation will "continue to support ONCE's lottery operations in Spain through software enhancements and the continuing evolution of its central gaming system". The release gives no term, value or end date, and does not mention retail terminals or online play.

Virginia Castellano, ONCE's Deputy Director General for Organisation, Talent and Resources, called Brightstar "the right partner" for operations that she said fund services for people with severe visual impairments and other disabilities. Marco Tasso, Brightstar's Chief Operating Officer of Global Lottery, said the company was "honored to serve" them.

The relationship predates the Brightstar name. The company was International Game Technology PLC until it sold its gaming and digital business to an Apollo-owned holding company, which combined it with Everi; the lottery business took the Brightstar name in June 2025. In July 2024, IGT called itself ONCE's "longtime, trusted supplier" of central system and software maintenance services when it signed a five-year contract, running through 2029, to print a portion of ONCE's new instant tickets, resuming a supply it had previously provided.

Spain's Smaller but Growing Lottery Operator

Spain's 2011 Gambling Act reserves state-wide lotteries to the state-owned Sociedad Estatal Loterías y Apuestas del Estado (SELAE) and to ONCE, a social institution since 1938. Their lotteries generated €5,171.8 million of GGR in 2025, down 5.17%, out of a Spanish market of €8,080 million, according to the annual report of the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ), as analysed by AZARplus and reported by Gambling Insider. ONCE's GGR rose 2.84% to €1,288.9 million, led by its traditional cupón at €712.4 million, instant tickets at €334.8 million and active games at €241.7 million, while SELAE's lottery GGR fell from €4,072.7 million to €3,749.9 million. The online market has been growing faster than either.

A Renewal Without Numbers Tells Investors Little

A central system extension is the most valuable kind of renewal for a supplier: it keeps the incumbent's software at the core of the customer's operation, which tends to make later add-ons easier to win. But this release offers no way to size it, and investors have had more detail on Brightstar's financing, such as its buyback of €342m of notes in September, than on this contract. Its other October deals were specific: the New York extension runs two years and the Pan Am licence five. New York's length has an obvious explanation. The New York State Gaming Commission issued a request for proposals for a Lottery Operations and Services Partner in February, with an anticipated contract start of 6 August 2028, so the extension appears to carry the current arrangement towards that date.

ONCE Is the Spanish Lottery Customer Worth Keeping

ONCE is far smaller than SELAE, but in 2025 it was the one growing, and instant tickets, where Brightstar already prints a share, were part of that growth. Holding the central system and part of the instant ticket supply gives Brightstar two lines into the same customer. Whether the extension adds anything new, such as digital work, the release does not say.

Brightstar has kept a customer it has served for 24 years. For how long, and at what price, it has chosen not to say.