The gaming industry has been shaped by consolidation. Flutter assembled its position through a series of acquisitions, Paddy Power, Betfair, FanDuel, PokerStars. Entain built its portfolio by buying Ladbrokes, Coral, bwin, and dozens of smaller brands. The pattern is clear: grow by acquiring competitors, fund the acquisitions with capital markets, integrate what you buy, repeat. It is an effective strategy for building scale quickly. It is also the only strategy most observers assume is available.
Gurhan Kiziloz has demonstrated otherwise. Nexus International reached $1.2 billion in revenue in 2025 without acquiring other companies and without raising outside capital. The company grew organically, funding expansion through its own operations, building its platforms rather than buying them. In an industry defined by consolidation, Kiziloz built by not consolidating at all.
The approach required patience that the consolidation model does not demand. When Flutter or Entain wanted to enter a new market or add a new capability, they could write a cheque and acquire it. The integration would take time, but the capability was immediately available. Kiziloz had no such option. Every market Nexus entered had to be built into. Every capability the company needed had to be developed. The timeline for growth was set by what the business could fund, not by what capital markets would provide.
This constraint shaped how Nexus was built. Spartans.com was designed to be profitable from early on, generating the cash that would fund further expansion. The focus on payouts in seconds was not just a user experience decision, it was a competitive positioning that could drive growth without requiring massive marketing spend. Users who discovered Spartans told other users. The platform grew through product quality rather than subsidised customer acquisition.
Megaposta followed the same logic in Brazil. Rather than acquiring an existing Brazilian operator, Nexus built a platform specifically for that market. The investment was significant, but it was funded internally. The result was a product designed from scratch for Brazilian users, without the legacy systems and integration challenges that acquired platforms typically carry.
The financial implications of this approach are significant. Flutter and Entain are publicly traded companies with complex capital structures and obligations to external shareholders. Their strategic decisions must account for quarterly earnings, analyst expectations, and share price implications. Kiziloz faces none of these pressures. Nexus has no outside investors. Every share belongs to its founder. The company can make decisions based on long-term value creation without worrying about how markets will react in the short term.
This independence came at a cost. Growth funded by operations is slower than growth funded by acquisitions. There were almost certainly opportunities Nexus could not pursue because the capital wasn't available. Competitors with access to external funding could move into markets or acquire capabilities that Kiziloz could only watch. The trade-off between independence and speed is real, and Kiziloz chose independence.
The choice has been vindicated by the outcome. Nexus International reached $1.2 billion in revenue, a scale that places it among the significant players in gaming. The company competes for the same users as Flutter and Entain, in many of the same markets, without having followed their playbook. The consolidation path is not the only path. Kiziloz proved there is another way.
The industry context makes this more notable. Gaming has seen enormous M&A activity over the past two decades. The assumption that scale requires acquisition has become deeply embedded in how operators, investors, and analysts think about the sector. Kiziloz rejected that assumption and built a company that challenges it. Nexus is not the largest gaming company, but it is large enough to matter, and it was built differently than almost every competitor of comparable size.
The question going forward is whether Nexus will maintain its independence or eventually participate in the consolidation it has so far avoided. A company generating $1.2 billion in revenue is both a potential acquirer and a potential target. Kiziloz has shown no indication of wanting to sell, but the industry's gravitational pull toward consolidation is strong. Private equity firms and strategic buyers are always looking for assets. The independence that defined Nexus's rise may eventually be tested by offers designed to end it.
For now, Kiziloz continues to build the way he always has, without outside capital, without acquisitions, without the assumptions that govern most of his competitors. The gaming industry consolidated around him while he grew independently within it. Nexus reached $1.2 billion in revenue by doing something the industry said couldn't be done.