Intralot ‘optimistic’ about Spor Toto deal
Posted by meb at March 16th, 2008
Intralot SA, the world’s second-largest gaming-services provider, is “optimistic” about winning a 10-year contract to run Turkish sports-betting game Iddaa, Chief Executive Officer Constantinos Antonopoulos said.
Inteltek, the Turkish unit of Athens-based Intralot, in February signed a one-year interim contract to operate İddaa for Spor Toto, Turkey’s state gaming authority. Inteltek, a venture between Intralot and Turkcell, said it controls about 40 percent of the country’s gaming market.
“In the 15 years we have been in this business, we’ve never lost a client. And we don’t want to lose it,” Antonopoulos said in an interview in London Thursday. Intralot will also bid for Turkey’s state-owned national lottery, he added.
Intralot rose as much as 18 cents, or 1.6 percent, to 11.48 euros and was unchanged at 11.30 euros at 12:52 p.m. in Athens. The company has a market value of 1.77 billion euros ($2.75billion). The gaming company, which is scheduled to announce full-year results by the end of this month, forecast 2007 profit of 115 million euros on sales of about 880 million euros. Profit in the first nine months rose 4.2 percent to 85.5 million euros, Intralot said Nov. 21.
The results “will be in line with our forecasts,” the executive said, adding that the final dividend will be similar to last year, when Intralot paid 18 cents a share. Since the beginning of the year, Intralot has won new gaming contracts in South Carolina, its fifth U.S. contract; Poland; and Turkey. Intralot employs more than 4,000 people and operates lotteries and supplies gaming technology in 40 countries. Intralot’s revenue trails Lottomatica SpA, which manages Italy’s national lottery.
Fiba, Doğan may also bid Meanhile, Hüsnü Özyeğin, the Turkish businessman who sold his bank for $2.8 billion in 2006, may bid for rights to run betting on sports in the country, daily Sabah said, without saying where it got the information.
Özyeğin ‘s Fiba Holding is one of four local companies that may bid for the contract when it’s auctioned sometime in the coming year, the Istanbul-based newspaper said. Esas Holding, the company that controls budget airline Pegasus, is also a potential bidder, it said. Doğan Holding, owner of Turkey’s largest media group, is also interested, the newspaper added.
Source: Turkish Daily News
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