At first glance, it appeared the Greece financial crisis had dipped into the country’s lottery network. Instead, the Greek company that operates the nation’s lottery implemented what one analyst called “a hard-nosed negotiation tactic” to extract more favorable contract terms after Greece’s Hellenic Gaming Commission announced new lottery industry regulations. But the move hits the bottom lines of Nevada’s two largest slot machine manufacturers, costing Scientific Games Corp., and International Game Technology millions of dollars in revenue and cash flow. “These were sizable business opportunities for both IGT and Scientific Games,” said Eilers Research principal Todd Eilers. Ultimately, Eilers expects…

Ekathimerini – Greek gambling monopoly OPAP, one of Europe’s biggest betting firms, said it expected revenue to grow by a double-digit percentage this year, thanks to the planned launch of new games. The forecast was included in a presentation released on Wednesday, a day after the company announced higher-than-expected first-quarter profit due to cost cuts and the robust performance of its sports betting game Pame Stoichima. OPAP, whose sales reached 3.7 billion euros last year, launched a scratchcard game on May 1. Chief Executive Kamil Ziegler said on Wednesday that the company would also expand into online sports betting by…

Reuters – Greece’s OPAP, one of Europe’s biggest betting firms, plans to launch long-awaited online sports betting before the start of the soccer World Cup in June, its CEO said on Thursday, in a bid to capitalize on the popular event. Greece sold a majority stake in OPAP to Czech-Greek investment fund Emma Delta for 652 million euros ($890 million)last year, marking its first major privatization under its multi-billion international bailout. The new management that took over in October promised to implement the company’s plans to expand into online betting, video lotto and scratch cards. OPAP launched a scratch card…

Poker News – Right after the visit the European commissioner for competition and European Commission vice president Joakin Almunia paid to Athens, the Greek government decided to introduce significant amendments to its gaming law. This should finally put Greece’s legislation in line with European directives and calm fears of an upcoming monopoly. Greece’s reliance on the so-called “European trojka” — the unofficial group composed by the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund — pushed the country to change direction and remove from its gambling law some criticized bits that could have led to the creation of a…

Poker News – As the Greek Organization of Football Prognostics (OPAP) announced its decision to focus on the creation of a new online sports betting platform in cooperation with GTECH, the risk of Greece running the next online poker monopoly in Europe is now considerably thinner. Although many thought Greece’s government could opt to close its market to international operators in 2014 and put a brand new monopoly in OPAP’s hands, the decision to focus on sports betting and not on poker is a game changer that is going to keep the country’s market open for a while longer. Even…

iGaming Business – Greek gambling monopoly OPAP has cited the introduction of a new gross gaming revenue tax in the country as the reason behind a significant drop in net profit during the 12 months to December 31, 2013. The new 30% tax on gross gaming revenue for companies in Greece meant OPAP’s net profit totalled just €141.1 million ($194.7 million) in 2013, a 72.1% drop on the €505.5 million achieved in the previous year. Full-year revenue also fell 6.6% from €4 billion in 2012 to €3.7 billion in the last 12 months, while gross gaming revenue dropped 6.3% to €1.2…

British sports betting operator Stanleybet has threatened to sue Greece for lost revenue in a long-running legal battle over their gambling monopoly firm OPAP. Stanleybet accuses Greece of tacitly rejecting its 2004 request to offer sports betting in the country and said on Wednesday it had told the government and OPAP it will seek damages of about 240 million euros. OPAP, one of Europe’s biggest gaming companies, has a monopoly in offline sports betting and lotteries in Greece until 2030. Athens agreed earlier this month to sell a controlling stake and management rights in OPAP to Greek-Czech investment fund Emma…

From Fox Business News Greece’s government Wednesday accepted a 652 million euro ($860.3 million) bid for the state gambling company OPAP SA (GRKZF, OPAP.AT), marking the first significant asset sale in the country’s long-delayed privatization program. In a statement, Greece’s privatization agency said that a Czech-led private equity consortium, Emma Delta, had won the bid for the acquisition of a 33% stake of OPAP, after improving its earlier bid by EUR30 million to meet the government’s minimum target price. Greece will also retain 2012 dividends from the company, equal to EUR60 million, bringing the total bid up to EUR712 million,…