SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Hungary’s sports betting and lottery monopoly, Szerencsejáték Zrt, has been forced to change its leadership ranks.
On Tuesday, Andrea Mager announced her resignation as Chair and Chief Executive of Szerencsejáték Zrt, with immediate effect.
By order of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Mager will become a member of the Monetary Council of the Hungarian National Bank (MNB), effective from 5 March.
Mager held an exit interview, in which she confirmed taking on her new assignment at the National Bank.
During her three-year tenure, Mager oversaw the tender process to launch and manage the new TippmixPro sports betting platform, which was awarded to EveryMatrix in 2023.
Szerencsejáték Zrt required the upgrading of TippmixPro to a new sportsbook, following amendments introduced to Hungary’s Gambling Act, liberalising its fixed-odds betting from 2024 onwards.
Mager told national media that she was proud to have modernised Szerencsejáték Zrt and helped secure 305.5 billion forints (€600m) for Hungarian public and cultural bodies.
The development coincides with the ongoing reorganisation of senior positions in PM Orbán’s Cabinet Office.
In November, Orbán sanctioned a leadership change at the National Bank, appointing former Finance Minister Mihály Varga as President of the MNB.
Orbán’s cabinet has been undermined by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which placed Minister Antal Rogán under charges related to the Magnitsky Act.
One of Orbán’s most high-profile ministers and closest deputies, Antal Rogán, is suspected of playing “a central role in enabling a system in Hungary that has benefited himself and his party at the expense of the Hungarian people,” as detailed by the US State Department.
The Fidesz (National Conservative) government denies the allegations of Rogán’s corruption, stating that the OFAC charges stem from the former Biden administration’s interference in Orbán’s premiership.
Changes impacting gambling will see the National Concession Office—the agency that oversees the governance of Szerencsejáték Zrt—come under the remit of Minister of National Economy Márton Nagy, taking over duties formerly overseen by Antal Rogán.
In 2025, Hungarian developments are closely monitored, as the Orbán government is yet to confirm whether it will launch a new tender for the lottery concession of Szerencsejáték Zrt, which was last competed for in 2011.
