SAZKA Group Chief Executive Robert Chvátal has confirmed that the growth-hungry gambling conglomerate will launch an official 2020 bid competing to win the UK’s fourth National Lottery contract starting in 2023. Stating SAZKA’s intent, Chvátal underlined that ‘investing in the UK is the next stop’, following a busy 2019 in which the Czech gambling fund secured majority shareholdings in OPAP …
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Czech gambling conglomerate SAZKA Group has clarified its intentions to secure ‘full control’ of Athens-listed OPAP SA, Greece’s largest lottery and sports betting operator. On Monday, the Athens Securities Exchange temporarily suspended OPAP’s listing, announcing that the gambling group anticipated a ‘major imminent corporate event’. This morning, Reuters disclosed that SAZKA governance had submitted a formal Athens Exchange filing detailing …
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The Athens Securities & Exchange Commission has this morning moved to temporarily suspend the listing of OPAP SA, in light of speculation of a ‘major imminent corporate event’. Greek business news sources this morning report that Czech gambling conglomerate SAZKA Group seeks to significantly expand its holdings in OPAP, the former state-owned enterprise and Greece’s largest lottery and sports betting …
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The Football Association of the Czech Republic (FACR) has moved to strengthen its match integrity provisions after renewing its partnership with leading sports data, content and intelligence provider Sportradar. Securing an extended data agreement, the Czech football association will have all syndicated FACR ‘tier-3’ and youth level matches monitored by Sportradar’s ‘Fraud Detection System – FDS’. In addition, the partnership …
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Industry strategic consultancy Regulus Partners reflects on another week of UK and European setbacks for gambling incumbents. Despite broader regulatory frameworks in-place, political relationships appear more complicated than ever before… ___________ Sweden: online regulation – losing the war… Most online gambling operators that comment on their regulatory strategy or policy tend to state that they favour growing domestically regulated markets …
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Reform of the Czech Rep gambling marketplace appears to be further than ever before, as the nation’s Ministry of Finance publishes 2019 plans to increase taxes across all ‘vice sectors’. On 4 April, the Czech Finance Ministry submitted its proposals to the Senate, seeking to implement new tax plans ‘increasing public budget revenues’. The mandate hits Czech gambling stakeholders hardest, …
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Czech private equity firms KKCG and EMMA Capital have confirmed that they will move to split the ownership of assets in pan-European betting and lottery operator SAZKA Group. SAZKA is the Czech national lottery operator, which holds majority/significant holdings in European operators – OPAP Greece (33%), Casinos Austria (30%), LOTTOITALIA (33%) and SuperSport Croatia (67%). Agreeing on undisclosed terms, the …
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GVC Holdings’ property partypoker has announced its official return to the Czech Republic online gambling market in partnership with regional casino operator King’s Resort Rozvadov. Closing 2018, partypoker Managing Director Tom Waters revealed that the online poker room had been granted a licence by the Czech Finance Ministry. The update sees partypoker become the second international operator and online poker room …
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FTSE gambling technology group Playtech Plc has confirmed that it will expand and upgrade its existing lead supplier relationship with Central and Eastern European (CEE) betting group Fortuna Entertainment Group. Updating the market, Playtech announces that Fortuna has approved the roll-out of its ‘IMS – player management platform’ to be integrated across its properties operating in the markets of …
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Publishing a corporate update, Stockholm-listed industry games developer NetEnt has detailed that its Q4 2017 results (period ending 31 December) will ‘lag behind market forecasts’. Updating stakeholders, NetEnt governance expects to deliver Q4 2017 corporate revenues of SEK 419 million (Q4 target: SEK 447 million), combined with a period EBIT of circa SEK 150 million (Q4 target: SEK 170 million). …
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