Industry News
OPAP strengthens its position in online sports-betting in Greece through the acquisition of Stoiximan Group’s Greek and Cypriot business


OPAP S.A., (“OPAP”), SAZKA Group’s Greek and Cypriot subsidiary, has today announced (i) the receipt of regulatory approvals for its previously announced acquisition of 51% of Stoiximan Group’s Greek and Cypriot business (“SMGC”) and (ii) the acquisition (subject to regulatory approvals) of a further stake in SMGC as a result of which OPAP will have a total shareholding of 85% in and sole control of SMGC.
OPAP’s announcement and presentation can be found here.
Robert Chvatal, SAZKA Group CEO, commented: “Today’s announcement marks an important step forward for SAZKA Group and for OPAP, as OPAP gains a leading market position in yet another gaming vertical. OPAP, with SAZKA Group’s support, has achieved a milestone that will significantly strengthen its position in the online sports-betting market. In recent weeks, we have been working in anything but a standard business environment. And yet under these extraordinary circumstances our joint teams brought this transaction to fruition. Here my thanks must go specifically to the management team led by Mr. George Daskalakis”.
In 2019, Stoiximan Group (under the parent company TCB) generated revenues (GGR) of €245 million and EBITDA of €38 million. SMGC generated revenues (GGR) of €197 million, corresponding to 80% of Stoiximan Group’s total revenues, and EBITDA of 44 million.
OPAP:
OPAP is the leading gaming company in Greece. The company, founded in 1958 as the country’s national lottery operator and listed on the Athens Exchange in 2001, is the exclusive licensed operator of numerical lotteries (7 games), sports betting (4 games), Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) and horse racing in Greece. It also operates exclusively, as a controlling shareholder (83.5%) through a joint venture, the passive lotteries and instant (scratch) games in Greece. OPAP is one of the largest charitable donors in Greece, operating under World Lottery Association (WLA) and responsible gaming standards.
About SAZKA Group:
SAZKA Group is one of the largest pan-European lottery operators. Its businesses run lotteries in all the major continental European countries where lotteries are privately operated, including the Czech Republic, Greece, Austria, Italy, and Cyprus. Its businesses focus on the lottery segment, including numerical lotteries (draw-based games) and instant lotteries (scratch cards), while also providing complementary products in sports-betting and digital-only games. They sell their products both through extensive retail networks and digital platforms. All its lottery operators are members of the World Lottery Association and the European Lottery Association and operate in accordance with their codes of practice.
Industry News
Dallmeier Shortlisted for the European Casino Awards 2023

Dallmeier, an expert in video technology for casinos, has been shortlisted in two categories for the upcoming European Casino Awards 2023, its Panomera W8 360° cameras as “Best new innovative product” and Casino Automation Technology CAT as “Best table gaming product”.
The Panomera W8 is a 360° camera with 4K resolution ensuring complete 360° coverage without a “blind spot” below the camera. Six sensors are arranged in a circle, a seventh sensor covers the overall scene and an eighth sensor captures the blind spot below the camera. From these eight images, the software then stitches a complete image of the half-sphere around the camera location that has been captured without gaps. Within this overview image, multiple operators can open any number of detail areas with a mouse-click and zoom in and move around in these areas as if it was a PTZ cam.
Casino operators who use such systems report that they regularly reduce the time needed from the detection of an incident to the resolution – e.g., by catching an offender – by a factor of up to 10 or more.
Furthermore, the overall costs for monitoring the gaming floor are reduced. Although the costs per camera are higher than a PTZ system, far fewer cameras need to be installed. The resulting savings in installation, infrastructure, and maintenance as well as in operation itself outweigh the additional costs for the cameras themselves.
Industry News
Gaming Innovation Group: Share issue

Reference is made to the announcement from Gaming Innovation Group Inc. (GiG) on 15 December 2022 regarding the acquisition of casino affiliate websites Askgamblers.com, Johnslots.com, Newcasinos.com and several smaller domains from Catena Media Plc.
As stated in the announcement, GiG will finance part of the initial consideration through a share issue and the Board of Directors has approved commitments of EUR 10.2 million from a group of investors to finance the equity part of the acquisition. Pursuant to agreed terms, the share price has been set to NOK 25.61, which represent a discount of 2.6% from the volume-weighted average share price for the GiG share so far in 2023.
4,267,112 new shares will be issued, and the number of outstanding shares will increase by 3.5%, from 122,786,526 to 127,053,638. The new shares are expected to be issued and admitted to trading next week and will be issued under the Company’s 150,000,000 authorized shares.
Closing of the acquisition is expected by end of January 2023.
Industry News
Euromat Adds Spain to its Growing Membership

The European federation of gaming machine trade associations, Euromat, has added Spain to its membership.
The organisation has welcomed the Club de Convergentes as its 14th country member. Novomatic, Merkur, Zitro, Aristocrat and Bally Wulff are among the Club de Convergentes’ members.
Euromat now covers 11 countries and has nine corporate members. Last year it added Serbia and three new corporates into its membership.
Bernhard Teuchmann, president of the Club de Convergentes, said: “Joining Euromat and collaborating more closely with our colleagues across Europe reflects our desire to continue to grow our sector responsibly and ensure that we have the best possible offer for our customers.
“We want to play our role in helping to raise the standards for our industry across Europe and learn from the experience of others.”
Euromat president Jason Frost said: “Having the Club de Convergentes in Euromat is a vote of confidence in our association and its capacity to benefit its members.
“The Club de Convergentes shares our belief that our industry is stronger when working together to share knowledge and expertise, while always making the case with policymakers for a better business environment.”
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