Greek lottery systems provider Intralot is interested in bidding for
Italian instant lotteries and slot machines licences this year, its chief executive said on Thursday."We are definitely interested in the Italian market and we will pursue the opportunities that arise," Intralot's CEO Constantinos Antonopoulos told Reuters in an emailed statement.
He said an official from Italy's state monopoly administration AAMS had recently said the country was planning to launch new tenders for instant lotteries and slots later this year, as the current licenses expire in 2010.
Intralot, the world's second largest lottery systems supplier, has started sports and horse-racing betting operations in Italy, Spain and the Australian state of Victoria in the last two years, in a bid to capitalise on the liberalisation of global gaming markets.
The firm runs sports betting games in 11 other countries around the world.
Italy's gambling spending stood at 8.6 billion euros at end-February, data from AAMS showed. Revenues from scratch cards were 1.7 billion euros in the first two months of the year.
Italy's Lottomatica SpA currently holds the concession for the country's Gratta & Vinci scratch cards.
Intralot trades at six times estimated 2008 earnings, against a multiple of 14-times for Scientific Games, data from Reuters Estimates showed. Analysts attribute the discount to concerns about high start-up costs in new markets.
The stock has gained 31 percent since the start of the year, outperforming a 5 percent drop in the broader Greek market index .
By Angeliki Koutantou
source: Reuters
