Supplier News

Greece – Turnover down 16.6 per cent at Intralot

Greek betting giant Intralot reported gaming revenues of €292.9m for 2020, down 14 per cent from 2019 whilst over all turnover came in at €364.8m, down by 16.6 per cent.

Intralot Chairman & CEO Sokratis P. Kokkalis noted: “During the financial year 2020 we faced the adverse effects and disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had significant impact on the Lottery and Sports Betting industries. This impact was only partially offset by mitigation measures, operational improvements, and cost-containment efforts. We remained focused on developed markets seeing significant growth in the US in the Lottery operations and we launched two new Sports Betting operations in Montana and Washington D.C., while we renewed significant contracts in Georgia, US as well as New Zealand, Australia and The Netherlands. The Company management also dedicated significant effort in negotiations with the bondholders to optimize the Capital Structure through a transaction that is expected to be completed during the first half of 2021.”

Intralot systems handled €19.3bn of worldwide wagers, posting a 1.9 per cent year-on-year increase. East Europe’s wagers increased by 43.5 per cent (reflecting the new Sports Betting era dynamics in Turkey since September 2019), North America’s by 16.5 per cent (driven mainly by the over-performance of most of the Lotteries, Illinois’ full contribution in current year vs. its launch in mid-February 2019, as well as the launch of sports betting in Montana and Washington, D.C.), and Asia’s by four per cent. Growth was partially offset by South America’s wagers decrease by -28.1 per cent(attributable mainly to COVID-19 impact, followed by Chile’s significant Jackpot in 1Q19 and the recent social unrest in the country), West Europe’s decrease by -25.6 per cent (driven mainly by the COVID-19 pandemic) and Africa’s decreased wagers by -13.5 per cent (driven by the COVID-19 impact in Morocco market).

Lottery Games was the largest contributor to Intralot’s top line, comprising 60.6 per cent of our revenue, followed by the Technology Contracts, contributing
16.3 per cent to Group turnover. Sports Betting accounted for 14.8 per cent and VLTs represented 7.6 per cent of Group turnover, while Racing constituted
the 0.7 per cent of total revenue of FY20.

The company added: “The beginning of 2021 was overshadowed by restrictions imposed in most of the regions across the world to combat the spread of COVID-19. However, as vaccinations are progressing, governments are starting to loosen COVID-19 measures after months of lockdowns and reopen economic activities. The potential magnitude of COVID-19 for 2021 is continuously assessed and all containment measures assumed in 2020 remain intact and have been enhanced in order to absorb the potential impact in the financial results of 2021. All actions undertaken are designed to counter any drop in business but without affecting our operations and our commitment to deliver state of the art technology to our customers. Based on the current performance of our operations in the first months of 2021 and the actions undertaken by most of our subsidiaries, the Group’s pandemic impact for 2021 is not expected to be significant in EBITDA terms.

“The ultimate magnitude and length of time that the disruptions from COVID-19 will continue remains uncertain. This uncertainty will require us to continually adapt our strategy and initiatives according to recent developments and effect of COVID-19 in each of the markets the Group operates, and continuously assess the situation, including the impact of changes to government imposed restrictions, changes in customer behaviors, social distancing measures and decreased gaming establishments operating capacity jurisdiction by jurisdiction.”