World Report

New game is expected to become a major growth driver for OPAP

The annual meeting of OPAP, which holds a 42 per cent share of the Greek gaming market

hareholders in Greece’s leading gaming company, OPAP, were reassured earlier this year when the Minister of Economy and Finance, George Alogoskoufis, declared that the government was determined to protect the company’s monopoly status.

OPAP has been accumulating impressive profits from its 42 per cent share of the Greek gaming market and expects to do even better with the launch of a new game, Kino, which the company has already tested very successfully in Cyprus.

OPAP has the sole concession until 2020 to operate and manage eight existing numerical lottery and sports betting games, in addition to several new numerical lottery games which it has yet to introduce. OPAP also holds the sole concession to run any new sports betting games in Greece, as well as a right of first refusal on the sole concession on any new games permitted by the state.

The company currently operates five numerical lottery games and three sports betting games, including its biggest earner, Pame Stihima. The games are distributed via an extensive online network of 5,500 dedicated agents.
Established as the Football Match Predictions Organisation in 1958, OPAP became a public limited company five years ago, and has since been part privatised. Today it is Europe’s fourth-largest publicly traded gaming firm, 51 per cent owned by the state, with the remaining 49 per cent in the hands of private – mostly institutional – investors.
OPAP has undergone a major transformation in recent years, restructuring and adapting to new standards. Its image has been modernised and new games have been launched. Kino, a new lottery game, is expected to become the company’s major growth driver.

Anestis A. Filippidis
President of Opap
‘You have to make it clear you will respect the shareholders money’

Anestis A. Filippidis, OPAP’s President, is committed first and foremost to running the company for the benefit of the shareholders, both state and private. “I work for their profit,” he says. “Transparency is essential. The shareholders must be aware of of all the things you are thinking about for the development of the company. You have to make it clear that you will respect their money.”

OPAP plans to roll out Kino across the whole of Greece by the end of October, starting with Thessaloniki and then Athens. “Evaluation is important at every stage,” says Mr Filippidis. “We have already made some small changes.”
In the meantime, Mr Filippidis’s priority is to make improvements in the company’s personnel and technology, and to establish a research and development section to produce new ideas. In the longer term, the company plans to expand its operations into neighbouring countries, especially in the southeastern Mediterranean.

Mr Filippidis says: “Up until now we have had our activities in Cyprus, but why not the Balkans and Turkey? The political situation between Greece and Turkey is constantly improving. In two or three years, once we build up the research and development section, we may even sell something to the Swedish market.”