INTRALOT is a Greek company that supplies integrated gambling, transaction processing systems, game content, sports betting management and interactive gambling services, to state-licensed gambling organizations worldwide. The company acts both as a lottery vendor and a lottery operator. It has a presence in 39 countries and a workforce of approximately 1,700 people as of 2022.[4][5] It is a publicly listed company in the Athens Stock Exchange.[6]

History

Intralot originated as a spin-off of the Intracom group, owned by the Greek billionaire Sokratis Kokkalis. It originally provided infrastructure for the Greek National Lottery (OPAP), under a 1999 contract, but has since expanded its operations into a worldwide market. Intralot's games library includes a variety of games such as numerical games, TV lottery games, sports lotteries, fixed odds betting, instant lotteries, pari-mutuel, video lottery and monitor games.[7]

In December 2009, Intralot announced purchasing 35% of the American online games provider CyberArts, purposing to expand its subsidiary company, Intralot Interactive (I2).[8] In October 2011, Intralot concluded the sale of its minority stake in CyberArts, as per the Group's decision not to exercise the option to increase its participation to 51% and focus on its own technology and services.[9] During ICE Totally Gaming 2015 the company announced that it will acquire a stake of 25% of Bit8.[10]

In December 2017, Intralot completed its acquisition of Bit8, enabling its digital transformation strategy for lottery modernisation.[11]

Activities

In May 2008, Intralot was implicated in the criminal investigation of Romanian Politician Christian Boureanu for "abuse of office against the public interest" by the National Anticorruption Directorate for Boureanu's role in signing a contract in 2000 between Loteria Română and Intracom SA Hellenic Telecommunication Electronics Industry (Intralot Integrated Lottery Systems and Services) that caused Loteria Română to incur losses of over 120 million.[12][13]

In January 2014, the Romanian competition council (Consiliul Concurenței) found that state-owned Loteria Română had contracted with Intralot, Intracom, and Lotrom, greatly limiting competition on Romania's video lottery equipment market during the preceding decade. Loteria Română and the companies were fined a total of €3.7 million for contravening competition rules.[14]

In early 2015, it was further revealed that Loteria Română had entered into a secret contract with Lotrom in 2003 to purchase over six thousand slot machines. Intracom and Intralot financed the arrangement, acquiring the lottery’s slot machines revenues in exchange. All three companies were found to be under the control of Greek businessman Sokratis Kokkalis, according to RISE Project. Since Loteria Română authorized the machines for video-lottery services, a different taxation was applied, resulting in the €100 million damage to the state. Prosecutors launched a fraud investigation and blocked the lottery’s accounts.[13][15]

Operations

The National Lottery of Malta, privatised in 2004, twice awarded sequential concessions, each spanning a decade, to Maltco, in which Intralot holds the majority stake.[3] Expired 4 July 2022, the concession was then awarded to Izi Group subsidiary[16] National Lottery plc.[17]

In December 2016, as its 2007 contract was ending; Intralot signed its second 10-year contract with Idaho Lottery in the US, that will come into force in October 2017 and last until October 2027, extendable by up to five or ten years.[18]

In February 2018, Intralot announced that they had agreed a 10-year deal worth an estimated $340 million with the Illinois State Lottery. The deal will cover the installation of technology solutions[buzzword] in over 7,500 retail locations across the US state.[19]

In February 2019, the D.C. Council authorized a sole-source contract for sports betting throughout Washington, D.C. Intralot, who runs the lottery within the district, will manage and provide services for the online sports betting component within D.C.[20]

This deal was temporarily blocked in September 2019 when an injunction was issued against the sole-source sports betting lottery contract with Intralot. One month later, the injunction was tossed aside by the judge and the contract was allowed to move forward.[21]

In early 2019, Intralot's joint venture with Inteltek lost a contract to control the Iddaa national sports betting monopoly to a consortium supported by Scientific Games.[22]

Membership and recognition

Intralot is a member of international gambling associations, including the World Lottery Association (WLA), European Lotteries (EL), the North American Association of State & Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) and CIBELAE (the Hispanic association that covers S. America and the Iberian peninsula), as well as the Gaming Standards Association (GSA) in the US and the Asia Pacific Lottery Association (APLA).[7]

Intralot was named one of the World Economic Forum's "New Champions", as it was listed in its "Global Growth Companies Community" in 2007.[23]

Intralot received a "Global IT Excellence Award 2008"[24] by the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) during its 16th World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2008),[25] Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Betting Company, a subsidiary of Intralot that operated sports betting in 12 countries, signed a cooperation agreement with FIFA's Early Warning System for the protection of the integrity of football.[26]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Intralot Group announcement of financial results for the twelve-month period ended December 31st, 2023" (PDF). intralot.com. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  2. ^ "Profile - athexgroup.gr".
  3. ^ a b "Alarm raised over Lottoland's interest in Malta's National Lotteries bid". theshiftnews.com. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
  4. ^ "INTRALOT announces Full Year 2023 Financial Results".
  5. ^ "Home - World Lottery Association". World-lotteries.org. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
  6. ^ "Athens Exchange". Ase.gr. Archived from the original on 2017-06-18. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
  7. ^ a b "Intralot". July 10, 2001. Archived from the original on July 10, 2001.
  8. ^ "Online Backgammon News – December 2009 | Online Backgammon | Backgammon for Money". July 7, 2011. Archived from the original on July 7, 2011.
  9. ^ "Home - World Lottery Association". World-lotteries.org. 2017-01-01. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
  10. ^ "INTRALOT Acquires a 25% Stake in Bit8". Casino News Daily. 4 February 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
  11. ^ "Intralot to acquire remaining stake in Bit8". igamingbusiness.com. 20 October 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  12. ^ "Google Translate". translate.google.com.au. Retrieved 2019-03-05.
  13. ^ a b "Media: Romanian prosecutors investigate public lottery for fraud". romania-insider.com. 8 April 2015. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
  14. ^ "Romanian anti-trust regulator fines four cos over video lottery programme". seenews.com. 22 January 2014. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
  15. ^ "Loteria Română, anchetată pentru fraudă". riseproject.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 2025-02-28.
  16. ^ "IZI Finance plc registers record gross gaming revenue of €85.6m". timesofmalta.com. 24 October 2024. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
  17. ^ "National Lottery PLC Takes Over Maltese Operations". casinoreviews.net. 10 May 2023. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
  18. ^ "Alarm raised over Lottoland's interest in Malta's National Lotteries bid". idahobusinessreview.com. 6 March 2017. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
  19. ^ "Intralot brokers $340m deal with Illinois State Lottery". igamingbusiness.com. 5 February 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  20. ^ "D.C. Council approves sole-source sports betting contract, aid to federal workers". Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  21. ^ Thompson, Steve (9 October 2019). "Court denies injunction against District's no-bid sports gambling contract, dealing critical blow to legal challenge". Washington Post. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  22. ^ "Big Game Hunting". Gaming Intelligence: 48–49. April–June 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  23. ^ "World Economic Forum - Who are the New Champions". January 9, 2009. Archived from the original on January 9, 2009.
  24. ^ ""Prestigious "Global IT excellence" award to INTRALOT". World Lotteries Organization. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  25. ^ "16th World Congress on Information Technology". WITSA. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  26. ^ "Early Warning System GmbH - Home". Fifa-ews.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-23. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
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