Greek Lottery operator INTRALOT, active in the US lottery and sports betting segment, has published its Q3 results, showing group revenue at $612.4m, down by 6.9% year-on-year. EBITDA in the nine-month period was down significantly by 19.7% to $86.9m for the comparable period. Adjusted EBITDA remained almost steady at $94.7m, down by 0.3% year-on-year.
More positively the firm’s US operations showed increased revenue, ahead $21.3m. The improvement was mainly driven by the contribution of its new contract in Illinois, launched in mid-February, an equipment sale in Arkansas, and by a Powerball jackpot occurrence in 1Q19, fully absorbing the impact of the discontinued operations in South Carolina and Ohio cooperative services program (CSP).
Group Chairman & CEO Sokratis P Kokkalis stated: “In 3Q 2019 we continued progress on our strategy to mitigate the impact of contract losses by means of our three-prong strategy of cost-reductions, winning new business, and the disposal of non-core assets.
“We are particularly satisfied about the award of a new US sports betting contract for the Lottery of New Hampshire which is an important step for our growth strategy in the US, and the successful sale of our stake in the Italian Sports Betting operator Gamenet for a total consideration of €78m ($86m), that will offer a strong boost to our cash position and a reduction of our net debt in the FY2019 results.”
The firm’s US subsidiary INTRALOT Inc is scheduled to begin offering sports wagering in 2020 in 1,300 lottery retailers across New Hampshire, having signed a contract extension to provide its sports betting solutions to the state’s Lottery Commission.
