GTECH to bid for next Irish lottery licence
News on 7 May 2013
News on 7 May 2013
GTech, a subsidiary of the giant Italian gambling group Lottomatica, is planning to bid for Ireland’s next lottery licence and may form an alliance with the country’s state postal service which operates the current licence, a Gtech official told the Irish Times newspaper on Tuesday.
The 20-year licence, which is not part of Ireland’s main Euro 3 billion privatisation plan under its EU-IMF baiout, is due to be sold via a bidding competition later this (2013) year.
“Obviously working together is something I’d like to think both companies could continue to consider very strongly,” Gtech’s chief operating officer for Europe Declan Harkin told the newspaper in an interview when asked about a joint bid with the An Post postal service.
GTech may face some stiff competition – the British lottery operator Camelot has also expressed an interest in bidding for the licence, which Irish media have suggested could sell for up to Euro 400 million.
