Greek announces state lottery tender
The current licence to operate all Greek state lotteries expires this year
Greece.- An international tender process has been launched for the concession to run the Greek state lotteries. Up for grabs are the exclusive rights to produce, manage, operate, promote, and exploit the lotteries for a period of at least 10 years.
The concession right pertains to the main Greek national lottery Ethnikó as well as other state-owned lotteries, the Instant State Lottery, the State Housing Lottery, the Popular Lottery and the Special Social National Lottery, as well as the Extraordinary or Special Lottery drawn by the European Association of State Lotteries (AELLE).
The tender is being run by Growthfund, the Greek state’s sovereign wealth and asset management body. It will be conducted in two phases. In Phase A, interested parties are invited to submit an expression of interest by 4pm local time on July 23, 2025. In Phase B, pre-qualified participants will be invited to submit binding offers.
Detailed information about the tender process is available in the Invitation for Expression of Interest on Growthfund’s StateLotteriesEoI website.
Currently, the exclusive right to the Greek state lotteries is held by OPAP’s Hellenic Lotteries S.A. OPAP is Greece’s biggest gambling group and has run the main national lottery since it began in 1990. It was last awarded a 12-year licence to operate the gamut of state lotteries in 2013 for a payment of €190m up front and guaranteed revenue contributions. That concession expires this year.
For the first quarter of the year, OPAP reported revenue growth of 8.2 per cent year-on-year to €595m. Online gambling was the biggest driver, with igaming revenue up by 19.8 per cent year-on-year to €85m, demonstrating a successful transition into the digital space.
Lottery operations were still OPAP’s biggest segment, however, generating 34.7 per cent of GGR at €207m. That’s a 5.5 per cent increase year-on-year. Betting revenue climbed by 13.1 per cent to €190m and video lottery terminal (VLT) revenue by 3.5 per cent to €89m. Instant and passive games generated €25.6m, a drop of 8.6 per cent.
