Greece’s OPAP appoints new CFO

The Greek gambling monopoly has revealed that Pavel Mucha has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer of OPAP.

Greece.- OPAP, the fourth-largest betting firm in Europe by revenue, has announced that Pavel Mucha has been appointed as the company’s new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The news came just a few weeks after the Greek gambling monopoly announced that Michal Houst would be stepping down from his position.

Currently, Mucha is Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Sazka Czech National Lottery Provider, a member of the SAZKA Group. He will succeed Houst after he leaves the company in late September.

Overall, OPAP’s new CFO has 26 years of professional experience, holding positions in the financial management of consulting, pharmaceutical and consumer goods companies. In addition, he has four years of professional experience in the gaming industry.

OPAP posts strong performance in 1Q19

Gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the period ended March 31 was €396 million, an increase of 5% when compared to the €377.3 million registered last year. Lottery is still OPAP’s biggest revenue source, with an increase of 1.6% year-on-year in the first quarter to €191.7 million. This is also a 48.4% of the total revenue that the company registered in that period.

Despite lottery maintaining its position as top revenue scorer within the company, revenue from VLTs increased 58.9% to €68.9 million. The total share of revenue jumped from 11.5% in 2018 to 17.4% in 2019. On the other hand, the betting sector of the company posted a 5.3% decrease to €101.7 million. Instant and passives revenue was also down 10.8% to €33.7 million.

OPAP said that these results were achieved thanks to lower overall costs in the first quarter. OPAP cut costs by almost 5% from €67.4 million in 1Q18 to €64.1 million in the same period this year. The reduction in IT costs offset a 10.1% rise in payroll expenses, mainly because of an increased staff headcount.