Turkey expects bids for National Lottery in June

The entity that holds the rights for the local lottery said that it expects bids to operate it starting June.

Turkey.- Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), the entity that holds the rights of the National Lottery, revealed on Thursday that it aims to start accepting bids in June. The tender is for the operating rights of the National Lottery.

SWF said that it aims to complete the deal by the end of the year. General Manager Zafer Sönmez said that SWF has already held talks with strategic players on the transfer of the rights, Daily Sabah reported. “We are considering the transfer of operating rights for a 10-year period. We have been talking with all major companies since February,” Sönmez said.

The General Manager added that they’re interested in raising the lottery’s annual revenues from 0.1% of the gross national product (GNP), to 1% to 2% of the GNP. He explained that they will take offers from the companies through an invitation method and will tender to companies with certain experience.

“We will take the final bids in the middle of June. Our goal is to determine by end-June or early July who we will give it to. The full transfer will be done by end-year,” he said.

Furthermore, he said that the SWF will take steps for the National Lottery in less than a week and that it should be assessed with a different model. “Our perspective is about how we can create the maximum value. We want to increase our income to over 1% by not selling the business. It has the potential to rise by up to 10 times.

“We have been in talks with all the relevant foreign and domestic strategic players, i.e., the largest players in the world in the games of betting and chance. There is great interest as we enter the market with the right model for the first time. The example of this in Turkey is İddaa (Turkey’s sole legal sports betting platform). The government did not sell it, but it is getting its income. We will do the same thing as İddaa, he added.