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Q4 Greek lockdown leads to 30% revenue drop for OPAP
OPAP SA, the gambling group listed in Athens, has witnessed a massive descent of 30% in revenue down to €1.12bn as it has revealed in its 2020 FY financial results.
The gambling group pointed to the second lockdown that took place in Greece during the year’s fourth quarter, shutting down the majority of OPAP’s retail shops as the firm reveals that revenue during the quarter went down 50% to €230 million, compared to €446 million during the previous year.
Furthermore, OPAP’s lottery unit’s revenue dropped 33% down to €518 million in 2020, since it had to abide by the restrictions brought on by the pandemic all throughout 2020. In the meantime, even though the group made some improvements to its retail systems, the betting venues witnessed a 30% decrease in revenue, down to €200 million, since the venues had to limit the number of people who could visit.
Even though COVID-19 brought on some difficulties to the sector in general, OPAP stated that the year saw an impressive amount of improvement on a strategy basis, since net savings were up in the positives and the group worked on improving its online gambling portfolio.
CEO of OPAP Jan Karas said:
“Although Q4 was yet another quarter disrupted by COVID-19, with retail closure and restrictions imposed for tackling the pandemic, OPAP has once again demonstrated substantial operational and financial readiness to mitigate the impact, through its diversified portfolio.
“At the same time, our investment in Kaizen Gaming, which operates the leading Stoiximan brand, has been concluded, our games portfolio has been further enhanced and our retail network partners have been supported efficiently. With confidence, we are pursuing the successful execution of OPAP’s new business strategy, the Fast Forward strategy, in order to deliver even better Gaming Entertainment to our customers.”
As it closed down on its 2020 results, OPAP saw €205 million in net profits, which is a 1.5% increase from the previous year since the company was able to save on retail agent commissions and lesser marketing expenses.
Moreover, net results also increased after the firm integrated Kaizen Gaming’s profits in the fourth quarter (which amounted to €142 million) into its financial results. After receiving approval from the competition courts in Cyprus and Athens, the Stoiximan online gambling brand, owned and operated by Kaizen Gaming, has been merged as an asset.
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