OPAP offered sole Greek horse race betting licence

HRADF, the Greek government’s privatisation agency charged with selling off government assets as the nation struggles to meet its international debt obligations, has announced that it has invited former government gambling monopoly (since privatised) group OPAP to sign an agreement to acquire the country’s sole licence for horse racing betting.

The Reuters news agency reports that the deal follows an announcement in March this year that HRADF would proceed with the sale of the exclusive betting rights to OPAP, which won the licence last year after offering Euro 40 million.

OPAP traditionally operated horse racing betting in Greece before it was privatised.

The new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told Reuters on Thursday that privatisations have been a key demand of the country’s international lenders.

However, the election promises of his government when it was elected in January to end austerity and block “fire-sales” has cast doubts on the future of Greece’s privatisations plan, a necessary condition to receive further “bail-out” loans from the international banking community.

The government has estimated that privatisation deals could raise Euro 1.5 billion this year.

Existing privatisation tenders include the sale of a 67 percent stake in biggest port Piraeus and the lease of a bundle of 14 regional airports.