OPAP reports strong third quarter
News on 15 Nov 2017
News on 15 Nov 2017
Gaming giant Greek Organisation of Football Prognostics S.A. (OPAP) has revealed progress in its third quarter 2017 and consolidated financial results for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2017.
Consolidated gross gaming revenues (GGR) grew 4.8 percent to reach Euro 1,045.8 million (9M/2016: Euro 998 million).
OPAP reported a strong third quarter with 11.9 percent growth in GGR boosted by strong betting and VLT contributions.
EBITDA was Euro 223.5 million (9M/2016: Euro 223.8 million).
Consolidated Net Profit was Euro 109 million (9M/2016: Euro 115.1 million) down 5.3 percent, however, Q3/2017 delivered a 64.1 percent rise in net profit to reach Euro 48.1 million (Q3/2016: Euro 29.3 million). Third quarter profit was boosted by reversed litigation provisions of Euro 14.8 million.
“After a solid first half of the year, Q3 marked a return to meaningful growth in both revenues and profitability for OPAP,” Damian Cope, chief executive officer of OPAP commented.
Cope said the company continues to invest heavily in its products, technology and people and has made further progress in its previously communicated eight strategic objectives.
“These results are already demonstrating the early benefits of these investments and are also testament to the hard work and contributions from everyone in the OPAP team, both our employees and our agents.”
On the back of these results, the Board has proposed a distribution of retained earnings amounting to Euro 0.70 per share.
“Looking ahead, we have a particularly busy few months ahead with a number of important milestones for both our technology migrations and product rollouts, but remain confident that we will deliver on our objectives for FY17 and beyond,” Cope concluded.
In related news, OPAP’s licence was extended for a further eight years by the Greek Parliament this week. That same law reduces the number of permitted VLT’s from 35,000 to 25,000 within the next two years, a development OPAP says has no material effect on the business.
