Olympic EG and the Italian company GHolding today agreed to jointly set up and operate medium-sized slot casinos in Italy. Both partners will own half of the operating company The Box S.r.l. The joint venture plans to open its first three casinos by the end of 2013, with OEG planning to invest 4.5 million euros during the same period.
“This is a major challenge for us, being the first time that Olympic EG will be offering modern casino entertainment in Western Europe, and particularly on the strictly regulated Italian market,” commented Mr. Armin Karu, Chairman of the Board of OEG, adding that involving an experienced partner in Italy was a significant and strategic decision. Listing success factors for the new market, Mr. Karu said: “The key is to combine the experience of both partners, the local market knowledge of GHolding and strong capitalisation of OEG, ensuring sufficiently rapid growth, as necessary”.
The first three casinos of between 50 and 70 slots are planned to be opened in Northern Italy by the end of 2013 at the latest. “This format is very similar to the current gaming halls of Olympic Casino and we hope to successfully implement the same concept also in Italy,” said Mr. Madis Jääger, Chairman of the Management Board of OEG, adding that it will be a kind of a pilot project. “In the first phase we are talking about three gaming locations with a total of couple of hundred slots, but the potential is much higher,” explained Mr. Jääger.
Italy has only four so-called classic casinos, all of them in municipal ownership. Slot casinos are licensed to operate a total of 56,500 slots over ten years. The largest licensee is Lottomatica Italia, the leading world operator in the lottery sector and a major player in the gaming market in Italy that has a license for 10,000 slots and will also be leasing the license and slots to The Box S.r.l. “We are really excited about Olympic Casino, a gaming operator with very good reputation and strong knowledge in management of medium sized slot halls, entering the Italian market,” commented Mr. Guglielmo Angelozzi, the CEO of Lottomatic Videot Rete.
Since 2006, GHolding has been operating small slot casinos under the La Casa del Gioco name with up to 200 square metres of floor space. All in all, the company manages 73 gaming locatios, of which 15 belong to GHolding and the remaining 58 are franchised.
With more than 2,200 employees, Olympic Entertainment Group is the largest provider of casino entertainment in the region. OEG is a full member of the European Casino Association (ECA). Today, the Group operates casinos in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland and Slovakia. OEG shares are traded on the main list of Tallinn Stock Exchange and the Warsaw Stock Exchange. All casino operators of Olympic Entertainment Group are responsible enterprises who notify their clients of the dangers associated with gambling.
