Intralot is trying to make moves in order to surpass the loss of Ohio Lottery. As far as this particular lottery is concerned, it yields around $20 million of EBITDA per year, which means that until 2027, when SGI takes over (under the new contract), it will receive around $60 million (until it hands over the project to the next supplier). Intralot's side notes that the supplier (from 2027) onwards—whoever it was, the listed company included—would have to invest around $200 million, with a five-year payback period.

Referring to the international press, indeed the contract makes explicit reference (obligation) to replace the self-service machines operating in the state to serve the players. This is an important detail since it presupposes the (mainly) forward financing of the investment, either with own funds or with bank funds, i.e., borrowing. And it is in this that is at issue, which for Intralot's management seems to have been measured-weighed and limited to a rather procedural nature its participation in the tender.
The dilemma is obvious: either you effectively beat a tender, burdening your borrowing, or you manage the capex by having designed an alternative way of reinsurance. It is well known that since the day Socrates Kokkalis took the helm of the company again (November 2020), one of the key priorities has been to drastically reduce the...

Chrysostomos Sfatos and his team managed to put the business back on an operational track by taking on the entire complex restructuring project. Since 1997 in the group (Intracom Holdings, Intralot), the Deputy CEO is one of the crisis management experts. Therefore, with the main focus on generating cash flow and keeping leverage low, a new €200m borrowing would have a negative impact on the balance sheet bottom line.

The astute general sacrifices a battle if he thus estimates that he can win the war, noted Antoine-Henri Jomini in the Swiss officer's Précis de l'Art de la Guerre, who served as a general in the French army (1805), a tactic that seems to have been adopted at headquarters in Peania.

However, once such an important lottery is sacrificed, it is essential to plan strategically to make up (some or all) of the losses. In order to achieve this, Nikolaos Nikolakopoulos undertook the compensation, and the CEO is very familiar with the US market.

Intralot and Intralot Inc. are claiming more than 10 contracts on 4 continents, with the largest—long in monitoring—of Illinois (VLTs), as well as state lotteries in Missouri, Maryland, etc. in the US, Ontario, and Quebec in Canada, while the parent is claiming private lottery TLC. These are new (potential) customers that the company has not had in its portfolio until now. 

In the first phase, it was announced that the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (Vancouver) has been awarded a new project to provide an integrated platform for online lottery work, a project that includes the digitisation of the terrestrial network. And according to management, more will follow, possibly one before the holidays.