Fortuna plans lottery launch in Czech Republic

Central European gaming company Fortuna has signed a contract for equipment to allow it to dive into the lucrative $395.7 million a year Czech Republic lottery market, the company announced its planned future launch Wednesday.

Fortuna which is owned by Czech-Slovak financial group Penta Investments, plans an initial public offering in Prague and Warsaw which will likely come available during October.

Fortuna signed a contract with Greece’s gaming technology provider Intralot, in an agreement that will see Intralot supply fortuna with up to 5,000 gaming terminals in addition to other lottery infrastructure.

Fortuna, which operates in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary, specialises in fixed-odds betting. Fortuna will hope to snatch up some market share  from its main and only competitor in the numbers lottery, Sazka. Sazka is the largest Czech gaming company with more than 6,000 terminals, when it launches lottery gaming some time during 2011.