German gambling operator Gauselmann Group has made a play to acquire Greek lottery and betting operator Intralot’s Polish sports betting subsidiary Totolotek.
On Monday, Polish financial media outlet Money.pl reported that Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection had received an application from XTiP Polska on December 14 regarding the takeover of land-based and online sports betting operator Totolotek SA.
XTiP Polska is a joint venture of Gauselmann Group’s Merkur Sportwetten GmbH and TMT Investments SA, a Warsaw-based professional investment and consulting group.
XTiP is Gauselmann’s German-facing sports betting brand and has a brand ambassador deal with former German national team footballer Lukas Podolski, who was born in Poland and speaks the local language.
Totolotek has been offering sports betting products in Poland for a quarter-century, and Intralot acquired its interest in the company in 2005. Totolotek was one of the first companies to receive a Polish online sports betting license way back in 2013. There are presently 14 companies authorized to offer online wagering in Poland.
One of those licensed bookmakers, Fortuna Entertainment Group, announced this week that it plans to expand its Polish retail betting network by an additional 80 outlets in 2019. Konrad Komarczuk, who heads up Fortuna’s local subsidiary, told journalists that the additions would bring Fortuna’s local retail network up to 700 points of sale.
Komarczuk said Fortuna would also launch self-service betting terminals in its retail shops in the second half of 2019. Fortuna’s online presence will also get a boost via a new IT platform in the first half of 2019 that will include live-betting options for the first time.
Meanwhile, the Polish Ministry of Finance continues to expand its blacklist of online gambling sites serving the local market without local permission. The current number of blacklisted domains stands at 5,276, an increase of over 300 domains since the previous batch of ne’er-do-wells was consigned to perdition on November 30.
