Lotto giants Intralot, GTech bring their battle to Malta

Greek lotto giant Intralot, has upped its offer to government to keep its expiring seven year lotteries concession, but it will have to face its main global rival GTech, which on behalf of Lottomatica, has submitted an offer for the same bid.

Maltco and GTech were the only two bids received by the Privatisation Unit as the offers closed at midday on Thursday.

The bid was halted on December 12, when a judge withheld a request for a cautionary injunction by Maltco, that contested government's decision to issue an international call for interest to lottery operators to submit bids to acquire the national lotteries monopoly.

Finance minister Tonio Fenech contested the injunction, stressing that stalling the process would have a significant financial impact on the country's finances.

Testifying before Judge Joseph Zammit McKeon, the finance minister said that if the injunction remained in force, then government would have had no other option but to take over lotteries operations and re-establish the lotto department.

The injunction was overturned the following week by the courts, as it urged Malto to understand that its license conditions were clear, but it had every right to compete in the new expression of interest.

Maltco, which argued that government should have automatically renewed its concession on the basis of good performance over the past seven years, remains in arbitration with government.