Istanbul, Turkey (May 12, 2008) -- For many years the Turkish privatization of the National Lottery, the Milli Piyango, has been on the role to be privatized. In the beginning of 2008 the Turkish Government proudly announced that the privatization would commence in May 2008. Some weeks later, though, a State Minister said that the privatization would begin the forthcoming month of June. However in an interview by GamblingAnalysts.eu with QLot’s Ales Kulich, it seems that the privatization will not take place in the short term. “All information in the media is still just rumours”, states Ales Kulich whose QLot’s Consulting assist the Turkish Privatization Authority.

The present political turmoil in Turkey will not stop three huge major gambling events which are planned for this year. Of course there is the European championship football, for which the national Turkish squad has been qualified. And this event will create very good times for the bookies, worldwide and in particular for the Turkish Iddaa sports football betting. Above that the privatization of the National Lottery will happen and the tender for operating the Turkish sports betting for a period of 10 years will take place.

Istanbul, Turkey (March 17, 2008), GamblingAnalysts.eu, the gambling research and analyst group, working from Istanbul and Amsterdam, launched two new reports on the Turkish gambling industry. This year two major gambling events will take place in Turkey: the privatization of the Turkish National lottery and the 10 year-long tender for sports betting. Professionals in this industry know how difficult it is in Turkey to get all the information needed for a proper decision.

Turkish “Inteltek Internet Teknoloji Yatirim ve Daniflmanlik Ticaret A.fi.” (Inteltek) under the authority of the Turkish Youth and Sports Directorate and Spor Toto Organization, provides the infrastructure for the central betting system used by Spor Toto and Iddaa games and is also responsible for risk management. 55% of the company is owned by Turktell Biliflim Servisleri A.fi. (Turktell) and 45% by Greek Intralot. The company was established in 2004.

The Hungarian Privatization and State Holding Company (ÁPV Rt.), which task is to push the sale and market based management of state assets determined by law as well as rendering accounts and the controlling of earlier privatization transactions, did not (yet) list the state owned National Lottery, Szerencsejáték Zrt. However the subject is discussed continuously in Budapest. The liberal junior governing SZDSZ party is a warm promoter of Privatizations in general and particularly in the privatization of the national lottery company Szerencsejáték Zrt. “In 2008”, said the chairman Janos Koka of the SZDSZ party...

The Turkish Government finally has set its National Lottery, Milli Piyango, in the display window for the (pre-) privatization. The Government has reconfirmed that Ernst & Young, and for the technical gambling facets, QLot Consultants, will assist the Turkish Privatization Authority (IPA) to realize this great ambition.
 Plans to privatize the National Lottery were already discussed under the administration of Turgut Özal in 1985, but so far has been too hot a political potato to be actually consumed.



Last year it was the 25th anniversary of Ernst & Young’s annual "Gaming Bulletin". This report has tracked the development of the gaming industry in the US for the last 25 years, so informs a press release, and it goes on with the promising statement: “This is the first year that the Bulletin has covered also the development of the gaming industry on a global basis.” In his Gaming Bulletin Brian R. Ford, E&Y’s Global Gaming Service Leader, mentions the conceptions Gambling and Gaming without using a definition. Above that he talks only about the Casino Sector.

Rob van der Gaast has a background in sports journalism. He worked for over 7 years as the head of sports of the Dutch National Radio and has developed new concepts for the TV and the gambling industry. Now, since 7 years, he operates from Istanbul as an independent gambling research analyst. He specializes in European gambling matters and in privatizations of gambling operators.

Rob van der Gaast war vorher tätig im Bereich des Sportjournalismus. Er arbeitete über 7 Jahre an der Spitze des holländischen Sport-Radios und entwickelte neue Konzepte für die TV- und Glücksspielindustrie. Die letzten sieben Jahre ist er von Istanbul aus, als unabhängiger Spielanalytiker tätig.