Czech gambling increase of 93.7 percent

5/17/10 – The power and convenience of the Internet was demonstrated again this week when the Czech gambling operator Sazka presented an operational update that showed a year-on-year increase of 93.7 percent in revenues, attributed by management to the launch of online operations.
 
The Prague-based firm revealed a 93.7 percent year-on-year increase in revenues from odds betting following the launch of an online service earlier last year, while high Euro Millions jackpots led to a 16.9 percent increase over the previous year in earnings from lottery activities.
 
The company said it had paid out more then $211 million in prizes over the course of 2009, which was an increase of 9.8 percent year-on-year.
 
“The overall payments for lottery and non-lottery products received at Sazka terminals reached $893 million last year, $403 million of which was revenue from betting and lottery activities while $490 million was payments for non-lottery services particularly the mobile phone top-up service, sales of tickets for sports, cultural and other events, payments by paying-in slips, invoice and insurance payments or payments for services and goods ordered over the Internet,” Zdenek Zikmund, a spokesperson for Sazka, revealed.