Turk Dogan bids on sports betting with Italian firms

Dogan will have a 50 percent stake in the consortium, while its Italian partners, Lottomatica Videolat SpA and SNAI SpA, will hold 47 percent and 3 percent of shares respectively, the statement made to the Istanbul Stock Exchange said.

Three groups have submitted bids today to Spor Toto for a 10-year exclusive concession to run the Turkish sports betting game Iddaa, Thomson Financial News reported.

British betting company Ladbrokes in conjunction with Turkish Esas Holding also submitted an offer, Thomson Financial said citing a source.

Inteltek, which is 45 percent owned by Greece's betting technology Intralot SA and 55 percent owned by Turkcell, the country’s biggest GSM operator, was the third party to participate in the process, added the source.

The rights to the game are currently held by Turkcell, and its Greek partner Intralot SA.

The offers are expected to be opened on Thursday or Friday.

The concession to run Iddaa had initially been awarded to Inteltek but was cancelled a year ago with Spor Toto announcing that it would re-launch the tender process.

In February, Intralot said Inteltek signed a one-year contract extension with Spor Toto for the continued operation of Iddaa while the tender process was repeated.

Gala-Coral Group and Net Holding, as well as Austrian Lottery, Russian Favorite Bookmaker Ltd and Turkish Metaxan Systems had previously seemed interested in the bidding process for Iddaa, but did not make an offer in the end, explained the source.

Total wagers for Iddaa in 2007 were worth 1.9 billion YTL, Thomson Financial quoted Lottomatica as saying.