Horse racing employees happy with ODIE privatization

Workers at Greece’s sole horse racing course at Markopoulo were satisfied on Thursday with Parliament’s vote earlier this week on the bill for the privatization of the country’s sole license for horse racing betting.

The Athens-listed OPAP gaming company has landed the license, becoming the new employer of the workers at the Horse Racing Organization (ODIE) and offering them a certain degree of job security.

The new law also paved the way for the liquidation of ODIE, which had to return subsidies of 200 million euros to the state.

The concession to OPAP of the betting license also saw state sell-off fund TAIPED banking the first 40 million euros since SYRIZA came to power.