Greece’s OPAP looks to cut costs

Greece’s biggest betting firm OPAP is considering further cost savings to mitigate part of the impact from a higher taxation on its revenue this year, its chairman told analysts on Tuesday.

Greece has retroactively increased taxation on gross gaming revenue that OPAP has generated since the start of the year by 5 percentage points to 35 percent.

The tax hike and increases in other indirect taxes were part of additional austerity measures the country is taking in exchange for fresh loans under its international bailout.

OPAP posted a 26.3 percent drop in first-quarter net profit on Monday, hurt by the tax hike and lower revenues.

Advertising and other operational costs dropped by 24 percent and 7.3 percent respectively.

“We are very seriously preparing an analysis for additional cost cutting, at least to partially offset this whole issue,” chairman and chief executive Kamil Ziegler said.

[Reuters]