The bidding for Italy’s lottery operations contract was opened by the country’s Customs and Monopolies Agency.
Operators will be allowed to submit applications for the nine-year contract until March 17.
The selected operator will pay €1bn for the contract, which offers a six percent profit on revenues made from operations.
The regulator is expected to award the contract within 12 to 18 months, according to previous comments from IGT, which is the incumbent lottery operator.
IGT currently runs the lottery through a consortium with Allwyn, Arianna 2001 and Novomatic.
Flutter Entertainment is also expected to submit a proposal.
Jeffrey Stantial of Jefferies reiterated his buy rating and US$26 target for IGT, which is currently the frontrunner to retain the contract.
Stantial said both the timeline and scoring for the proposals slightly benefit IGT as the incumbent operator.
He expects Flutter to submit a proposal due to the highly efficient cross-selling opportunity from lottery to online sports betting and casino platforms, but noted no official bid has been made.
Source: Fantini's Gaming Report