Intralot CEO steps down following Turkey contract loss

Intralot has announced the appointment of Sokratis Kokkalis as its new CEO, replacing long-serving CEO Antonios Kerastaris.

Kerastaris has resigned from his dual roles as CEO and executive member of the board, having spent over ten years at Intralot, first as CFO and then CEO. He will be replaced on the board by Alexandros-Stergios Manos.

Kokkalis currently serves as the chairman of Intralot’s board of directors having founded the Intracom group of companies in 1977. He was previously the president and major shareholder in Greek football club Olympiacos FC.

Intralot currently operates in 52 regulated jurisdictions, with an annual turnover of €1.1bn and over 5,100 employees.

Intralot last week lost out on the chance to run Turkey’s Iddaa sports betting technology on behalf of Sportoto state organisation, having submitted a tender bid to the state-run competition in February.

The winning bidder was a joint venture between Scientific Games and the Demirören Group, which will receive a 10-year licence to develop a 6,000 strong point-of-sale sports betting network.

Intralot held 45% of the JV Inteltek, which had operated the contract since 2004, with its deal expiring in August

Initial government estimates say the network could generate as much £2.1bn in sales during the first year.

Intralot said its 45% stake in Inteltek contributed approximately 15% of group consolidated EBITDA in the twelve months to the end of September 2018.

In other Intralot people news, the company also recently hired Ladbrokes Coral’s former omni-channel director Nicklas Zajdel as its new chief digital officer.