Net Holding signs casino management deal in Montenegro

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s Net Holding has signed a casino management agreement with Casino Avala d.o.o to operate a casino in Budva, Montenegro, the company announced in a written statement to the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) late on Dec. 14. 

The agreement will be for five years, while the casino space covered by the deal is 2,000 square meters in total, according to the statement. 

Net Holding, which operates real estate and tourism businesses mainly in Turkey, Turkish Cyprus and Azerbaijan, also said Dec. 11 that it remained interested in bidding for the rights to operate Turkey’s national lottery, Milli Piyango, which is slated for privatization.

The government has repeatedly put off a planned sale of the lottery, citing market conditions.

The top bidder of the tender was a Turkish consortium of two experienced gaming companies, Net Holding and Hitay, which owns Turkey’s first online gambling platform, bilyoner.com, that emerged triumphant from a fierce competition to earn the 10-year operational rights of Turkey’s national lottery, after placing the highest bid of $2.755 billion in the privatization tender on July 15, 2014. 

The consortium, however, asked until April 15, 2015, to finalize the process because of a sharp loss in the Turkish Lira’s value. The country’s national lottery privatization tender process subsequently continued with the second highest bidder until the tender was recently canceled completely as no contract was signed with the bidder.