Turkish media giant and Italy’s Sisal win operating rights to Turkey national lottery

Last week, the Turkey Wealth Fund again selected conglomerate Demirören Group to run the Turkey National Lottery, Milli Piyango, for a period of 10 years. The media giant formed Sisal-Sans joint venture with the Italian gaming firm Sisal Group.

The other three firms in the race withdrew their bids after the government, which controls the lottery through the Turkey Wealth Fund state asset management company, upped its demands in a last-minute change to the terms of the tender.

Demirören Group’s consortium was the only firm left to bid for the giant tender, agreeing to provide the wealth fund with a 9.5-percent revenue share of a minimum of 9.32 billion liras ($1.7 billion) income per year from the lottery.

With the acquisition of the lottery contract, Demirören has gained a monopoly on betting and games of chance in Turkey and will operate it until 2030.

Scientific Games will supply its lottery instant games, Wave retailer terminals, and instant ticket validation system to the consortium. Additionally, Scientific Games will be launching with its Turkish partner a full, turnkey sports betting solution for national sports betting in Turkey, the world's second-largest state-sponsored fixed-odds sports betting market.