- National Lottery Bulgaria partners up with Scientific Games for online iGaming products
- The products bring in BGN1 million within 24 days
- Bulgaria generated nearly $2 billion in gambling revenue in 2017
The National Lottery Bulgaria has teamed up with Scientific Games to introduce an enhanced experience for customers.
The National Lottery and Scientific Games Team Up
A middling market, Bulgaria has offered some leeway for sports betting operators and online casinos to prosper. Not over-restrictive, the country’s National Lottery has been generating good financial results mostly through the sale of scratch cards and holding televised raffle shows on national TV.
The addition of Scientific Games as a partner to the Lottery, signals the operator’s readiness to shift towards online solutions, which promise to generate the highest number of revenues for the gambling industry in future. SG has introduced a number of its products, including:
- 88 Fortunes
- Giant’s Gold
- Rainbow Riches
Within 24 hour of launch time the games had already generated €500,000 or BGN1 million. Following the success, the Lottery is now planning to add more products to its portfolio. National Lottery Managing Partner Milen Ganev had the following to say:
Scientific Games’ digital products have proven an excellent fit for National Lottery Bulgaria, outperforming our expectations within the first 24 hours of launch. Our players are engaging with the games immediately, and we see demand and repeat gameplay growing every day.
Scientific Games CCO Steve Schrier has also commented on the newly-struck deal, saying that the National Lottery Bulgaria was a quintessential example of the type of partners that the lottery wants to work with.
Gambling Is a Huge Business in Bulgaria
Bulgaria does have its underbelly when it comes to gambling, but today the majority of businesses are mostly legal and regulated, although land-based casinos are not necessarily a preferred choice among locals.
In 2017, Bulgarian gambling revenue reached the heady $1.9 billion or BGN3 billion. The country’s GDP in that year was $59 billion, highlighting the immensity of the industry. It all started back in 2013, when legislators voted to introduce further tax breaks for gaming operators.
Without the corporate tax to worry about, gaming parlors started booming. The National Lottery Bulgaria has developed to the point where it’s a past-time for many people, too.
There hasn’t been much talk about the level of gambling addicts in the country nor the social responsibility of gaming companies, though, which needs to be addressed by Parliament.
Bulgaria presently harbors over 1,300 companies related to gambling and iGaming in one form or another, including Vasil Bozhkov’s New Gaming SA, Eurobet Ltd and National Lottery SA. Mr. Bozhkov’s net worth is estimated at over $1 billion. Much of this is thanks to his involvement with gambling.
