Europe’s biggest betting firm, OPAP, faces tough trading conditions and a drop in income and profitability if new Greek tax changes come into force, despite a favourable new deal that binds its agents to the company, according to analysts.

Greece’s new socialist government has placed plans to impose a new tax on gaming winnings on hold, as local media speculates on possible future policy decisions ahead.

Greece’s monopoly may not be privatised after all, despite speculation suggesting a sale of the 34 percent shareholding still in state hands.

The lack of a major football tournament during the summer and higher distribution costs pushed revenues lower at Opap in the third quarter as the Greek monopoly operator struggled to compete with growing online competition.

The Greek gaming market is highly lucrative yet highly restricted, a combination which has seen the jurisdiction become the arena for high profile disputes between the state monopoly and various online operators.

Liverpool-based bookmaker Stanleybet yesterday added Greece to the countries where it operates betting outlets - in a brazen challenge to the existence of an incumbent monopoly - provoking a predictable threat of legal action from the country’s sole betting operator OPAP.

Opap is facing tougher comparatives in the year ahead, particularly in sports betting, and the threat to the company’s monopoly status continues to provide a significant overhang for the business, according to recent analyst research.

Intralot’s chief executive says he believes the misguided instincts of governments to tax existing forms of gaming more heavily in times of economic crisis will inevitably give way to expanded gambling opportunities after the company saw its profits battered by a tax hike in Bulgaria.

Greek gaming monopoly OPAP is to pressure banks to block payments from online gaming companies operating illegally in Greece, the company’s CEO has indicated.

The decision by OPAP to halt its tender process and extend its contract for provision of technology in Greece with Intralot last year caused controversy and led to an unsuccessful legal challenge by GTech, one of the bidders excluded at the eleventh hour. Now the EU is getting involved and is looking at OPAP’s procurement processes at the same time as the legality of the organisation is also being challenged.