Fortuna’s Czech Scratch Card Deal Collapse
In a very surprising move for the gambling industry, it has now been announced that Tipsport, one of the Czech Republic’s leading betting agencies, will not be carrying forward their joint lottery scratch card venture with the Central and Eastern European betting company Fortuna Entertainment.
Fortuna announced that the venture had been terminated earlier this month, saying that Tipsport had chosen to pull out of the agreement of their own accord. A specific reason for the decision, however, was not given.
As some may remember, the two companies made an agreement to work together on the venture in December of last year. The aim was to launch a new brand of scratch card games across the Czech Republic. All that remained to seal the deal was for the project to be given permission to go ahead from the Czech Antimonopoly Office (UOHS).
However, despite the fact that the UOHS game the project the go ahead, it has now been confirmed by Fortuna the Tipsport will no longer be joining them on their planned venture, meaning that the project has had to be terminated for now.
This will no doubt come as a disappointing blow for Fortuna Entertainment. Radim Haluza, the Chief Executive of Fortuna, expressed some regret at the decision, saying that he was sure that the joint operation would have been a logical step for both companies to embark on, which is now no longer to be a reality. Despite this, however, Haluza did appear optimistic, saying that Fortuna will move on from the original plan to focus on developing their scratchcard business for themselves. According to Haluza, there has been considerable rising interest being taken in Fortuna scratchcards in recent months, and for this reason they have decided to further the project themselves. He also said that although Fortuna had been keen and willing to enter into the partnership, they did not necessarily view Tipsport’s decision to be negative. Rather, they appear to have taken the experience as an opportunity to develop their own project.
Fortuna is one of the primary providers of scratch cards in Central and Easter Europe. They initially became involved in the Czech scratch cards business three years ago in May of 2011. In that time, they have managed to expand the business to offer up to 20 different kinds of scratchcards which can be bought in over 6000 different sale points across the Czech Republic.
