Gamble of the week: monopoly gaming operator

Paul Hill's share tip for the brave this week is an operator of lottery, scratch-card and sports-betting games, with soaring revenues and €950m in the bank.

Unless you've visited Greece recently, you've probably never heard of OPAP. Yet it's the largest quoted gambling firm in Europe, worth about twice as much as William Hill and Ladbrokes put together.

It is Greece's monopoly operator of lottery, scratch-card and sports-betting games, with an exclusive licence until 2020. Despite the recession, OPAP is in rude financial health. Last year's revenues rose 9% year on year to €5.52bn and underlying EBITDA came in at €1.06bn. The group ended March with a war-chest of €950m in net funds.

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Paul gained a degree in electrical engineering and went on to qualify as a chartered management accountant. He has extensive corporate finance and investment experience and is a member of the Securities Institute.

Over the past 16 years Paul has held top-level financial management and M&A roles for blue-chip companies such as O2, GKN and Unilever. He is now director of his own capital investment and consultancy firm, PMH Capital Limited.

Paul is an expert at analysing companies in new, fast-growing markets, and is an extremely shrewd stock-picker.