Regular general meeting of SAZKA approved the firm’s business activities

SAZKA’s overall 2008 revenues were us$ 647 million while revenues from betting and lottery activities, its main business, reached us$ 422.9 million. Earnings after tax were almost us$ 67.8 million. On a year-on-year basis, overall revenues were up by 19.1% while betting and lottery revenues rose by 5.3%.
 
Profit, by contrast, due to the depreciating CZK and its negative impacts on the re-pricing of liabilities arising from a bond issue – was down by 11.3%. With these effects excluded, earnings of the company before tax would have increased by 8.6% between 2007 and 2008.
 
Sales (stakes) in the main business were the largest in more than a 50-year history of the company. The greatest year-on-year rises were generated by stakes in sports and odds bets (by 53.9%), the Euromilión number lottery (42.8%) and the StarPort gaming system (by 39.2%); stakes in Sportka, the oldest and most popular number lottery in the Czech Republic, also went up, by 5.8%.
 
Prizes in excess of us$ 52,213 were paid out to almost 70 players in 2008, with 24 of them having won more than us$ 522,135. The largest amount – us$ 4,297,943- was paid out to a holder of a ticket placed in the South-Moravian Region.
 
In 2008, SAZKA launched Internet portal e-Sazka, with the Internet odds betting service added this year. The company also launched the Klub SAZKA loyalty scheme, and introduced fast-draw games Dice and Lucky Lines, as well as new issues of instant lotteries, into the market. It also upgraded the offer of the StarPort gaming system while the portfolio of non-lottery services was extended with the option of paying for goods and services ordered over the Internet.
 
In the first quarter 2009, compared to the same period of last year, its revenues were up by 14.3%, betting and lottery sales went up by 9.7%, and earnings after tax rose by 7.8%.
 
Shareholders of SAZKA, which is the largest non-governmental provider of funds to good causes in the Czech Republic, are civic associations active in sport and physical education (Czech Sports Association, Czech Sokol Organization, Czech Association Sport for All, Autoklub of the Czech Republic, Association of Sports Union of the Czech Republic, Czech Olympic Committee, Czech Shooting Federation, Association of Sports Unions and Clubs of the Czech Republic, and Orel). Since 1956, SAZKA has paid more than us$ 1.4 billion to good causes, particularly in sport and physical education.
 
SAZKA operates instant and number lotteries, sports and odds bets, fast-draw games, and a central lottery system with interactive video-lottery terminals. In the non-lottery business, it offers a mobile phone top-up service, selling tickets for cultural, sports and other events, cash payments by paying-in slips, invoice and insurance payments, a sales module, and payments for services and goods ordered over the Internet. SAZKA has paid out more than us$ 4.6 billion in winnings since 1956.