Greek Organisation of Football Prognostics S A : OPAP to take majority stake in online bookmaker Stoiximan's Greek, Cypriot business

OPAP, Europe's fourth largest gaming company, has agreed to acquire a controlling stake in the fast-growing Greek and Cypriot business of online bookmaker Stoiximan, it said on Tuesday.

OPAP, which already holds a 36.8% stake in Stoiximan's online operations in Portugal, Romania and Germany, has agreed to buy a 51% stake in Stoiximan's Greek and Cypriot operations.

On Tuesday, OPAP said it had received approval from Greece's competition authority to proceed with the acquisition, and had also agreed to buy an additional stake to bring its total shareholding in the Greek and Cypriot business to 84.49%.

OPAP said it will pay 163.4 million euros ($177.42 million) for the combined stake in the course of this year.

Stoiximan group holds a share of almost 50% in the Greek and Cypriot online gaming market. Online betting accounted only for about 11% of OPAP's gross gaming revenue of 1.8 billion euros ($1.95 billion) last year.

(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)