"I am delighted to be working with Radim and the team to drive our business to the no 1 market share position in all our regulated territories and to expand the reach of the Fortuna brand over the coming years," said W. Walsh.

Radim Haluza has been fully familiar with Fortuna since its acquisition by Penta Investments group, when he was involved in the financial and tax planning for the entire transaction. He has been in Fortuna since May 2011, when he joined the company from his position of CEO of Žabka, a.s. which was sold by the Penta to Tesco in March 2011. Until now, he held the position of COO of Sports Betting.

"My priority will be to further develop the sport betting business and to become a leader in on-line and mobile betting in this region in order to benefit from its fast progress. Also, I want to focus on our goal to become a strong no 2 in the Czech lottery market and to reach a break-even of lottery project in the first half of 2013," commented R. Haluza.

"Both Wilf and Radim have been with Fortuna for a long time and know the organisation thoroughly. I am certain that this move will strengthen the performance of the company and ensure the continuity of the business in order to bring maximum value to the shareholders," added Jozef Janov, Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

Radim Haluza (37) graduated from the University of Economics in Prague, Faculty of Finance and Accounting, where he also spent part of his studies in London at King's College. He started working for Penta as a Financial Controller prior to his appointment as their Chief Financial Officer (CFO). During his time at Penta he was responsible for the structuring of transactions and securing funding.

In 2009 he became CEO of Žabka, a.s., a retail chain with more than 120 shops and 700 employees, where he was responsible for increasing annual turnover from 500 million CZK to 2.1 billion CZK. He managed Žabka until the exit of Penta, who sold the chain to Tesco for more than 1 billion CZK.