Greek lottery and betting operator OPAP started 2019 off with its best quarterly revenue performance in nine years.

On Wednesday, OPAP released its first quarter financial report card, which showed overall revenue rising 5% year-on-year to €396m in the three months ending March 31. Earnings improved 28% to €156m while net profit shot up 43.5% to €57.2m, although this would have risen by a slightly more modest 25% excluding a £7.4m one-off benefit.

The revenue figure is OPAP’s strongest quarterly result since 2010, reflecting the ongoing rollout of its 25k video lottery terminals (VLT). VLT revenue hit €68.9m, up 59% year-on-year and VLT share of overall revenue was up nearly six points to 17.4%.

A court ruling in April cast doubt on the legality of the government’s awarding of OPAP’s VLT concession, but OPAP insists the ruling is “purely procedural.” OPAP had installed nearly 20k of its VLTs by the end of Q1, only 1k higher than at the end of 2018, but the company expects to have installed the full complement of machines by the end of the year.