Dear colleagues,
We welcome you to our April’s issue! March has been an exceptionally successful month. For the first time, we opened the session of the Athens Stock Exchange, by ringing the well-known ‘’bell’’ from the balcony. The issuance of our common bond loan was a great success, making us all very proud!
Heading to the top…we went literally one step higher, opening the doors to our Roof Garden, with artistic inspiration and mood, which was depicted in everyone’s photos.
At the same time, we received 8 Ermis Awards, while our Hospital Renovation initiative won in the category CSR Program Action of the Corporate Affairs Excellence Awards, realized by the Hellenic Management Association and our Responsible Gaming strategy received a special distinction during the Annual Sustainability Summit 2017 event, realized by the MBA international of the Economic University of Athens and Center for Sustainability and Excellence.
Committed to our corporate responsibility towards society, we actively participated in the Sports Academies festivals in Salonica and Athens, we organized a masquerade event at the Paediatric hospitals and last but not least, a special event for Kivotos children at the Natural History Museum.
Through our rebranded newsletter, which we hope you enjoyed, we will have the opportunity to present you in the interview section the Indirect Sales Channels Team Director, Dimitris Andriotis and we will get to know more about the sales and products’ network and the main pillars of the Indirect Retail Channel strategy.
The installation of Play Games (VLTs) and Virtual Games in our agencies continues steadily and new products are under way, such as the new and improved SCRATCH games and the Super List, which has been added to the promotional activities portfolio of PAME STOIXIMA. Also, in this month’s issue, we will have the opportunity to present you the South African horse betting provider, Phumelela, which gave to the Horse Races an international scent.
Stay tuned for more to come!
Dora Economou
Internal Communications Team Director |
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Getting involved in our brand activations made possible by our Sponsorship team!
We are so excited to present you the results of our activations achieved so far, that all of you, the members of the OPAP family enjoy through our sponsorships programs.
From September until now:
• More than 400 of you have been drawn at least once to watch a match of your favourite team and a total of 2,400 tickets has been distributed in more than 200 matches. And counting..!
• 14 of you along with your accompanying persons had the chance to experience 8 trips with Panathinaikos FC and our National Team, as well.
• 18 of you had the opportunity to experience a game from our court seat in the 4 BC courts that we sponsor
• 56 children out of 47 of our colleagues have lived the experience to escort the players in the playing field.
For those of you not yet aware of the participation process, click
here
to find out more on the draws procedure for the tickets that are distributed weekly. Additionally, for those of you, who have not signed up yet, so that your kid could live the player escort experience of his favourite player in the field, please email us at
sponsorship@opap.gr
Click
here
to watch a video of our activation with our player escorts.
More surprises, gifts and trips are waiting for you, so stay tuned to our internal communication through our email, our portal and Yammer!
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OPAP’s dynamic participation for the first time in the 6th Athens Half Marathon
On Sunday, March 19th, OPAP was present, for the first time, at the 6th Athens Half Marathon, this great sports fest, as SEGAS’ (the Greek Track & Field Federation) Major Sponsor.
Athens Half Marathon began in 2012 and has already been established as a major running event and a “milestone” in the runners’ preparation for the Athens Authentic Marathon. A total of 21,000 runners of all ages participated in this year's event in the sunny Athens center. Drummers dressed in the colors of the OPAP Running Team, gave the rhythm and boosted runners to complete the race, giving a cheerful touch to route. Among the participants were hundreds of OPAP Running Team members, who put their sports shoes on and took a pole position in front of Syntagma to participate at the race.
Participants of all ages have set their appointment for the 35th Athens Marathon, taking place in November 2017. OPAP actively supports Greek sports and has played an important role in the development of the running movement by being a Grand Sponsor of the Athens Marathon as of 2011.
Watch
here
a short video from the race. |
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What it took for a click!
For the 2nd consecutive year, OPAP organizes 10 Sports Academies Festivals throughout Greece! 10,400 children have the opportunity to play, compete as Paralympic athletes and participate in experiential activities.
Aiming to communicate to a wider audience the value of the team and fair play, the great idea to do a photoshoot with the actual children that participated in the Patras Festival came along. We all loved the idea instantly and we were determined to live up to the challenge of seeing it turning into reality.
The photoshoot had to take place right before the beginning of the Festival, while having to coordinate more than 800 children, aged 6-12 years old within just an hour!
The organizing team consisted of 15 people from OPAP, the advertising agency, the photographer’s team and the team responsible for organizing the Festivals. After several long meetings, the whole process was planned down to every detail and on the day of the Festival, everything worked like clockwork. The children enjoyed it as much as we did and we are very happy with the result, as we have a very nice image to communicate the Festivals and the children also have a wonderful souvenir of their experience! |
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Carnival day with the children of “Agia Sofia” Pediatric Hospital
"Emotional uplift"
, this was the description given by the Head of B’ Surgical Unit Nursing Staff to both our renovation work in the two greatest Children Hospitals and to the small carnival celebration that we organized for the hospitalized children. On February 23rd, our company, in collaboration with the Hospital’s medical and nursing personnel, who were dressed for the eventful masquerade, shared gifts and smiles to the children, transforming the Hospital wards into playgrounds. Animators, colorfully dressed, juggled, offered animal shaped balloons, face-painted the children and shared with them a fun experience.
Both the children and their parents enjoyed this joyful experience and thanked OPAP for the continuous support and effort to uplift the young patients’ psychology. |
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Offering Gifts to the Children of Kivotos
Committed to our corporate responsibility to society, we at OPAP stood by the children, during an event held at Goulandris Museum of Natural History for the children of Kivotos.
These children come from very poor families and the non-profit organisation of Kivotos is continuously trying to improve their living conditions.
With this joint initiative of the People & CSR Team, OPAP proved once again with this nice gesture of solidarity that it stands by the children who need our love and humanity, sharing this unique experience and gifts.
Our little friends had the chance to be guided at the museum’s exhibitions and Parodos team entertained them with various interactive theatrical and musical activities with topics related to nature, spring and the environment.
We are all proud to be involved in activations that provide direct support to society, focusing on needs of sensitive social groups. |
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Q: Please tell us about yourself!
A: I’m married and I have a 3-year-old baby boy, and as he says, his dad works at O(I)PAP.
Q: What is your previous professional background?
A: I joined OPAP 4 months ago. My former 20 years professional experience was in the banking and telecoms sector. I was responsible in the field of sales and, in particular, the sales networks in all forms (franchise, independent partners, organised trade, and small retail).
Q: What do you do for a hobby?
A: I like running long distances and I have already participated in 5 Marathons. I think that running long distances, apart from improving my physical condition, it helps me balance my impulsive nature. It teaches me self-discipline, patience, and commitment to my goal.
Q: What fun means to you?
A: Fun is an integral part of my everyday life, both personal and professional. I believe that it works as a decompression valve during difficult and demanding circumstances, but also as motivation for improving productivity. I am particularly glad that fun is part of the core values of this organisation.
Q: What is your personal brand life statement?
A: I’m going to use the words of my favourite author saying that: “Don’t chase the impossible, but extend the limits of the possible’’. My personal interpretation of this quote is that we can finally achieve much more than we initially believed we could - even if in the beginning things seem to be challenging or even impossible - by taking specific steps, with dedication to the goal and with passion for the achievement.
Q: What excites you the most about your day at OPAP?
A: The contact with a dynamic team of colleagues that manages to keep the fun and energy alive, despite the high demands of the everyday business life.
Q: Do you believe in luck?
A: I clearly believe and consider luck is a necessary component of success. I will use a quote that describes the best my belief: ‘’Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity’’.
Q: Which SCRATCH game suits you best?
A: My favorite game is the 12 months Luck, because it combines in a clever way the concept of luck and profit with a repetitive prize.
Q: What do you like the most about your role at OPAP?
A: What excites me the most, is that we are in a phase of considerable development both for the network of sales as well as that of the products. That gives me the opportunity to face different challenges, helping me to evolve professionally and personally at the same time.
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Indirect Retail Channels Team - Priorities
Q: Which are the main pillars of the Indirect Retail Channel strategy?
A: The main pillars of the Indirect Retail Channel strategy are:
• The development of our distribution both in quantity and in quality.
• Making long-term partnerships based on mutual interest with our distributors.
• Our development in new, non-traditional distribution channels.
Q: How you plan to increase indirect channel sales performance?
A: The demanding conditions prevailing in the market over the last years, regardless the objective difficulties also create opportunities for development. I believe that an obvious example of that, is the development of network distribution of SCRATCH in the “small retail” segment (kiosks, mini markets and convenient stores) where we plan to expand intensively. We have already set out and at the moment execute a development plan of partners based on incentives provided to our distributor, the attraction of the points of sale and the reinforcement of impulse buying of our products.
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Key Account Managers Team
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Babis Papatheodorou
Head of Wholesale Network
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Babis comes from the telecoms sector and has a vast experience in the development of sales network. Over the last 3 years, he has been responsible for all the traditional and lottery instant games (Laiko, Ethniko, Kratiko, SCRATCH) as well as the network distribution development of Wholesalers, the most important distribution network in terms of products’ turnover.
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Kostas Georgiadis
Head of Small Retail & New Channels
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Kostas with a background in the fields of FMCG & Retail, is responsible for the development of a reliable partners’ Network for the product sales of HL on new distribution channels, such as kiosks, mini markets, Super Markets etc.
With the simultaneous activation of the HL Sales Team, especially over the last year – the “Small Retail” market has been established as a main sales channel for SCRATCH, with continuous upward trend. |
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Meet the People of Indirect Sales Channels Team
Q: Who are the people within the Indirect Sales Channels Team?
A: The team consists of 12 people with common characteristics the passion for the achievement of goals and the team spirit, components necessary for every successful sales team.
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Top from the left:
Panagiotis Zougros, Georgios Giannoulos, Dimitris Andriotis, Antonios Flaskos, Kostas Georgiadis
Bottom from the left:
Thanasis Kapetanis, Eleni Tzifa, Athina Kouzou, Spiros Varelopoulos, Babis Papatheodorou
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Field Sales Team
Tzifa Eleni, Varelopoulos Spiros, Giannoulos Georgios, Zografos Michalis, Zougros Panagiotis, Kapetanis Thanasis, Marazopoulou Sofia, Bastanis Konstantinos, Klironomos Theofilos, Prodromidis Prodromos, Flaskos Antonios.
The ‘’front line’’ of the Indirect Sales Channels.
They have taken up the everyday, demanding task of the visits and contacts with our endpoints of sale (kiosks, mini markets, convenient stores etc.) for the attraction of new points of sale, the better activation of the already existing ones and for the overall management of our business relationship with them as well.
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Team's Assistant: Kouzou Athina
The ‘’heart’’ of our team. Athina has undertaken the demanding task of both supporting me personally and coordinating and supporting the team as a whole, as far as the internal and external procedural obligations are concerned.
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Welcome on board! The OPAP family grows
We hope you will enjoy your journey and discover more about our company.
May your professional experience at OPAP be unforgettable and full of fun and dynamic moments!
Warm welcome to:
1. Malagkoniari Sofia, VLTs Retail Support Supervisor, Retail Operations Team
2. Pyritidis Alexandros, GHS Area Sales Representative, Gaming Halls Operations Team Thessaloniki
3. Chouliaras Alexandros, Public Relations Team Director, Corporate Affairs Team
4. Papavlasopoulos Konstantinos, Project Manager, Technology Team
5. Sventzouris Ioannis, System Engineer, Technology Team
6. Kapetanis Athanasios, North Greece Region Supervisor, Hellenic Lotteries - Retail Operations Team - Thessaloniki
7. Karachalios Panos, GHS Technical Support Supervisor, Gaming Halls Operations Team
8. Manikas Georgios, GHS Retail Marketing Design Specialist, Retail Operations Team
9. Petrozelis Petros, GHS Retail Marketing Design Specialist, Retail Operations Team
10. Synanidi Elisavet, Retail Marketing Specialist, Retail Operations Team
11. Limnialis Antonios, GHS Logistics & Warehouse Specialist, Gaming Halls Operations Team 12. Mandalis Ioannis, Talent Acquisition Specialist, People Team
13. Oikonomeas Sotirios, GHS POS Technical Coordinator & Product Compliance, Gaming Halls Operations Team
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And to the 8 new members of the Retail Operations Team, Retail Construction Projects:
1. Zisis Konstantinos
2. Katsas Christos
3. Hliadi Anna
4. Tsionis Dimitris
5. Zorzos Ioannis
6. Malavazos Konstantinos
7. Safouris Nikolaos
8. Wills Anna
Finally, best of success to Sophia Tata, who moved from OPAP SA to Horse Races SA in the position of Markopoulo Destination Development.
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News from our Football team
Our Team has recorded one win against Citibank with score 7-2 for the Championship, two wins against ATMOS LAB for the play-offs with scores 2-0 and 1-0 respectively and one defeat against Attikes Diadromes with score 4-1, finishing 3rd in the 1st group with 40 points with play-off games to follow for the final ranking and date yet to be decided.
Regarding the Cup, we have qualified to the next round after winning the ETHEL team with 1-0. We also played against Regency Casino and we were excluded in the penalty shootout.
Stay tuned for our next games!
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Debut at Athens Stock Exchange for OPAP's corporate bond
OPAP’s corporate bond started trading for first time on March 22nd 2017 on the Athens Stock Exchange as a fixed income product at a celebratory, special ceremony, well attended by market representatives and authorities officials, in which Damian Cope “rang the bell”, declaring the start of the trading day.
OPAP’s CEO underlined that the issuance constitutes an important landmark for the Greek corporate bond market, a loud vote of confidence in the Greek capital markets and, consequently, in the Greek entrepreneurship and economy.
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Now, it is 5 times easier to win 50€ or 100€!
Following a successful past performance, the two SCRATCH games “Next to Go for 50” and “Next to Go for 100” are back, new and improved, now offering 5 times better odds at winning 50€ or 100€. With just 1€ or 2€ respectively, one can fulfill his/her everyday desires in an instant!
The initial launch of the two games, a year and a half back, built SCRATCH’s brand image as a game of many and frequent winnings up to 100€. Now, the two games offer even more of those “attractive” prizes of 50€ and 100€. Additionally, they feature higher 1€/2€ recycling, in order to extend the playing experience of customers. They offer frequent winnings, as both have the highest minimum guaranteed prizes per pack out of all SCRATCH games (more than 190€ out of the 300€-pack are guaranteed, while every “Next to Go for 50” pack has a 50€ prize).
The relaunched family is promoted with extensive communication and promotional material. Furthermore, it has placement priority at points of sale of small retail, as well, in order to become widely available for trial by new players.
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PAME STOIXIMA
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Another fascinating month for the PAME STOIXIMA players, since February 24th SUPER LIST has been added to our promotional activities portfolio! Super List is an independent section inside our PAME STOIXIMA coupon offering to our players, who choose to play at least 5folds:
• Better odds
• Bigger Fonts
• Simpler event code numbering -
from 415 to 477
• Minimum odds changes (when necessary)
The markets offered at the Super List are 1X2,U/O 1,5 Goal ,U/O 1,5 HT,U/O 2,5 Goal, U/O,3,5 Goal and Goal / No Goal.
Super List from 24/02 till 13/03 represents 1.2% of total pregame turnover, generating app. €470k!
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TZOKER: MYTHS and REALITY
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Are you ready to bust the 4th myth of TZOKER? If we were to tell you that it relates to Christmas, does this ring a bell? Can you guess what it is?
Every time that the Christmas period is approaching, rumoring explodes regarding jackpots that are manipulated in order to be distributed just in time for the festive period. Do you believe this? Let’s see what the truth is.
MYTH #4
"Jackpots of TZOKER are deliberately increased during the Christmas period”
REALITY #4
The perception that TZOKER is increasing its jackpots during Christmas has its roots back in the history of the game: until 2012, the game used to increase the announced amount of jackpots during the days of Christmas or New Year. The increase of the amount was happening as a promotional activity, by adding all undistributed wins at the end of the year, since the redistribution has been an obligation of OPAP. Then, the law changed and since 01/01/2013 these winnings are being directed to the Greek State. Due to these past promotional activities, people built a perception that “jackpots of TZOKER are manipulated to explode during Christmas when players are more susceptive to play”. However, the truth is that what people used to experience was just a promotional activity that does not take place anymore!
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HORSE RACES S.A. welcomes PHUMELELA and Muzi Yeni at Markopoulo
The exciting action from the South African racetracks came to Greece and Horse Races S.A. welcomed Phumelela, the South African horse betting provider.
The already successful cooperation between the two companies was presented in a special event, on Saturday, March 11th, at the Racetrack in Markopoulo where Phumelela was the sponsor of the Greek Race day on Sunday.
It is a company with daily action and races 364 days a year from S. Africa, Dubai, Singapore, Mauritius and Zimbabwe. Each year 3,800 races are being organized that please even the most demanding players.
As expected, all eyes on Sunday’s races were on famous S. African jockey Muzi Yeni, who travelled in our country along with Phumelela executives. The top jockey rode on all 6 races of the program and he won one of them!
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OPAP Stores are welcoming PLAY Games!
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PLAY Games (VLTs) are now part of our OPAP stores!
The beginning was made in early February with a pilot program in
10 stores in Athens
, which concluded successfully, having ensured a smooth installation and operation process for our stores, while receiving positive feedback from hundreds of satisfied customers.
Until today, we have counted more than
500 visits from customers
, who are eager to get familiar and entertained with our PLAY games. The audience consists of both men and women, who express enthusiasm for
the high profits on offer
, and
the opportunity to live this unique gaming experience in the OPAP store of their neighborhood.
Upon the successful completion of the pilot, we carry on with our scheduled roll-out plan, aiming at introducing PLAY games in
1,800 agencies throughout Greece by the end of the year.
A new exciting era begins for our OPAP stores!
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We dynamically continue the Investment in our Network! |
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The plan for the investment in our network is now in place! We are pleased to inform you about the latest developments and actions related to the significant investment in our network, which aim to exploit development prospects and create benefit and value for our OPAP stores.
Specifically, we have already proceeded with:
•
PLAY Games (VLTs) in OPAP Stores:
Following the successful pilot in 10 agencies in Athens, we continue our expansion plan to 40 regions in Greece!
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Introducing Virtual Games:
Monitor Games give their place to Virtual Games, which are installed in 91 pilot agencies, targeting a roll-out phase from April 18th.
•
Central Electricity Supply Agreement:
Our newest collaboration with HERON S.A., provides up to 32% discount to our Agents’ electricity fees.
•
Cancelation of Unsubscribed Lotteries:
This long-awaited program offers a solution for the cancellation of unsold tickets through Coronis Terminals
We are daily alongside our partners and actively put the foundations for the common future of OPAP and the agents.
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Security Tip of the Month
Use of personal email accounts (Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) for corporate purpose (document or other information type exchange) is strictly prohibited. Consult our Corporate Security Policies for Safe Internet & Email Usage.
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OPAP’s bond: Great satisfaction among the investment community
With the participation of more than two hundred institutional investors, analysts and members of the stock market - after presentations to smaller groups of analysts, having preceded, OPAP management’s presentation for the issuance of a five-year bond loan of 200 million euros was held at the Concert Hall on the 13th of March. Mr. Damian Cope, CEO, Mr. Michal Houst, Chief Financial Officer, as well as Messrs. Nikos Polymenakos, George Vitorakis (Investor Relations Division) and Zissimos Papaioannou (Treasury Division) extensively presented in front of the Capital Market Commission, Athens Stock Exchange and financial market representatives the bond terms and OPAP’s strategy.
Finally, the bond issuance turned to be of a great success, as there was 2.1 times oversubscription with total demand from investors reaching € 421 million euros, with a 3.5% yield. The successful bond issuance is a milestone for the domestic financial market, as it proved by far larger compared to any previous corporate issuances and moreover it highlights the investors’ confidence to the company.
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The winning team with T. Vassileiou, VP, CFA Society, George Eleftheriou, coordinator of the event & member of OPAP IR Team, S. Fokas, OPAP’s A’ Vice-Chairman, N. Polymenakos, Director of Investor Relations of OPAP
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OPAP hosts the CFA Society Greece final competition in Horse Races premises
In the context of the completion of the Greek part of the global competition
"CFA Institute Research Challenge"
, OPAP IR Team was pleased to welcome the seven student teams from the top Universities of Business and Finance in Greece with their mentors at the Horse Races premises in Markopoulo on Saturday, March 18th. The students - who had been working on OPAP’s analysis for four months in the same way as professional analysts do - presented and analyzed their investment proposal to a Committee consisting of investment professionals. The team of Accounting & Finance Department of Athens University of Economics & Business gathered the highest combined report and presentation score, advancing to compete against teams from Europe and Middle East and targeting towards the global final, which will be held in Prague on the 28th of April 2017.
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Our Roof garden has a name!
Following the opening of our Roof Garden and the mini internal photo contest on Yammer, we proceeded with the name of our new area.
We thank you for your participation and the interest that you have shown. The proposals you sent to us were posted on our Portal in the form of poll. The most popular proposal has been:
OPAP Sky
.
Congratulations to the Godparents our Roof Garden, as they were many! Their names will be revealed in May’s issue, where they will have the opportunity to write a short article.
Therefore, we would like to remind you that specific rules of operation shall apply, which we should all respect in order to ensure the best function of our new area and the best service offered for all of us.
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The gym at our HQ will open very soon!
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You will have the chance to meet our in-house gym Trainer/Coach, Mr. Costas Lazaridis. Our gym is a modern and dynamic space, available for individual exercise and work out. Stay tuned for the details in the internal announcement!
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Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is here!
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We are happy to share with you the launch of EAP, which many of you asked during the values focus groups. The program focuses on assisting to the development of well-being, not only for all of us, as members of OPAP, but to our family members as well. EAP includes a 24 hour / 7days support telephone line as well as insightful workshops at the office. Stay tuned for more details in the internal announcement!
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Employment event on April 4th
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Getting up to date with the latest developments of the 3rd. pillar of our Corporate Responsibility program.
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Easter Bazaar
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From People Team in cooperation with the foundations of Estia, SOS Children’s Villages and Theotokos. Join us to live together the joy of giving on April 6th & 7th, at the main lobby area of our Headquarters!
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Colour Day Run
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On Sunday, April 9th – OPAP Running Team participates in the Colour Day Run, a special race, in which sports comes closer to colour and fun!
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