Greek lottery firm Intralot proposes Medlotto

ATHENS, July 9 (Reuters) - Intralot (INLr.AT), the world's second-largest lottery systems provider, called on Mediterranean countries on Thursday to create a joint lottery which it said could help boost ties in the region.

Intralot, which runs betting games in more than a dozen countries around the world, has been aggressively seeking new contracts outside its home market Greece to benefit from the liberalisation of world gaming markets.

"EuroMillions, which is a European lottery ... can be our model," Greek Intralot's Chief Executive Constantinos Antonopoulos told a business conference in Athens.

The EuroMillions lottery was launched in 2004 in nine European countries and quickly became one of the world's biggest lotteries. It takes place once a week and offers a minimum jackpot of 15 million euros ($20.88 million).

Antonopoulos said the Mediterranean lottery (Medlotto) could help bolster ties and create new jobs in the region.

"Let's all work to Web the Med in every possible way and turn it into a major economic centre," he said.

The provider has said the downturn has created new acquisition opportunities around the world and that it was ready to take advantage of the situation.

Intralot trades at 7.8-times its estimated 2009 earnings, compared to 14.4-times for Italian Lottomatica (LTO.MI) and 18 for U.S. Scientific Games (SGMS.O). (Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)