Intralot nine-month profit down 25 percent

* Nine-month net profit 57.8 million euros

* Forex losses, Turkish business hurt results

* Financials to remain volatile in the short-term

(Adds CEO comment, detail)

ATHENS, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Intralot (INLr.AT), the world's second-largest lottery systems provider, posted a 25 percent fall in nine-month net profit, hit by weaker Turkish operations and foreign exchange losses.

"The top line was affected by a continuing sluggish global economy, foreign exchange impact, which is less severe than in the previous quarters, the outset of the new Turkish betting contract in March this year," Constantinos Antonopoulos, chief executive of the Greek company, said on Friday.

In March, Intralot renewed its contract in Turkey on a much lower fee. The company also said last year's results were also boosted by increased revenues from the European soccer championship.

Intralot, which also runs sports betting games in more than a dozen countries around the world, said net profit was 58 million euros ($87 million), versus a forecast for 58.9 million in a Reuters poll. Sales fell 15.4 percent to 681 million euros, below the forecast for 704 million.

In the third quarter, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 13.5 percent to 39.9 million euros, with net profit down 6 percent to 15.8 million.

Intralot said high depreciation charges weighed on the bottom line. Intralot has been expanding aggressively in all five continents in recent years, cashing in on liberalisation in world gaming markets.

Antonopoulos said Intralot's financials would remain volatile in the short term as the global downturn continued. He said the company was closely monitoring opportunities in France and the U.S. state of Illinois.

Intralot's shares trade at 7.4 times estimated 2009 earnings, compared with a multiple of 21 times for Scientific Games (SGMS.O), data from Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S showed.

(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Dan Lalor)

($1 = 0.6699 euro)

((angeliki.koutantou@thomsonreuters.com; +30 210 3376436; Reuters Messaging: angeliki.koutantou.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: INTRALOT/

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