Already prominent in most parts of Europe, the online gambling industry is all set to turn its attention to the Balkan market, at least according to a report from Media and Entertainment Consulting Network (MECN).

MECN says that the Balkan area—which, for the purposes of the report, consists of Slovenia, Greece, Romania, Croatia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro—enjoys many forms of gambling, the most popular being sports betting.

The popularity of gambling, together with the possible membership of some Balkan states into the European Union and their individual wealth make the area worth analyzing.

MECN worked alongside local researchers and gathered information from close to 100 operators as well as experts and amongst the numbers gathered:

-Gross revenue for 2007 came in at €4.5 billion after prizes were paid out,

-turnover and wagers for the same period came in at €25 billion,

-60 percent of the experts that MECN talked to said that the growth potential for the Balkan region ranged from "great" to "very great" and

-a number of companies have presence in the area including Intralot (which MECN said could become a big player), Sportingbet (which sees 4 percent of its business from Bulgaria) and bwin and Bet-at-home recently began focusing more effort in the area.