Camelot Lottery Sales Rise Significantly
Camelot, the UK national lottery operator, which is owned by the Canadian Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, published its half year figures for the six months leading up to September 24th.
The group showed that total UK lottery ticket sales increased by 19.9% in the six month period, despite a struggling English economy.
National lottery instant play games, or scratch cards, made up a quarter of the group's revenues, showing the huge popularity of this type of gambling entertainment.
Total sales grew to £3.26 billion in the measured period, according to Camelot's lottery sales rise report.
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan purchased Camelot in March last year for £389 million and the lottery group has invested heavily in updating its scratch cards and other brands in order to attract a bigger audience.
Under the conditions of last year's contract, Ontario teachers acquired shares from Camelot's five shareholders: De La Rue Holdings, Fujitsu Services, Cadbury Holdings, Thales Electronics and Royal Mail Enterprises. The deal obtained the approval from Camelot's UK regulator, the National Lottery Commission.
At the time, the Chief Executive of Camelot, Dianne Thompson, said that the group welcomed the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan's commitment to the National Lottery's ongoing success and looked forward to opportunity of working with them to continue this progress.
Scratch Cards Camelot's Fastest Growing Product
According to Camelot's report, scratch cards are its fastest growing product, and the six month sales reached £817 million (up 26% year on year). Scratch cards are sold at supermarkets, gas stations and newsagents, as well as through online gaming sites.
Several years ago, Camelot decided to increase the sales commission offered to scratch card retailers from 5% to 6%, making it more lucrative for them to sell these cards over EuroMillions and other lottery cards.
There are nearly 29,000 lottery terminals in existence selling Camelot products across the UK and Camelot believes that there is room for a further 8,000 terminals.
Camelot has said that if the UK Gambling Commission agrees to extend the group's 10 year monopoly license - set to expire in 2018 - to run the National Lottery for a further five years, it will open another 8,000 lottery terminals.
Recently Camelot updated its scratch card collection to incorporate more themes, including the latest seasonal-inspired games such as Snow me the Money and Christmas Millionaire. The group is also hoping to expand to other markets in the world and is examining options to run foreign lotteries in selected countries.
