GAMBLING INSIDER

Camelot, the UK’s National Lottery provider, has confirmed that it will conduct a ‘strategic review’ after a slump in ticket sales.

Camelot reported an 8.8% drop in ticket sales to £6.92bn for 2016/17, compared to last year’s £7.59bn. Although this was still Camelot’s fourth highest yearly sales, the company has recently found itself facing stiff competition from secondary lottery products, such as Lottoland, who are not obliged to give part of their proceeds to charity.

The company returns around 95p of every pound in revenue back to good causes, which are determined by the government. Camelot announced that during its 2016/17 financial year the National Lottery delivered £1.6m (excluding investment returns) for good causes representing more than £30m every week.

Moreover, the company’s strategic review will focus on four major business areas: commercial plans to boost sales performance, investment in technology, the current business structure and long-term succession. Camelot added that work needed to be done to re-engage players.

Jo Taylor, Chairman of Camelot, said: “Achieving the fourth-highest ever sales, creating a record number of lottery millionaires and raising over £30 million every week for Good Causes is no mean feat.

“However, sales in 2016/17 fell well short of where we’d like them to be – and that’s largely down to a disappointing year for draw-based games and Lotto in particular.”

He added: “There’s clearly work to be done to re-engage players. Given the current climate of economic uncertainty and increasing competition from the gambling sector, we expect 2017/18 to be equally, if not more, challenging for The National Lottery.”