Sugal & Damani Group, India’s largest lottery operator, has announced it has entered the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC)’s competition to become the operator of the fourth licence to run the UK National Lottery by completing its response to the Gambling Commission’s Selection Questionnaire.
The Group, which announced it had completed its response to the regulator’s Selection Questionnaire, also participated in the 2007 tender process where it was declared a reserved bidder for running the UK lottery, which is currently operated by Camelot.
Kamlesh Vijay, Group CEO of Sugal & Damani said: “As a leader in operating lotteries across India and other jurisdictions, Sugal & Damani has shown its deep interest to operate the UK National Lottery since 2007 when it participated and also got selected as a reserve bidder by qualifying all required standards like propriety, technology, player protection, channel management, financial capability, etc.”
The technology arm of Sugal & Damani, Skilrock Technologies, is a solution provider for lottery, gaming and commercial services operations across 26 jurisdictions around the world, including some of the prominent World Lottery Association (WLA) member lotteries.
The company has a combined installation base of over 200,000 POS (point-of-sale) and seven million igaming players enabled by its platform and content consisting of more than 70 games.
Vijay added: “We are looking for a fair and open competition that UKGC has initiated, we are very much in the game, we are in the final stages of creating a strong consortium of credible partners, the details of which will be shared in due course.
“As far as the UK lottery market is concerned, it is a large one and highly reputed. There are a huge local following and brand reputation for the UK National lottery, but there are challenges in the market too because people are looking for new excitement and there is stiff competition from other gambling products.
“We believe that people have a soft corner due to the fact that lotteries contribute more towards well defined good causes, so that attitude is a big plus point. However, continued innovation is very much required in a responsible way to consolidate on this soft corner. Being an organization with deep-rooted innovation in every sphere of our activity we are happy to be in the competition.”
