Throughout the Christmas season, Lottery Daily will be revisiting some of the biggest stories of the lottery business world from the past year. This edition will be looking at stories from July and August.
July
Camelot receives WLA RG accreditation
Camelot Lottery Solutions announced it had been accredited as a certified Responsible Gaming Supplier by the World Lottery Association (WLA) after achieving alignment with the WLA Responsible Gaming standards for associate members.
The certification saw Camelot recognised for putting player safety at the core of its operations, with the organisation, as a result, becoming one of a handful of suppliers in the industry to achieve alignment with the rigorous standard since the 2015 certification inception.
Full story here
Svenska Spel pushes through tough period to record stable performance
Swedish lottery and online gaming group Svenska Spel published its interim report for the six-month trading period, January to June 2020, citing stable operating profit despite “difficult times”.
Operating profit of 12% was achieved in the face of the ongoing pandemic which, said the firm, had a major impact on revenues as a result of closed physical casinos and temporarily paused sports games. Number games continued to develop positively during the period, it added, and at the end of the second quarter sports games had begun to show an upturn.
Full story here
Lottery exemption from Spain ad ban ‘discriminatory’
The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) responded to the Spanish government radically altering its Royal Decree on Advertising mandate which saw the addition of further marketing and sports sponsorship restrictions on licensed operators.
A European Commission filing revealed that the Spanish government had drafted a series of new amendments to its approved Royal Decree on Advertising, banning gambling sponsorship across all professional sports leagues.
Further amendments saw Spain’s Consumer Affairs Ministry recommend a complete withdrawal of welcome bonuses as an online gambling customer incentive. However, the country’s popular state lotteries would not be covered by the new restrictions.
Full story here
August
UKGC launches fourth National Lottery licence competition
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) formally launched its competition to award the ‘fourth National Lottery operating licence‘.
The current (third) GBP multi-billion contract serviced by Camelot Group will expire in 2023, as the UKGC and its advisory panel opened its new concession to competitor proposals.
Full story here
IGT suffers ‘intense’ COVID impact
The global COVID pandemic hit International Game Technology hard, as revealed by its Q2 trading update for the period ended June 30. Consolidated revenue, operating income and global gaming all showed a decline, while lottery sales offered a mixed picture having slowed globally but performed relatively well in North America.
Global lottery revenue was down 26% on reduced traffic to points of sale and temporary game shutdowns in Italy, although the firm cited an improvement in gaming and lottery trends each month as venues re-opened and restrictions eased.
Full story here
Caixa Loterías experiences revenue setback in H1
Caixa Econômica Federal shared its financial results for the second quarter and the first half of the year, a period in which lotteries experienced an 8.2% setback in revenues to $1.3bn.
In the report shared by BNL Data, Caixa detailed that $504m of the revenue from the first six months of the year was sent to several Federal Government social programs.
Approximately 37.3% of the total collected by lotteries in Brazil was directed to social security, public security, sports, culture, education and health programs.
Full story here
