More Chinese Lottery Growth Expected Through Mobiles
Financial Times reports that while China is still behind in the overall lottery market (ninth place at the end of 2004), revenues from the lottery have grown by more than 50 percent per year for the last five years. Technology businesses in China have begun work on making lotteries available on mobile phones. China lottery company China Gloria Lotteries is working with the Sports Lottery Administration to begin offering regional sports lottery tickets which can only be bought through mobiles. China Unicom and China Mobile customers can already check lottery numbers through the SMS system. "Mobile lottery betting suddenly becomes a viable option for the man on the street without a credit card but who probably does have a mobile phone,” said Simon Miller a British gaming consultant with long experience in the Chinese sports betting market.
FlUXX Launches New Games
Hamburg-based company ANYBET GmbH, a subsidiary of lottery software solutions provider FLUXX AG, launched a new game, Extra-Lotto, Nov. 30 for six of its lottery clients, including NordwestLotto Schleswig-Holstein, Lotto Brandenburg, Lotto Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, AOL Deutschland, JAXX and freenet.de. Extra-Lotto was created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Lotto, concluding with a drawing Dec. 31for a grand prize of at least €2 million. ANYBET also placed a range of online lottery games on the Spanish lottery site, Loterias.com, with the release of Christmas-themed games like Loteria de Navidad and El Gordo.
BBC Unveils Millionaire Manor in Conjunction with National Lottery
A new BBC One primetime lottery show began Dec 3. In Millionaire Manor families of six battle for the chance to live in a sprawling multi-million dollar Victorian estate that includes a butler and personal chef. Each week the winning family gets to live for the next week in that lap of luxury, and at the end of that week, winning family competes to hold on to their millionaire status as three new families step in to challenge them. The competitions, like "guess who's richer" or "which item costs more?" are padded by National Lottery drawings like Lotto Extra and Thunderball that take place from within the house.
Entrants Line Up For UK National Lottery License Race
The Sunday Times reported that a group of leading British private-equity firms is considering getting in on the bid for the National Lottery, which has been run by Camelot since 1994. Firms like Candover, Cinven, CVC and Permira are all understood to have requested information from the National Lottery Commission (NLC), the industry regulator, and its adviser, NM Rothschild, about the terms of the new license that begins in 2009. It was also confirmed this week that Ladbrokes is working with the Greek company Intralot to enter a bid. Australian operator Tattersall’s, Italy's Lottomatica, and UK mega-media company, the Virgin Group are all thought likely to enter the ring. The NLC is expected to choose the winner by May, 2007.
New Development at Hungarian National Lottery
Szerencsejáték Rt., the Hungarian state gambling operator, has a project in the works, an interactive online platform with 6 new games, set to launch in 2006. The company is still testing the product. On November 21 the company launched a new 5-minute Keno game called Putto in its lottery shops.
Freelotto Owner Considers Moving Company to Scotland
Kevin Aronin may be looking to bring his online lottery business, U.S.-based Freelotto, to Scotland, claiming the move could create up to 300 jobs. He has allegedly sought legal advice and held informal talks with the Scottish economic development authorities about making the move. The Sunday Herald reported Aronin was recently in Scotland to present a $1million check to the first U.K. winner at freelotto.com. Aronin told the Herald that his business was limited in the United States because of the political climate and that an opportunity such as this could make Scotland the global capital of the lottery sector. He said that Freelotto had conducted 3 billion draws with its current staff of 30 and has earned US$150 million in revenues since it started in 1999.
South African Lottery Officials Warn of Net-based Scams
The National Lotteries Board (NLB) of South Africa in association with the National Gambling Board released a statement to alert citizens to several lottery scams circulating the Internet. The fraudulent companies operate through various fictitious names like Golden Rand Lottery, Sunset games SA and Junostakes, as well as sagcb.com, claiming to be the official lottery regulator Website. The scammers are contacting people via e-mail or telephone to tell them they have won by random selection a first, second or third place prize worth several million dollars. But the catch is in the processing fee--$4 to $6 thousand--to be paid by cash or money order to a fake financial services company supposedly representing the lottery company. The NLB advised citizens that South Africa only has one lottery operator, Uthingo.