I-Lottery Update - March
Espionage in Camelot
The UK's National Lottery Commission says Alexia Latham, a media relations manager at Camelot, used false identities to obtain information about rival bidders during that last National Lottery license bidding process.
The Commission's investigation revealed that Latham used three different aliases to obtain information from 13 individuals involved with competitors for the license. She used one alias with a fake e-mail address to pose as a student and con a lottery consultant into giving advice. She was finally caught when the consultant, trying to communicate with "the student", received an out-of-office reply from Latham's Camelot account. When confronted, Camelot denied that Latham was the student.
The Commission has ruled that Latham's actions are "most likely those of a single, relatively junior employee who has gone beyond her remit," and that Camelot has not breached its license rules.
European Charity Lotteries Form Alliance
The Association of Charity Lotteries in the European Union (ACLEU) has just launched. The ACLEU seeks to promote and represent the interest of its members in all matters relating to fundraising via charity lotteries. Members contribute a large share, up to 50 percent, of their sales to a wide range of non-governmental organizations, including Amnesty International, the World Wildlife Fund, Save the Children and UNICEF.
GEMed Becomes Boss of Boss
GEMed, a jointly-owned investment vehicle consisting of Medströms and Gtech, on Feb. 18 announced that it had secured 61.5 percent of Boss Media and must now make a mandatory bid for the rest. GEMed said that stock exchange rules required a bid for the rest of the group.
Boss Media Chief Executive Michael Hallén had previously said that GEMed controlled roughly 50 percent of Boss' issued share capital, after it upped its per-share offer from SEK 19.00 to SEK 25.00 ($4.00).
Tipp24 Exceeds Forecasts
Hamburg-based lottery specialist Tipp24 has "exceeded its own forecasts" for FY 2007 with consolidated net profits of 6.3 million euros. Full-yearly revenue was up 30 percent to 45 million euros, attributable in part to a 32.4 percent jump in registered customers against figures from the previous-year period.