Camelot, the operator of the British National Lottery, has revealed that ticket and instant win game sales are declining as players show signs of “belting” in the face of rising costs.
Camelot, who recently filed a proceeding against the Gambling Commission after losing the next license of lottery rival Allwyn, had 3% (£ 283.2 million) sales for the year to March 31. It decreased to 8.1 billion pounds.
Most of the decline was that the National Lottery sales were down 7%, down £ 240m to £ 3.4bn.
The group partially fell to the end of Covid’s limits. This means that “competition for people’s attention and spending has intensified.”
We will continue to invest and innovate to respond to the changing consumer environment.
However, while scratch card sales remained below pre-pandemic levels, “increasing economic uncertainty” curbed immediate sales as consumers were under pressure from rising cost pressures. It also became clear.
Sales of 44,500 retailers offering state-owned lottery products fell 4% annually to £ 4.7 million.
It blamed pandemic restrictions earlier in the year, but more recently, the cost of living crisis it said has delayed retail recovery because “consumers have tightened their belts.”
Retailers still account for nearly 60% of the group’s total sales, he added.
According to the group, draw-based games worked better, but ticket sales were still down £ 43.2m to £ 4.6bn, with less EuroMillions rollovers.
In 2021/22, 15 draws were held in jackpots over £ 100 million, 22 in the previous year.
Camelot added that the end of Covid’s restrictions reduced online sales by £ 93 million to £ 3.4 billion, due to lower restrictions on online play and wallets for potentially risky players. But there is also.
£ 1.9 billion was generated annually for good reason, an increase of £ 24.3 million compared to last year, worth £ 36 million each week, the second highest total.
Nigel Railton, Camelot’s Chief Executive Officer, said: It continues to be a huge success in a safe and convenient way. “
“For the next year, we will continue to invest and innovate to adapt to the changing consumer environment,” he said.
In March, Camelot lost his license to run the lottery from 2024 after running the game for 30 years.
The five-year license was awarded to Allwyn, formerly known as Sazka, who runs lottery tickets in Austria, Italy and Greece and proposes to reduce the cost of UK tickets from £ 2 to £ 1. I did.
However, Camelot began proceedings just a month later and challenged the decision.
Questions have also been raised about the relationship between Allwyn’s sister company and Russian gas giant Gazprom.
Labor lawmakers asked the government what checks were done to make sure they had no financial or political ties to the Vladimirputin administration.
Allwyn’s sister company, MND, operates a gas storage venture with Gazprom in the Czech Republic, but is looking for ways to end the involvement of Russian companies.