Camelot profits rise despite fall in Lottery sales
CAMELOT UK Lotteries, the licensed operator of the National Lottery, has reported a boost in profits last year, despite falling ticket sales and charitable contributions.
The company’s accounts yesterday revealed that its profits before income tax for the year up to March stood at £76.8m, increasing from £72.2m for last year.
The company attributed the boost to a fall in administrative expenses, despite a partial offset by a reduction in net income. However, gross ticket sales for the same period valued at £6.73bn, down from £6.98bn last year. Within those revenues, sales for draw-based games fell by 6.6 per cent, largely driven by a poor performing EuroMillions, which failed to repeat last year’s sales boom.
In contrast, scratchcards and instant win games saw an increase of 3.8 per cent. The total amount raised for good causes fell to £1.75bn for the year, representing 26 per cent of sales, from £1.95bn for 2013, which made up 28 per cent of total sales.
Camelot attributed the sales decline to the drop in sales for draw-based games, which return more in percentage terms than scratchcards.
Camelot’s chief executive designate Andy Duncan commented: “As we look forward to celebrating 20 years of the National Lottery next month, we’re determined to build on this momentum. We’ve just successfully launched a major new online and mobile platform, which is transforming the way players interact with our games across all devices. On top of that, we’ve got really exciting plans for the second half of the year.”
Duncan replaced Camelot’s outgoing chief Dianne Thompson CBE, who retired on Friday after 17 years with the firm.