Irish lottery preferred bidder announced

Making the Irish media headlines Thursday was the announcement that Premier Lotteries Ireland, a consortium comprising the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, parent of the British national lottery operator Camelot, and the Irish postal authority AnPost are the preferred bidders for a 20-year contract to operate the Irish National Lottery.

Early media reports suggest that the struggling Irish government will reap Euro 405 million from the deal – substantially better than most industry predictions, but lower than some political hopes that it may be worth Euro 500 million.

The agreement gives the consortium enough leeway to realise plans to boost the online element of the enterprise, which is widely acknowledged as too small at present, delivering only 3 percent of wagers.

The Irish government’s Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the consortium will now move to the next step in negotiating licence requirements, a phase that will hopefully culminate in agreement by the end of next (November) month.

Premier has already agreed that 65 percent of gross revenues will be paid to worthy lottery causes in Ireland.

Premier Lotteries Ireland competed with two other entities for the contract, Australian betting giant Tatts and the international lotteries group GTech.

Financial media reports indicate that the Euro 405 million consideration is to be paid in two instalments, with the first falling due on signature of the contract and the second when operations are expected to start late 2014.

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