Jumbo Interactive doing its own thing in Mexico

Mike Veverka, the chief executive of Australian listed company Jumbo Interactive, has revealed that his company is to go it alone in its lottery venture in Mexico following the failure of the deal with local firm Sorteo Games earlier this year after almost two years of frustration.

This week Jumbo revealed that it was writing down the fair value of its venture with Sorteo Games of Mexico from $2.5 million to zero and has instead made progress on launching its own lottery website in the country.

Jumbo teamed with Sorteo in 2012 to further its ambitions regarding the Mexican online lottery market, and expected to be fully operational by the middle of 2013. However, after delays the company ended its operational relationship with Sorteo in March.

Ververka still has high hopes for the Mexican lottery market, saying in a release to the Australian Stock Exchange:

“Mexico still represents an enormous opportunity for Jumbo despite the initial setbacks. Significant progress has been made in launching our Mexican lottery website to a population of 118 million people.”

Nevertheless, the company expects its total transaction value and net profit after tax for the year ending June 30 2014 to be slightly lower than 2013.

Jumbo’s Australian business continues to progress, with the number of customer accounts up 9.6 percent to 1.72 million, and sales through the company’s ozlotteries.com site increasing by 4 percent….a little lower than in previous years.

In Germany, the company has connected with all sixteen of the German state lotteries, opening access to more German lottery fans. Saarland was the final state to go live with Jumbo’s offering via Jumbolotto.de.

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