New Irish National Lottery operator to boost online operations

According to The Irish Times newspaper, the bid was submitted through the Premier Lotteries Ireland Consortium comprising An Post, its pension funds and Camelot’s parent company, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

One of the significant features of the new agreement is that the licensee will have greater flexibility to operate online. The business currently makes less than 3% of its revenue from online operations.

Talks on finalising the license terms between the consortium and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will begin shortly and are expected to be concluded by the end of November. The Irish government is selling the lottery's licensing rights in an effort to raise much-needed funds for its struggling economy.

The 405 million euros offered by Premier Lotteries was significantly higher than industry estimates of between 250 million euros and 300 million euros that emerged during the bidding process. However, the agreed figure does fall some way short of the 500 million euros touted by some politicians.

The two other bidders involved in the process were global lottery and gaming companies, US-based Gtech and Australian set-up Tatts. The 405 million euros fee will be paid in two instalments; the first when the deal is signed later this year and the second when Premier Lotteries takes over the running of the licence in October 2014.

Premier Lotteries will have to pay 65% of its gross revenues to good causes.