UKGC hires Rothschild investment bankers to choose next National Lottery operator

The UK Gambling Commission has retained investment bankers from Rothschild to select the next operator of the National Lottery.

Camelot, which has been owned by a Canadian pension fund since 2010, is likely to face stiff competition for the right to hold onto the monopoly, as former Express and Channel 5 owner Richard Desmond has already expressed interest, calling for the lottery to be returned to British hands.

During previous tenders, Camelot has beaten the likes of Sir Richard Branson and Indian lottery and diamond conglomerate Sugal & Damani, the Telegraph reports.

Rothschild are joined by accountancy firms EY and Deloitte as well as law firm Hogan Lovells in a quartet of key decision-makers.

The Gambling Commission said the National Lottery monopoly should remain in place rather than be broken up and shared among multiple operators - an idea that had previously been floated.

The National Lottery was last put out to tender in 2009. Camelot was handed a 10-year mandate that was later extended to 2023.

Interested parties will be invited to join a tender process that is scheduled to formally start next year. 

It has grappled with falling ticket sales in recent years. Boss Nigel Railton took over in November 2017, admitting that the National Lottery had "lost relevance" in the lives of Britons.

He implemented a string of changes that included returning the main draw to live television. In June Mr Railton said that draw-based games such as Lotto were now “back in good health”.

The game has not been without controversy, however. Last August, Camelot was fined £1.2m by the Gambling Commission for a series of failings that included incorrectly issuing “non-winning” messages to players.

Sir Richard’s Virgin Group was pipped by Camelot in 1994 after authorities snubbed the idea of a not-for-profit lottery. He returned in 2001 with a rival called The People’s Lottery only to miss out again and branded re-award the lottery to Camelot as a “cowardly decision”.

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, whose investments include London City Airport and the Irish lottery, bought Camelot for almost £400m nine years ago.

Neil McArthur, chief executive of the Gambling Commission, said: “We want to build on the tremendous success of the National Lottery and we are determined to run a fair and transparent competition process that maximises the opportunities for innovation and creativity whilst protecting the special status of the National Lottery.”