Lottoland passes run rate milestone of €300m
Chief exec Nigel Birrell describes 2016 as a “landmark year” for the firm, with Spain’s El Gordo to cap it off in style
Lottoland chief executive Nigel Birrell believes his firm is unrivalled in the emerging bet-on-lotteries market, revealing the operator recently passed the €300m revenue run rate milestone.
Speaking exclusively to EGR Intel, Birrell described 2016 as a “landmark year” for Lottoland, said the firm now has a customer base of more than 4.5 million, and that revenues were on course to exceed those it posted in 2015 by three times.
“The lottery betting market has been in a transitional phase in 2016 with new entrants arriving in the market, but the truth is no one really measures up to us yet,” Birrell said.
“We’ve launched in new territories – in particular, our Australia launch in January was phenomenally successful. We’ve also extended our offering, adding new lotteries to our betting portfolio as well as exciting new scratchcard, games and instant win verticals, giving our customer more choice than ever before.
“2016 has been a landmark year for our business, a year in which we’ve really upped the game, truly disrupting the $300bn lottery industry.
“We now have well over 4.5 million customers worldwide and a run rate of €300m that will see us beat the €100m achieved in 2015 three times over – that’s something that we are really proud of,” he added.
The chief exec highlighted the company’s insurance linked securities and risk management processes as “the bedrock of our huge recent growth” and was excited by the prospect of the upcoming El Gordo lottery in Spain, which has a prize pot of more than €2bn.
“The El Gordo is a phenomenon in its native Spain, where whole communities gather to watch the annual draw which takes place on 22 December,” Birrell said.
“It’s part of Spanish Christmas tradition that dates back to 1812 – but the main reason it’s so popular is because the odds of winning are fantastic.
“We’re pleased to see more players from across the globe adopting exciting new betting products like El Gordo and moving away from the traditional ways of playing in their home countries,” he added.
The firm has also enjoyed huge success in the UK where it recently froze the price of a EuroMillions bet at £2, despite the official lottery provider raising the price of a ticket to £2.50.