We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info
Paul Jackson, chief executive of Flutter Entertainment, is understood to have written to the Gambling Commission pushing for a deal, having agreed to buy Sisal, the Italian group which is one of the contenders to acquire the massive contract.
Flutter, whose brands include US market-leader FanDuel, has an estimated value of more than £18billion.
In a letter also signed by Sisal chief executive Francesco Durante, Mr Jackson said: “The Gambling Commission should have no doubt as to Flutter’s commitment through Sisal to the future success of the lottery.”
Sisal’s lottery operations will be operated independently of Flutter’s bookmakers, Mr Jackson and Mr Durante explained.
The intervention, made after a request from the Gambling Commission, comes at a time when the battle to run the National Lottery from 2024 to 2034 is delicately poised.
What is happening where you live? Find out by adding your postcode or visit InYourArea
Market experts suggest revenues could exceed £80billion during that time. Sisal is currently lagging behind Camelot, the incumbent operator, as well as Czech betting group Sazka, also known as Allwyn.A bid by former Express owner Richard Desmond is regarded as a long shot.
The Gambling Commission will make its decision in a matter of weeks based on a “scorecard” marking contenders on various aspects of their bid.
In 2010, Camelot, which employed 900 staff at its Watford headquarters, was sold to a Canadian pension fund by a UK-led consortium.
One insider said: “Everyone expects a judicial review. That makes the scorecard all the more important.”
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP, co-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group of gambling related harm, was cagey about Flutter owning the company which runs the National Lottery. He said: “There would have to be absolutely stringent safeguards.”
James Pearce, of safer gambling group BetterRisk, said: “Flutter are at the leading edge in terms of pursuing a progressive and proactive approach to safer gambling so, if the lottery is to be run by an existing UK gambling operator, they could be considered the most suitable.”
Source: Read Full Article