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Online betting operator makes head start on addressing calls for stronger partnerships to protect children with launch of its P.A.R.E.N.T initiative

 
November 21st 2018

Lottoland has responded to a Gambling Commission report claiming stronger partnerships are needed to protect children following the launch of its own education initiative.

The online betting giant’s P.A.R.E.N.T scheme is being introduced to support parents, educators and youth representatives across the board in mitigating the risks posed to young people gaming online.

A report from the Gambling Commission published today shows that close to a million youngsters have been exposed to gambling through ‘loot boxes’ in computer games or on smartphone apps, and claims the number of problem gamblers aged 11 to 16 has quadrupled in two years to 55,000.

Nigel Birrell, CEO at Lottoland, said: “Lottoland already felt strongly that we could and should be doing more in the countries we operate in, even before this report, and its publication coinciding with the launch of our own partnership initiative supporting all those touched by the issues involved has given us more impetus than ever to push forward with our plans.”

In its latest report, the Gambling Commission called for regulators and businesses across industries to work together, and also highlighted the important influence parents can have on children’s gambling behaviour.

Lottoland’s P.A.R.E.N.T initiative focuses on six key behaviours essential for responsible gaming, and is designed to help all those involved in youth gaming ‘stay on their game’ following initial consultation with teachers, NGOs and other stakeholders.

These six key areas are:

P – Parent

A – Awareness

R – Responsibility

E – Environment

N – Nurture

T – Trust

Research conducted by the online betting giant also shows almost half the nation’s children aged 7-16 enjoy unlimited time online each day, and 1 in 5 have access to online games without any restrictions in place at all*.

Its P.A.R.E.N.T campaign otherwise comes after Lottoland researchers also found:

• Almost half the nation’s children enjoy unlimited time online each day – and 1 in 5 have access to online games without any restrictions in place at all.
• Children’s online gaming habits cost the average UK parent £31 in charges – a third of whom are unaware of the costs due to them until it is time to pay
• Almost one in five (18%) parents with children aged 7-16 in the UK do not know you can play games with other users live over the internet.
• More than a quarter of UK parents with children aged 16 or younger admit to knowing ‘none’, ‘very few’ or only ‘some’ of their online friends.  
• Half of all UK youngsters spend up to four hours a day online in the school holidays – and almost twice the amount of time on average that they do in term time.

Mr Birrell said: “This latest report from the gambling regulator, as well as our own research, goes to show that the need to equip parents, teachers and others involved in the education of young people today with the awareness they need to successfully navigate today’s online gaming environment is more pressing than ever.”

“The scheme already been well received after focus group discussions held at the University of Gibraltar with various stakeholders led to the launch of P.A.R.E.N.T in conjunction with Gibraltar’s Department for Education,” Mr Birrell added.

“As such, P.A.R.E.N.T scheme training sessions are now being planned for delivery in conjunction with primary and secondary teachers across countries covered by the European Lotto Betting Association (ELBA), of which Lottoland is a founding member.”

“The time to come together and provide young people today with the resources they need to ensure they are ‘switched on’ enough to enjoy all that online gaming has to offer with the self-awareness required to stay safe and sound at all times is here.”

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* The study was conducted by OnePoll between 19^thand 28^thof September, 2018 and polled 2000 parents of children aged 7-16. Participants were recruited online and were paid to participate.

For any media enquiries, please contact:

For more information contact Jess Childs or Bethan Rees at Front Door Communications on 02920 020360 or email [email protected], or Laura Pearson, Head of Corporate Affairs at Lottoland by emailing [email protected] or [email protected].

About Lottoland

Lottoland has grown rapidly to become a world leader in online lotto. Innovation, coupled with the freedom to offer players a unique and enhanced lottery experience, has been key to the company’s success. In June 2018, Lottoland paid out €90 million to one lucky winner in Germany – this win has been confirmed by Guinness World Records as the Largest online gambling payout. This is also the biggest payout for Lottoland to date.

The Gibraltar-based business is active in 13 markets, has over 350 employees, and more than 8 million customers worldwide. Lottoland is licensed and regulated by the Government of Gibraltar, the UK Gambling Commission, the Republic of Ireland National Excise License Office, the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli in Italy and the Northern Territory’s Racing Commission in Australia.

FTP specialist releases £1m Jungle Jackpot, an innovative new free-to-play game with Lottoland, to connect with a fresh mainstream audience

15th November, 2018 – SportCaller, the free-to-play (FTP) game specialist, has broken new ground by partnering with leading bet-on-lotteries operator Lottoland for the launch of Jungle Jackpot, another fresh concept in its ever-expanding portfolio of products and clients.

The £1m jackpot FTP game is set to roll out for the upcoming series of ‘I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!’, hosted by Declan Donnelly and Holly Willoughby.

Jungle Jackpotoffers players the opportunity to win £1m if they can correctly forecast the final placings of the celebrities in the smash-hit ITV programme, by predicting the order in which they will leave the jungle. A secondary daily prediction game, once the evictions start, will also provide players with the chance to win smaller rewards and cash prizes, based on their following of the show and what’s happening day-to-day in the camp.

The main jackpot will see Lottoland partner with some of the UK’s biggest digital properties to promote the game and reach a broad and highly social target audience, opening up the opportunity to introduce them to the value and innovation provided across Lottoland’s lottery betting and wider gaming products.

Having cornered the market for free-to-play sporting games, SportCaller MD Cillian Barry said the launch was the provider’s first foray into mass-media events in order to engage a new and truly mainstream audience.

Barry noted:“It’s a real coup to be collaborating with Lottoland on a jackpot product which speaks to a broader demographic, over and above the sports betting community that is our usual focus. Our combined ability to deliver presents a genuine test case for FTP flourishing outside its original sporting-betting domain by bringing to market a game that will appeal to the wider general public. Jungle Jackpotis a genuine industry-first for such a popular TV show.”

“Novelty betting has been around for years with Paddy Power et al, but this game is now redefining novelty appeal for non-gambling-focussed users. Jungle Jackpotsets a new standard for the next generation of online media consumers – it’s fun, fast, accessible and instantly immersive. In a typically standardised market for sign-up promotions and bonuses, SportCaller offers a third way to market. With our jackpot prediction games, we empower operators and media owners by converting traffic into transactional customer accounts, delivering trackable levels of increased player-activity and loyalty, which means clear, measurable payback.”

Nigel Birrell, CEO for Lottoland added:“The ability of SportCaller’s games to organically harness player engagement around sports events made them the perfect fit for this partnership. We’ve no doubt Jungle Jackpotwill provide a real and immediate boost to both our acquisition and the cross-selling of Lottoland’s array of popular products.

“The social elements of this game can also deliver significant potential for growth. The main £1m Jungle Jackpotgame gives every adult fan of the show the chance to win a lottery-level prize from a simple prediction mechanic. After all, who doesn’t have an opinion on what will happen each year when this rag-tag group of celebs heads into the jungle? The daily prediction games also represent a very accessible way to make a prediction on who will leave the jungle next, giving viewers a chance to test their opinions for rewards, and ultimately a share of a £10,000 cash prize, if proving to be the ultimate jungle judge!”

All games are fully compliant with global regulations, and are available across mobile and desktop channels on http://junglejackpot.sportcaller.com. The Jungle Jackpotmicrosite hosting the games is geolocated to UK & Ireland players only, via SportCaller’s geo-restricting tech.

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For more information, please contact:

Square in the Air Communications
Romilly Evans, Consultant, 131-151 Great Titchfield Street, London, W1W 5BB | +44 (0) 20 3586 8267 | [email protected]

Editor’s notes

About SportCaller:
SportCaller is the leading free-to-play sporting game provider, whose platform allows fans to connect and compete across a variety of sports. It provides free-to-play and jackpot games for operators and media owners, generating new accounts allied to trackable levels of increased player-activity and loyalty. SportCaller works with clients in UK, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and North America, ranking William Hill, GVC, Paddy Power Betfair, The Sun, Oddschecker, MoPlay and Lottoland amongst its expanding client-base.

About Lottoland:
Lottoland has grown rapidly to become a world leader in online lotto betting. Innovation, coupled with the freedom to offer players a unique and enhanced lottery-themed experience, has been key to the company’s success. In June 2018, Lottoland paid out €90 million to one lucky winner in Germany – this win has been confirmed by Guinness World Records as the Largest online gambling payout. This is also the biggest payout for Lottoland to date. The Gibraltar-based business is active in 13 markets, has over 350 employees, and more than 8 million customers worldwide. Lottoland is licensed and regulated by the Government of Gibraltar, the UK Gambling Commission, the Republic of Ireland National Excise License Office, the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli in Italy and the Northern Territory’s Racing Commission in Australia.

New report from leading economist Jim Power highlights the €43 million drop in good causes funding in last decade and the ongoing risk from the National Lottery’s monopoly position and lack of competition

Report outlines that, based on 2017 data from leading licensed lottery betting brands, there is no evidence to suggest that online lottery betting presents any meaningful threat to good causes funding from the National Lottery

Key report finding is that competition in the digital channel plus good regulation are critical in order to ensure long term sustainability of good causes funding in Ireland

Overall, report identifies new regulatory and licensing framework including all operators as the prime opportunity to align Irish market with other EU jurisdictions in terms of best practice standards

A report by leading economic analyst Jim Power, published earlier today, has highlighted a decline of €43 million or 16% in good causes funding from the National Lottery in the last decade (€268m in 2008 to €225m in 2017).

The report entitled ‘An assessment of the Online Gambling Market in Ireland and its impact on good causes funding by the National Lottery’, commissioned by the Irish-licensed operators Lottoland and myLotto24, also found no evidence that lottery betting, either online or via retail betting shops, is undermining good causes funding currently or threatens it long term. In the Irish market, there are currently six lottery betting providers holding Remote Bookmakers licenses including European Lotto Betting Association (ELBA) members myLotto24, Lottoland and MultiLotto.

The report, which provides an overview analysis of the entire Irish gambling market, assesses global economic opportunities, and explores means to protect the good causes funding associated with the National Lottery, was commissioned by the European Lotto Betting Association (ELBA) members Lottoland and myLotto24.

Mr. Power, an economist and University College Dublin lecturer, said, “It is factually incorrect to argue, or indeed lobby, on the premise that online lottery betting, which is fully licensed in this jurisdiction, presents any threat to the good causes funding generated by National Lottery sales each year. In fact, based on 2017 figures provided by the three leading ELBA members licensed and active in Ireland, their total combined draw-based betting turnover was only €1.4 million, 0.25% of the €559 million draw based sales turnover achieved by Premier Lotteries Ireland in the same period.”

“Contrary to previous media coverage, rather than damaging good causes funding, the long-term presence of these operators should actually have a beneficial impact by creating more competition, choice and innovation in what might otherwise be effectively a monopolised market.”

“Moreover, increased competition in the digital channel is an essential aspect in achieving long term sustainability for good causes funding. It is reasonable to expect that the holder of a national license, no matter the market, would provide product offerings in line with changing consumer trends but what is prevalent with the National Lottery license in Ireland since it was awarded nearly five years ago is an operator with a sales strategy massively at odds with such trends. Based on 2017 figures shared at Oireachtas Committee hearings, the digital channel only accounted for 6.5% of National Lottery sales in Ireland compared to 19.5% in the UK. With a 56% or greater increase in retail footprint for the National Lottery since 2014, this strategy clearly puts the long-term position of the National Lottery and the associated good causes funding at real risk. The question is why is this being allowed to happen?”.

The report also highlighted the ongoing issue around unclaimed prizes and the lack of transparency over what happens to these funds, how much they amount to annually and why the position in Ireland sees these largely retail-based funds return to the license holder whilst in the UK they are ring fenced for the funding of good causes.

Meanwhile, the report highlighted the ongoing support from ELBA members and the wider cohort of regulated gambling operators for a new and effective regulatory infrastructure for the industry, with the conclusion that the outdated nature of the current regulatory regime for gambling in Ireland having resulted in a sizeable historic loss to the Irish Exchequer in additional taxation and licensing income, not to mention the heightened concerns around problem gambling.

Power commented; “The modern Irish gambling industry is a multi-billion Euro industry, providing significant employment and tax revenues to the Exchequer. Tax receipts from betting in 2017 were €52.2 million in 2017, a 3% increase year on year, according to the latest data published by the Tax Working Group. However, the size of the retail and remote betting industry in Ireland can be estimated at about €5.07 billion.

“If the Government and the relevant Departments were to take a long-term view on the global opportunities offered by this sector, much in the way that they have viewed the wider tech sector, they would see that the short term move to double betting taxes on an already besieged, largely domestic market is not the way to best deliver a sustainable return to the Exchequer. Instead, by delivering the long overdue new regulatory framework with one Regulator for all licensed gambling operators, a competitive Gross Profits Tax based approach as is the case in other leading EU markets and setting up a task force to focus on foreign direct investment in the sector, the Government could deliver a long term strategy that would not only deliver economic benefits but would also help to effectively address issues like problem gambling.”

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