New National Lottery operator sees sales double after charity donations warning

The incoming operator of the UK National Lottery has seen its sales double in recent months – after warning it expects to initially fall short on promises to grow its charitable donations.

Allwyn International, a multi-national lottery operator which acquired rival Camelot UK earlier this year, said the takeover helped drive a surge in third-quarter revenues.

The group raked in two billion euros (£1.7 billion) in the three months to September, up 98% from one billion euros (£860 million) over the same period last year.

It completed the acquisition of Camelot in February, ending months of legal dispute over the National Lottery licence.

Camelot has held the licence since 1994 but will lose it from February to Allwyn, which will go on to operate the lottery for a decade.

In bidding for the lucrative licence, Allwyn pledged to more than double the amount of money allocated to good causes.

But in October, chief executive Robert Chvatal told the Financial Times the lottery may get an initial “headwind” that means its charitable donations will be lower than the amount originally projected for the first two years.

But he said there is a chance to “catch up” by upping donations over the decade to meet its wider target of generating £38 billion for good causes.

Stripping out the impact of the Camelot acquisitions, sales dipped by 1%, impacted by “customer-friendly” sports results across the betting industry and unfavourable jackpot cycles.

Other gambling firms have flagged a run of sports results going in favour of punters, resulting in them having to dish out more winnings.

Meanwhile, Allwyn said it has only felt a “limited” impact of inflation eroding consumer budgets, which has had a more harmful affect on other retailers.

This is because its products are cheaper and it has a large number of regular players, it said.