National Lottery’s new website sees online play soar

The National Lottery recorded a four-fold jump in registrations to its revamped website in the first month of going live, the company said yesterday.

The gaming franchise’s new Play Online channel, launched in early March, replaces the formerly cumbersome registration process, and allows players to log on and play within minutes.

At the launch of a new advertising campaign to promote the channel, which includes 49 instant games, yesterday, National Lottery boss Dermot Griffin said the new site had prompted an initial wave of registrations, which had seen the number of online players rise to 85,000 so far this year, a 42.5 per cent increase on last year.

He said the lottery’s digital arm now represented the fastest growing part of its business. However, he said a considerable portion of the initial registration came from people who had part-registered in the past, and who had been notified in advance of the launch via email.

On that basis, he expected online growth to be more modest in the coming months.

Mr Griffin highlighted the fact there were still safeguards in place to deter underage and problem gambling.

In addition, players still had to provide proof of identification to claim prizes in excess of €500; would be subjected to daily and weekly spending limits; and would have to cash out some portion of their winnings once they eclipsed €700, he said

Relax rules

In tandem with selling the franchise earlier this year, the Government overhauled the legislation governing the lottery, principally to relax the rules pertaining to online sales.

The franchise has, up until now, been restricted in the way it operated online, obliging players to go through an unwieldy registration process.

This involved the submission of a passport number or driver's licence to activate accounts, which took up to 48 hours – a process which most players never completed.

Untapped potential

The untapped online potential of the business has

always been considered its biggest selling point. At the moment, online sales only account for 1.5 per cent of overall turnover.

Aside from building up the online channel, the incoming operating consortium, Premier Lotteries, comprised of An Post and UK operator Camelot, will have to reverse five years of falling sales, which has seen turnover fall from a 2008 peak of €840 million to €735 million in 2012.

Camelot boasts the biggest online platform in the world with more than six million players, which generates 16-18 per cent of the company’s annual £6 billion (€7.3 billion) turnover.

A similar shift in online play here would boost the lottery’s online player market to more than 200,000.

Mr Griffin said it was the operator’s intention to leverage Camelot’s expertise in growing the online channel.

He rejected a suggestion that online growth would ultimately cannibalise a portion of high street sales to the detriment of its 1,500-strong network of retailers, saying there was strong evidence that both channels – especially when there were big jackpot draws – reinforced each other.