If there is one surprising thing that seems to bring the country together, it’s the National Lottery. Since first being launched in 1986, the lottery has gone from strength to strength. Around 40% of all Irish adults play the lottery regularly, with hundreds of millions of euros being paid out in prize money since its inception.
For much of its history, the lottery was the sole purview of the Irish Government, which issues licenses for the operation of the lottery to a winning bidder.
For years now, the public contract has been the property of Premier Lotteries Ireland DAC, a consortium of companies that includes the UK’s Camelot lottery operator. However, this monopoly on the Irish lottery has now been broken, thanks to Lottoland. Let’s take a closer look at how this happened.
The story of Lottoland
Lottoland is, at its heart, a tech company. It was founded in 2013 in the startup hub of Gibraltar, with a mission to digitise the lottery experience for players around the world. The company has grown to serve 6 million regular customers, generating an annual turnover of more than €300 million.
The company uses its digital platform to allow people in numerous countries to participate in more than 30 different national lotteries around the world. What’s more, Lottoland even recruited the host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Chris Tarrant, as its official brand ambassador in 2014. Since then, Lottoland has gone from strength to strength.
Cheaper tickets
One of the major ways that Lottoland has managed to disrupt the Irish lottery market is through its pricing. Via its online platform, if you’re in Ireland you can buy your Lotto tickets with discounts, either by entering a promo code or by claiming a discounted bonus number. Considering that the amount that regular players spend on the lottery throughout their lifetimes really can add up, any opportunity for a discount is a powerful lure for consumers.
Borderless lotteries
When you play the Irish national lottery, you are only playing the Irish national lottery. The public lottery does not allow users to wager on lotteries that take place overseas, nor does it even allow people to wager on the UK National Lottery. This is one of the crucial ways in which Lottoland has managed to disrupt the market. Once you have created your digital account, you can wager on the lottery in Poland, Austria, Spain, France, or any number of other exciting lotteries. In the digital age, borderless gaming has a powerful appeal.
Total convenience
They say time is money, which is why so many tech companies have risen to prominence simply by offering a more convenient way to perform everyday tasks. This is one of the selling points of Lottoland. Any account holders can instantly put their lottery numbers on via their smartphone, or they can adjust their settings to automatically purchase tickets without having to lift a finger. You can also check all of your results via the app, and receive a notification when you hit a win.
Lottoland has become a success story by smashing a monopoly and offering a popular product at better prices and more convenience. We look forward to seeing where it goes in the future.