The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has granted the Australian online lottery operator Jumbo Interactive a remote gambling software operating licence.
On November 26th, Jumbo Interactive officially revealed that it has received permission to operate in the UK. The newly-issued software licence is an addition to the external lottery management operating licences, both for land-based and online operations, which have already been held by Gatherwell – the wholly-owned UK subsidiary of the company. Mike Veverka, who currently occupies the positions of chief executive officer and executive director of Jumbo Interactive, confirmed that the operator has achieved a major global expansion milestone and shared that it would pursue its growth strategy in the UK charities market along with its local subsidiary Gatherwell.
The newly-granted licence is to allow the Australian online lottery company to make its dual offering consisting of a Gatherwell-operated managed charities solution and a pure play SaaS solution available in the UK gambling market. The company further noted that it considers society and local authority lotteries to be its immediate addressable market.
Back in October, the company released some financial results, according to which a record 2% year-on-year revenue decline was expected by the company for the fiscal quarter that ended on September 30th. Previously, the company had predicted a rise in sales for the same period.
New Remote Gambling Licence Secures Jumbo Interactive’s Position in the UK
The newly-issue licence is to secure a better position for the Australian lottery solutions supplier on the UK market. Currently, there are more than 168,000 registered charity organisations in England and Wales, which total revenue was over £77.4 billion as of September 30th, 2018.
In mid-November 2019, Jumbo Interactive revealed that it had entered into a conditional Share Purchase Agreement to acquire its now-local arm Gatherwell Limited, a private limited liability company that was established in 2013. At the time, the announced price of the deal was £5 million. In order to continue as planned with the acquisition, the transaction needed to first get the approval of the UK Gambling Commission, which eventually happened earlier in 2020. When making the announcement of the deal, Jumbo Interactive revealed it would fund the takeover by using internal cash sources.
Jumbo Interactive made its first deal with a government-owned lottery earlier in November, as it to supply its online software platform and related services to Lotterywest, a lottery operator in Western Australia.
Furthermore, the digital lottery solutions provider extended its long-term reseller agreement with Tabcorp earlier in 2020. The deal has allowed Jumbo Interactive to continue to resell various lottery products in the states of Victoria, New South Wales (NSW), the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Tasmania. Under the agreement, the company will also be able to resell lottery products all over the world for ten more years until 2030.
- Author
Olivia Cole
