Camelot bought by lottery successor Allwyn for £100m

The next operator of the National Lottery has busted rival Camelot UK – in a bid that is expected to end a bitter legal battle.

Allwyn Entertainment has bought the group from its owner, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, in a £100 million deal.

It ends the months-long dispute over the Gaming Commission’s decision in March to hand over the license of the National Lottery – held by Camelot since the draw began in 1994 – to Czech Allwyn from February 2024.

Camelot UK appealed in April but dropped the challenge in September after the games of chance commission warned the action could delay the handover and have ‘serious consequences for the National Lottery and charities’.

Camelot UK had planned to sue regulators for hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation, although this move is now expected to be withdrawn. The deal is subject to approval by the Gambling Commission, but is expected to close early next year.

Camelot UK will continue to be run separately. But most of the 900 employees would already move to Allwyn when the license changes in 2024.

Allwyn’s successful bid included plans to halve the price of tickets from £2 to the original £1 fee.

The company is owned by Czech billionaire Karel Komarek, 53.

The 10-year UK license is expected to generate up to £100bn in sales for Allwyn, which also runs lotteries in other European countries.

Watford-based Camelot UK said sales in the year to March exceeded £8 billion. It also owns lottery operations in the US and Ireland.

Allwyn said the acquisition would help ease the transition. Chief executive Robert Chvatal said Allwyn and Camelot share a common goal to ‘improve the UK National Lottery and the causes it celebrates’.

He said Allwyn is committed to making the UK Lottery better and ‘raising more for good causes’.

Since the start of the UK Lottery in 1994, £46 billion has gone to 670,000 charities.