IGT Signs Two-Year Contract with the Iowa Lottery to Provide Instant Ticket Printing Services

LONDON, U.K. (January 29, 2019) -- International Game Technology PLC (IGT) (NYSE: IGT) announced that its subsidiary IGT Global Solutions Corporation (hereinafter “IGT”) has signed a two-year contract with the Iowa Lottery to provide instant tickets and related services through December 31, 2020. The contract includes four one-year extension options.

“The Iowa Lottery looks forward to continuing to work with IGT to enhance our portfolio of instant-ticket games to support our growth,” said Iowa Lottery Executive Vice President Larry Loss.

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“Over the course of our partnership with the Iowa Lottery, the Lottery has had tremendous success with many of our games,” said Jay Gendron, IGT Chief Operating Officer, Lottery.

“Our games have generated more than $90 million in sales for the Lottery since 2015, and we look forward to continuing to help grow sales throughout the duration of this contract and in the future.”

IGT and the Iowa Lottery have worked together to develop key product strategies which have enhanced the Lottery’s portfolio of games and delivered increased sales. Since the contract began in 2015, IGT has printed the top-performing games at the $1, $5, and $10 price points. These games are $1 Holiday Lucky X3, $5 Ghostbusters, and $10 Super Triple 777.

About IGT

IGT (NYSE:IGT) is the global leader in gaming. We enable players to experience their favorite games across all channels and regulated segments, from Gaming Machines and Lotteries to Digital and Social Gaming. Leveraging a wealth of premium content, substantial investment in innovation, in-depth customer intelligence, operational expertise and leading-edge technology, our gaming solutions anticipate the demands of consumers wherever they decide to play. We have a well-established local presence and relationships with governments and regulators in more than 100 countries around the world, and create value by adhering to the highest standards of service, integrity, and responsibility. IGT has more than 12,000 employees. For more information, please visit www.igt.com.

CONTACT:

SOURCE: International Game Technology PLC (IGT).

Arizona Lottery’s Holiday Campaign Charts New Territory

First-Ever Virtual Holiday Party Giveaway Sees Sales Spike and Helps Community

PHOENIX, Arizona  (January 24, 2019) – Every year, the Arizona Lottery welcomes the holiday season with its recognizable and player-favorite Holiday Scratchers® tickets, but this year the Lottery went above and by creating a unique QVC-styled parody commercial airing locally during Saturday Night Live, producing the first-ever Arizona Lottery Virtual Holiday Party Giveaway and hosting a live improv comedy show.  This out-of-the-box marketing campaign resulted in nearly $29 million in sales for the Arizona Lottery’s annual Holiday Scratchers campaign.

The jewel in this public relations triple crown was Windfall Willie's Virtual Holiday Party, an almost three-hour live production in the style of a late-night talk show, featuring guests from across the state plus giveaways for viewers every few minutes.

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The livestream included a one-of-a-kind set design, a high-tech broadcasting platform, two state-of-the-art cameras, and a dedicated crew. Not only was the livestream non-stop entertainment, but it also raised awareness and money for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), an Arizona Lottery beneficiary giving a voice to kids in foster care.

“We wanted to really shake things up and take some chances with this creative new way to connect with our core players and beneficiaries in the digital world,” Arizona Lottery Executive Director Gregg Edgar said. “That strategy has paid-off, engaging over 125,000 Facebook followers and helping to shape their understanding about the true purpose of the Arizona Lottery.  I also loved that this was an all-Arizona show, totally local and featuring amazing home-grown talent.  This production allowed us to be innovative and to show that we aren’t just here to sell Lottery tickets, but to make a difference in our community.”

The nearly three-hour livestream video organically reached over 42,000 people, received more than 68,000 engagements, and exceeded 15,000 unique viewers – and the Arizona Lottery donated $25,000 to Voices for CASA.

The Arizona Lottery utilized this exciting Facebook live production to not only highlight its holiday ticket line but to also draw attention to the millions of dollars it gives back to important programs every year. The Arizona Lottery generated nearly $212 million for beneficiaries in Fiscal Year 2018 and is on track to exceed $1 billion in sales in Fiscal Year 2019. 

Scratchers® is a registered service mark of the California Lottery.

About Arizona Lottery

Since 1981, the Arizona Lottery and its retail partners have generated more than $4 billion in net funding in support of programs that help to improve the quality of life for the people of Arizona. Proceeds from Lottery ticket sales — over $4 million per week – fund programs in education, economic development, environmental conservation and health and human services. The mission is to support Arizona programs for the public benefit by maximizing net revenue in a responsible manner. Learn more at ArizonaLottery.com.

CONTACT: Megan Conner • Senior Public Relations Executive, OH Partners; c. 480.229.1427.

SOURCE: Arizona Lottery.

Kentucky Lottery Surpasses $20 Billion in Overall Sales

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (January 24, 2019) -- In today’s meeting of the Kentucky Lottery Corporation’s board of directors, it was announced overall sales since inception have passed the $20,000,000,000 mark.

According to Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Howard Kline, sales reached this level as of January 10. From this amount, more than $5.3 billion has been earned for the Commonwealth.

The board also learned lottery sales have closed the first half of the fiscal year higher than any other period in the organization’s history. July-December sales for the lottery came in at $544.2 million. That’s a full $36.5 million (7.2%) more than the same period last year, which was the previous record-holder for the six-month sales period.

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Net income in turn grew at an even higher percentage. This was $147 million for the period, which is $16.5 million (12.6%) more than what was generated in the same period last year.

In other business, the board approved:

• An amendment with the contract with Blue and Company LLC for draw audit and related services;
• A contract renewal with Garron Lottery Products for draw machines, ball sets and related services;
• A contract renewal with Affiliated Forensic Laboratory for lottery ticket testing and related services;
• Rules and regulations for one scratch-off ticket, two new draw games and one Instant Play game.

The next meeting of the KLC’s board of directors will be March 22. The meeting will begin at 10:00 AM EST, and will be held at the KLC headquarters at 1011 West Main Street in Louisville. The audit committee meeting will begin at 8:00 AM EST, as well as the procurement committee at 9:00 AM EST.

The Kentucky Lottery has earned over $5.3 billion for the Commonwealth since 1989. KLC dividends pay for college scholarships, grants and education programs. Visit kheaa.com to find out more about grants and scholarships paid for by the KLC.

For More Information CONTACT: Chip Polston, Jennifer Cunningham or Sara Westerman, T: (502) 560-1675.

SOURCE: Kentucky Lottery Corporation.

Connecticut Lottery Corporation On-Track for Best Year Ever with Highest Two-Quarter Sales and General Fund Transfers in Lottery History

Keno Sales Also up Nearly 20% Over Fiscal Year 2018

ROCKY HILL, CT (January 25, 2019) -- The Connecticut Lottery Corporation has closed the first-half of the 2019 fiscal year (July-December 2018) with sales up nearly six percent over the same period last year, with nearly $665 million in total sales. This strong half-year resulted in total Connecticut General Fund transfers of nearly $185 million, a $10 million increase over the first-half of fiscal year 2018. These sales and general fund transfers represent the best half-year result in the Lottery’s history.

The CT Lottery’s Keno sales also increased in the first-half of FY19, up nearly 20% over FY18, and sales for the Lottery’s multistate draw games were especially strong.

Mega Millions and Powerball six-month sales totals were $48 million and $40 million, respectively -- $20 million more than last year, due in part to a $1.5 billion jackpot run in October.

“We’re happy to continue our nearly 50-year tradition of solid contributions to the state of Connecticut with another strong period of sales and transfers to the state’s General Fund,” said Greg Smith, President and CEO, CT Lottery. “In the next half of the year, the CT Lottery plans to implement additional innovations and upgrades that will bolster our first-half successes. And we do this hand-in-hand with our nationally recognized responsible gaming efforts.”

About CT Lottery:

Lottery sales benefit Connecticut's residents in valuable ways. In fiscal year 2018, players won more than $791 million in prize money and retailers earned $70 million in commissions.

At the same time, the CT Lottery provided $345 million to support the valuable services and programs funded by the state’s General Fund including public health, libraries, public safety, education and more.  Since the Lottery began in 1972, our contributions to the General Fund have exceeded $9.5 billion.

The CT Lottery reminds the public that purchasers must be 18 or older.  If you gamble, use your GameSense.  For information about the CT Lottery, stop by any CT Lottery retailer, visit CTLOTTERY.ORG, join us on Facebook (facebook.com/CTLottery), Instagram (Instagram.com/ctlottery), Twitter (twitter.com/ctlottery), or call (860) 713-2700.

CONTACT: Tara Chozet, T: (860) 713-2696, Fax: (860) 713-2695.

SOURCE: Connecticut Lottery Corporation (ctlottery.org).

Co-Creation Workshops – Safer Gambling

Gambling Commission researches safer gambling messaging

Chris Rogers - Senior Manager Insight

BIRMINGHAM, U.K. (January 25, 2019) -- The Gambling Commission hosted a co-creation workshop to utilise a new method which would bring stakeholders together to explore a key industry issue.

Our first workshop looked into safer gambling messaging to low and moderate-risk gamblers. Participants included three Gambling Commission experts, 12 representatives from a number of major operators and, importantly, 12 consumers.

Making gambling fairer and safer for consumers is the ultimate aim of the Commission. Exploring the ways in which safer gambling messages are communicated to customers required the input of multiple operators to make meaningful progress. We were also keen to include the very people who could be the main recipients of these messages.

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During the day we employed various methods and tools to paint a picture of existing practises, gain feedback from customers and look for opportunities for change.

This was the first time we’d brought consumers and operators together to talk about safer gambling messaging and it was really interesting to watch the two groups interact in a positive way. Plus, bringing operators and consumers together in an open forum allowed us to share challenges and identify potential future collaborations.

Our key learnings from the workshop included:

• Hearing the voice of the customer, including what they liked about existing messages and how they’d react to new methods of communication
• Understanding how operators engage with consumers to inform their own approach to customer interaction regarding safer gambling messaging
• Identifying and sharing best practice

The day provided many ideas for change operators could consider when planning for future activities. Our findings have been written up in our report. To find out more about other projects we’ve been working on read our guidance on behavioural Insights into reducing risky play in online environments.

Readers should note the above report and its findings are for operators to consider in addition to the LCCP (1).

Further to this, a consultation on Customer Interaction will take place in the next few weeks. This will look at formal requirements relating to Customer Interaction, which are contained within the (LCCP).

NOTE: (1) LCCP – Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice sets out what gambling operators must do in order to hold an operating licence in Great Britain.

CONTACT: Press office on 0121 230 6700 or email: communications@gamblingcommission.gov.uk

SOURCE: Gambling Commission.

Americans Will Wager $6 Billion on Super Bowl LIII

22.7 Million People Expect to Bet on Patriots v. Rams Game

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 28, 2019) -- Nearly 1-in-10 American adults plan to bet on Super Bowl LIII between the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams, according to a new survey released today by the American Gaming Association (AGA).

Key findings from the survey, conducted by Morning Consult, include:

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• 22.7 million American adults plan to bet on Sunday’s game;
• 52% say they will bet on the Rams, while 48% will bet on the Patriots;
• Americans say they will wager $6 billion on the Super Bowl; and
• 1.8 million Americans plan to bet illegally through a bookie, with millions more likely to bet illegally through offshore online books.

“The interest in legal, regulated sports betting in the United States has never been higher,” said Bill Miller, AGA’s president and chief executive officer.

“More Americans than ever before will be able to place their bets with legal sportsbooks now operating in eight states, generating valuable revenue for state, local and tribal governments and increasing fan engagement with the game.

“These results, however, also point to the continued viability of the dangerous, illegal sports betting market in America. It is more important than ever for jurisdictions to enact sound policies that provide a safe, legal alternative with protections for the nearly 23 million Americans who will place a bet on the big game.”

Background:

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• Eight states now offer legal, regulated sports betting, with dozens poised to consider legalization this year.
• Last September, an AGA study revealed that the NFL could reap $2.3 billion annually from legalized sports betting, largely due to increased fan engagement.
• This month, the NFL designated Caesars Entertainment as the league’s official gaming sponsor, and five NFL teams have formed private partnerships with the gaming industry in recent months.

Methodology:

This survey was conducted on behalf of the American Gaming Association by Morning Consult on January 22, 2019 among a national sample of 2,201 Adults. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of Adults based on age, race/ethnicity, gender, educational attainment and region.  The margin of error is +/- 2% and greater among subgroups.

Bettors include those who expect to place a bet online, with a bookie, with a casino sportsbook, in a pool or squares contest, or casually with a friend.

About AGA:

The American Gaming Association is the premier national trade group representing the $261 billion U.S. casino industry, which supports 1.8 million jobs nationwide. AGA members include commercial and tribal casino operators, gaming suppliers and other entities affiliated with the gaming industry. It is the mission of the AGA to achieve sound policies and regulations consistent with casino gaming’s modern appeal and vast economic contributions.

CONTACT: Caroline Ponseti, T: (202) 552-2675.

SOURCE: The American Gaming Association.

Global Lottery Monitoring System and Olympic & Sports Movement Discuss How Sports and Lotteries Can Further Work Together in Disseminating a Culture of Integrity

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (January 30, 2019) -- On 28-29 January 2019 GLMS held at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne a training-educational workshop with the objective to train its members to use the GLMS monitoring platform, as well as to raise awareness on good practices of Lotteries closely working with the sports movement at national level, disseminating a culture of integrity.

On the occasion, the workshop was organised by GLMS in close coordination with the IOC, highlighting the close relation between Lotteries and the world of Sport at its highest level. Lotteries and national sports organisations were encouraged to take advantage of their close relation at a national level and create further educational programs in the highest interest of Sports Ethics.

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GLMS Members had also the opportunity to receive a training on ad-hoc education / prevention tools exclusively created by our Integrity Association for its Members.

GLMS President, Ludovico Calvi stated: “I am very pleased with the organisation and the success of this educational training event here at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. Thanks to this event, our members not only had the chance to further familiarise themselves with our intelligence and monitoring activities, but also were inspired to get more active in education and prevention initiatives, as also recommended by the Council of Europe Convention on the manipulations of Sport Competitions. I was also pleased to see many of our partners, IOC, FIFA, UEFA, INTERPOL and EUROPOL, actively involved in supporting GLMS in the pursue of one of our key strategic objectives – education and prevention – and highlighting how GLMS adds value to their integrity activities”.

Head of OM PCM Unit, Friedrich Martens added: “The Olympic Movement relies heavily on the support of the Lotteries and when it comes to the prevention of competition manipulation, Lotteries through GLMS have been a significant partner of ours. We were pleased to welcome Lotteries across the world at the Olympic Museum and discuss – together with various International Federations and stakeholders - how Lotteries and sport could further join forces in order to mutually cooperate more effectively in the fight against competition manipulation. We look forward to strengthening our cooperation with GLMS towards this direction”. 

GLMS CONTACTS:

• Giancarlo Sergi, GLMS General Secretary: giancarlo.sergi@glms-sport.org

• Evangelos Alexandrakis, GLMS Deputy General Secretary, evangelos.alexandrakis@glms-sport.org

 About GLMS

GLMS is the state lotteries’ mutualized monitoring system on sports betting. It aims at detecting and analyzing suspicious betting activities that could question the integrity of a sport competition.

Building on six years of experience with the establishment in 2009 of ELMS with European Lotteries, GLMS went global in January 2015 extending the network to other continents.

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GLMS facilitates the sharing of sports betting information as part of the collective efforts of its members in ensuring sports integrity globally, and is dedicated to effective cooperation with all key stakeholders: regulators, law enforcement authorities, sports organizations.

GLMS currently has 32 individual Members from 4 continents and has 2 associate Members: Scientific Games International (SGI), INTRALOT

About the Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions

“Olympic Agenda 2020, the strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement, reiterates the International Olympic Committee’s commitment and drive to protect clean athletes and the integrity of sport.

The IOC’s initiatives for the prevention of competition manipulation are based on the 3-Pillar Strategy, as used by the Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions, which cover the fields of (1) legislation and regulations; (2) education and capacity-building; and (3) intelligence and investigation.

Concrete tools developed or co-developed by the IOC include the Olympic Movement (OM) Code on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions; the IOC-UNODC Model Criminal Law Provisions for the Prosecution of Competition Manipulation; the IOC Integrity e-learning; the IOC-INTERPOL capacity-building programme; the Integrity Betting Intelligence System (IBIS); and the IOC Integrity and Compliance Hotline and an awareness raising toolkit freely available and fully customizable for all IFs and NOCs. Learn more here.”

SOURCE: Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) (www.glms-sport.org).

Michigan Lottery Launches Endzone Payout

State Lottery first to go live with IWG and Inspired Entertainment-developed game

U.K. (January 30, 2019) -- IWG, the award-winning supplier of online, instant-win games, and Inspired Entertainment (Nasdaq: INSE), a world leader in virtual sports, have delivered a new Instant-Virtual Football game, Endzone Payout, to the Michigan Lottery.

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Launched ahead of the weekend’s big game, Michigan is the first to roll out this brand-new vertical for North American lotteries.

The sports-themed virtual scratch ticket uses a video clip of a single football play as an exciting way to reveal the outcome of a simple symbol match lottery game.

Endzone Payout is a result of an innovative collaboration, which involves IWG leaning on its expertise to create unique and engaging instant win games that feature Inspired’s award-winning ultra-realistic Virtual Sports graphics.

Shannon DeHaven, Deputy Commissioner of Digital Operations at Michigan Lottery, said: “We feel confident that the launch of this brand-new style of sports-themed digital instant ticket game will appeal to both our existing player base and new players.”

Rhydian Fisher, IWG CEO, said: “It’s exciting to see our first U.S. lottery customer go live with one of the most inventive games to hit the North American lottery market in recent times. Endzone Payout is the type of game that combines the best of instant win mechanics and virtual sports animations into an easy-to-understand concept.”

Brooks Pierce, President and Chief Operation Officer at Inspired Entertainment, said: “We are very proud of this entertaining and engaging new product for lotteries and happy to launch it for the first time in Michigan.  We look forward to seeing how this product supports the Michigan Lottery’s mission of raising revenues for public education.”

IWG has provided a full online instant win service to lotteries for more than 15 years, producing more than 250 high quality instant win games.

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Click here for the latest electronic version of Lottery Insights.

Inspired has more than 15 years of visual effects experience and has been the EGR Virtual Sports Provider of the Year for the past three years. Inspired’s life-like games appeal to a new player genre, providing fun betting options and exciting new ways to reveal the win.

About IWG

IWG is a world leader in supplying online, instant-win games to lotteries and commercial brands and platforms in the online gaming industry. It has over 15 years’ experience of making top selling, high quality instant-win games and the strategic know-how to make them work.

IWG has launched over 300 games that perform consistently at the highest level, engaging and retaining players while driving excellent results for customers. It has the knowledge to deliver a winning portfolio of games, the experience to make it grow and the sales figures and data to back this knowledge up.

IWG delivers an end-to-end solution covering all aspects of game development and portfolio management and a Remote Game Server (RGS) delivering content in multiple regulated jurisdictions from data centres in the UK, Gibraltar, Canada and North America. It has a broad library available via the RGS with games covering many proven themes and mechanics that can be developed into an ideal offering for a partner’s instant win portal.

About Inspired Entertainment, Inc.

Inspired is a global games technology company, supplying Virtual Sports, Mobile Gaming and Server Based Gaming systems with associated terminals and digital content to regulated lottery, betting and gaming operators around the world. Inspired currently operates over 30,000 digital gaming terminals and supplies its Virtual Sports products through more than 40,000 retail channels and over 100 websites, in approximately 35 gaming jurisdictions worldwide. Inspired employs more than 650 employees in the UK and elsewhere, developing and operating digital games and networks. Additional information can be found at: www.inseinc.com.

CONTACT: Aimee Remey, T: +1 646 620-6737, E: Aimee.remey@inseinc.com.

SOURCE:  IWG | Inspired Entertainment, Inc.

Administrative Court Rules Owners of Gambling Machines are Liable for Entertainment Tax

Press release of the Federal Administrative Court No. 6/2019 of 23.01.2019

LEIPZIG, Germany (January 25, 2019) -- The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig has ruled that a municipality may, in some circumstances, hold the owner of gambling machines, if he is not the signatory at the same time, liable for the taxpayer's arrears.

The applicant is a company that develops, manufactures and distributes gaming machines. The defendant city of Karlsruhe charges entertainment taxes, inter alia, for the provision of gaming machines for use by the public. The tax debtor is, according to the tax rate, the operator of the equipment. In addition to the stand the owner of the rooms in which taxable devices are installed liable. If the installer does not own the equipment, the owner is also liable.

A vending machine stand had rented from the plaintiff several slot machines with profit opportunity. Under the terms of the agreement, the gaming machines were delivered ready for use with a stock of games; Software and hardware changes were prohibited to the customer.

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The contractor of the applicant had set up some appliances in (at least) one restaurant for a certain period of time. After failing to pay the amusement tax imposed on him and instituting insolvency proceedings over his assets, the defendant first claimed the restaurant operator to pay the outstanding tax liability in the amount of approximately € 6,000. As he himself claimed payment difficulties and was only able to pay half the amount,

The Karlsruhe Administrative Court upheld the claim and annulled the liability notice issued to the plaintiff. By contrast, the Verwaltungsgerichtshof Baden-Württemberg confirmed the claim of the plaintiff on the merits and only reduced the amount of the liability. The appellant's appeal is directed against this judgment.

The Federal Administrative Court ruled that a municipality may in principle be entitled to use a device owner as a liability for the gaming machine tax in circumstances such as this. By renting or leasing gambling machines to the installer, a company such as the applicant seeks a legal and economic success that requires the use of the machines by the public, ie the fulfilment of the entertainment tax.

In this way, the company purposefully provides the preparer with an acquisition position that is directly related to the taxable object. Thus, it is in such a close legal and economic relationship to the object and fact of the amusement tax that its use as a liability debtor is justified.

However, according to its wording, the liability rules in the defendant's statutes can also cover constellations in which an owner has no comparably intensive relationship to the tax-relevant facts.

The administrative questions must be clarified by the Verwaltungsgerichtshof in fact and in law, since they depend on the effectiveness of the Statute and thus on the lawfulness of the applicant's claim. Therefore, the Federal Administrative Court has referred the matter back to him.

Judgment of 23 January 2019 - BVerwG 9 C 1.18

LOWER COURTS:

VGH Mannheim, 2 S 1506/15 - Judgment of 29 March 2017 -

VG Karlsruhe, 3 K 621/14 - Judgment of 21 May 2015 -

SOURCE: Federal Administrative Court.

Lotto24 Expands Its Online Market Share to 34 Percent in 2018

HAMBURG, Germany (January 28, 2019) -- Lotto24 AG (Lotto24.de), Germany's leading online provider of state-run lotteries, expanded its market share to 34% in 2018 (prior year: 32%) and thus remains the leading online provider of state-licensed lotteries in Germany by far.

According to information published by the German Association of State Lottery Companies (DLTB) and the German Lottery Association (DLV), online revenues of the 16 state-owned lottery companies and private lottery brokers with permits rose to EUR 937 million in the fiscal year 2018 (prior year: EUR 700 million). As a result, the online segment now accounts for around 13% (prior year: 10%).

Whereas stakes generated online by state-owned companies grew by nearly 27% to around EUR 583 million (prior year: EUR 461 million), Lotto24 AG grew almost twice as fast by almost 46% to EUR 322 million according to preliminary calculations (prior year: EUR 221 million).

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Consequently, Lotto24 AG once again expanded its online market leadership with a market share of 34% (prior year: 32%). The other lottery brokers achieved online around EUR 32 million in total (prior year: EUR 18 million).

"We are extremely proud to say that already over a third of all online lotto players use Lotto24," says Petra von Strombeck, CEO of Lotto24 AG. "We would therefore like to thank all our customers for their continued trust in us."

Including terrestrial lottery ticket retailers, DLTB revenues grew by approximately 4% to more than EUR 7.3 billion in the fiscal year 2018. Despite a decline of over 6%, the lottery »Lotto 6aus49« remained Germany's most popular lottery with revenues of just over EUR 3.5 billion and nearly 50% of total stakes. With growth of over 61% to EUR 1.5 billion, the European lottery »EuroJackpot« was the second most popular lottery product in 2018. This was due to the exceptionally strong jackpot trend with a total of 13 draws at the EUR 90 million mark.

About Lotto24 AG:

Lotto24 is Germany's leading online provider of state-licensed lotteries (Lotto24.de). Lotto24 brokers customers' tickets to the state lottery companies and the »Deutsche Fernsehlotterie«, for which it receives a commission. The offerings include among others »Lotto 6aus49«, »Spiel 77«, »Super 6«, »EuroJackpot«, »GlücksSpirale«, lotto clubs, »Keno« and the »Deutsche Fernsehlotterie«. After its foundation in 2010 and IPO in 2012 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Prime Standard), Lotto24 is now the market leader. As a fast-growing company with a strong service and customer orientation, Lotto24 aims to provide its customers online as well as mobile with the most convenient, secure and modern game experience possible.

CONTACT: Lotto24 AG, Vanina Hoffmann, Manager Investor & Public Relations, Tel.: +49 40 82 22 39 – 501, E-mail: ir@lotto24.de, Internet: Lotto24-ag.de

SOURCE: Lotto24 AG.

ZEAL Network SE Report Upward Adjustment of EBIT Guidance (Profit Estimate)

LONDON, U.K. (January 30, 2019) -- ZEAL Network SE ('ZEAL') expects for the financial year 2018 that the Result from operating activities (EBIT) will range between EUR 37 million and EUR 39 million (the 'Profit Estimate'), and Total Operating Performance (TOP) between EUR 158 million and EUR 160 million. This is not a statement about facts and should not be interpreted as such by potential investors.

This is an upward adjustment from the previous profit forecast for 2018, released on 19 November 2018, which provided a Result from operating activities (EBIT) estimate range of EUR 33 million to EUR 38 million.

It reflects the strong performance of ZEAL's business in the months of November and December 2018 and the absence of remaining prize pay-out risks for the financial year 2018.

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The estimate in respect of TOP is included in order to provide additional guidance but does not form part of the Profit Estimate.

The Profit Estimate has been prepared on the basis of the unaudited condensed interim consolidated financial statements of ZEAL as of and for the nine months ended 30 September 2018 and the unaudited management accounts of the ZEAL group as of and for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2018.

The Profit Estimate is based upon information that is currently available. However, the finalisation of the consolidated financial statements of ZEAL as of and for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2018, including the audit, is not expected to be completed until the expected publication of the consolidated financial statements of ZEAL for the fiscal year 2018 on 22 March 2019 and therefore further events may occur or information become available that would impact the audited results for 2018. Therefore, the Profit Estimate is prepared on the basis of assumptions about past events and actions and it naturally entails substantial uncertainties and the Result from operating activities (EBIT) of ZEAL may differ materially from the corresponding estimated Result from operating activities (EBIT).

The preparation and external audit of the consolidated financial statements of ZEAL as of and for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2018 is in progress and is anticipated to continue up until the expected publication of the 2018 annual report and accounts on 22 March 2019. It is possible that adjustments to the Profit Estimate may be required during the finalisation of the financial statements and subsequent to the external audit.

CONTACT: Frank Hoffmann, CEFA, Investor Relations, ZEAL; T +44 (0) 20 3739-7123; F +44 (0) 20 3739-7199, E: frank.hoffmann@zeal-network.co.uk.

SOURCE: ZEAL Network SE.

Gambling Commission Teams Up with the NHS and Others to Target Gambling Harm in Wales

BIRMINGHAM, U.K. (January 25, 2019) --The Gambling Commission joined forces with range of organisations in Cardiff today as part of a drive to reduce gambling-related harm across Wales.

The latest Commission figures show that around 20,000 people in Wales are problem gamblers and approximately 84,000 are at risk of developing a problem.[1]

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And today 30 representatives from organisations including NHS Wales, local authorities, treatment providers and sports bodies discussed ways of reducing those numbers. Topics addressed included prevention and treatment services, public health messaging, gambling venues and research.

The round table event was chaired by Chief Medical Officer for Wales Dr Frank Atherton and Gambling Commission Chief Executive Neil McArthur.

Mr McArthur said: “Gambling related harm is a complex and wide-ranging problem and consequently requires a joined-up approach from a number of different organisations. It’s encouraging to see so many different groups coming together today to help coordinate approaches to tackling harm.

“In our role as regulator we’ll continue to enforce standards we expect from gambling businesses – which includes stepping in when they spot gambling related harm – and we’ll continue to look for ways to make gambling safer but we can’t do this alone.”

CONTACT: Press office on 0121 230 6700 or email: communications@gamblingcommission.gov.uk

SOURCE: Gambling Commission.