Lottery sales surge but a price rise is on the way for one of the most popular games
Lottery and keno players are back in force, but The Lottery Corporation is about to raise prices for Powerball.
Cost of living concerns have not dented lottery ticket sales which are surging, as well as Keno players flocking back to pubs and clubs after the Covid-19 lockdowns.
The Lottery Corporation said it has been enjoying buoyant times of late, with the recent $160m Powerball jackpot attracting fervent interest.
The company’s chief executive, Sue van der Merwe, said group revenue for her entire business was up 11 per cent for the four months to October 31, compared with the same period last year.
“It’s a healthy result to date and evidence of continued momentum supported by the strategic and deliberate actions we have taken to drive performance across our games,” Ms van der Merwe told the company’s annual general meeting in Brisbane on Tuesday.
Revenue for lotteries was up 9 per cent for the period, while Keno was up 33 per cent.
“Our base games remain resilient and an important foundation for delivering sustainable revenue growth,” Ms van der Merwe said.
“Jackpot games are performing well with strong customer support at the various draw levels and active management of the jackpot sequences driving a record jackpot offer on our Powerball game in October.”
Ms van der Merwe said at the peak time, about three hours before the October Powerball draw, The Lottery Corporation was selling 8700 games per minute to customers.
“Powerball’s mass appeal was again on show, with the draw attracting 135,000 new registered players and lots of enthusiastic customers queuing for their tickets in our retail outlets,” she said.
While she said the revamp of Powerball in 2018 had been “a great success”, the business would move to increase the price of the game towards the end of the current 2023 financial year – from $1.10 to $1.20 per game.
Ms van der Merwe said it would be the first price change for five years, and that the company was also reviewing its commission structure for retailers.
Retail continues to generate most of the revenue for lottery ticket sales, although digital has grown to make up 39 per cent of total sales.
Shares in The Lottery Corporation rose 17c to finish at $4.47 on Tuesday.
Ms van der Merwe said the Keno business enjoyed a strong return to growth, predominantly driven by venues in NSW, Victoria and the ACT which had been negatively affected the previous period when Covid-19 lockdowns had been enacted, trading without restrictions.
“Pleasingly, we have also (also) seen strong performance in Queensland, with turnover up 18 per cent,” she said.
“Footfall growth has helped drive this, and that’s also good news for hotels and clubs. Digital share of Keno turnover normalised to 15 per cent following the Covid distortions of last year, although we continue to see upside potential.”
The annual meeting was the first for The Lottery Corporation since it was spun out of Tabcorp in May, after shareholders had called for the Tabcorp board to separate its lotteries arm from its then struggling wagering business.
Shares in The Lottery Corporation are down about 5 per cent since May.
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