Camelot faces scratchcard battle

The National Lottery is to face a fresh onslaught on its flagging Instants scratchcards from a new company which is offering to produce own-label scratchcards for multiple retailers.

Creative Lotteries has been set up by Steve Lemonides, a former executive at gaming company Inter- Lotto, and is waiting to be granted an external lottery manager’s licence by the Gaming Board.

Lemonides has approached retailers such as Woolworths, John Menzies, and betting chain Ladbroke, to produce and market own-label scratchcards. Under the scheme, Creative Lotteries would give the retailers a commission of up to 20 per cent, four times greater than the five per cent offered by Instants, and exceeding the 12 per cent offered by Littlewoods.

Lemonides expects to be granted a licence by the Gaming Board within the next few weeks. This will enable the company to produce charity scratchcards for the retailers, as long as some proceeds go to local charities.

Lemonides says: “We have approached large retail organisations which have branded scratchcards. As a small operator, we can offer higher commissions, and we won’t have high start-up costs.

National Lottery operator Camelot says it is up to retailers if they want to produce their own scratchcards, and it would not alter their right to sell Instants.

Two weeks ago, Instants’ weekly sales fell to an all-time low of 14 million. This compares with a high of 40 million, reached soon after launch.