Lottery Corp says offshore lotteries not hurting business, yet
The Lottery Corporation chief executive Sue van der Merwe said the aggressive marketing of offshore lotteries has not had a financial impact on the $11.5 billion giant, but claimed the advertising push was concerning newsagencies that a cut from local competitions.
Local online lottery operators such as The Lottery Office, which give Australians access to international jackpots, have dramatically increased spend on television and stadium marketing to try to take market share from Australia’s monopoly provider.
Ms van der Merwe said The Lottery Corporation, which was demerged from Tabcorp in May 2022, was monitoring the situation closely. She said marketing efforts to date were not causing problems.
Sue van der Merwe can weather the offshore lottery storm. Eamon Gallagher
“We haven’t seen any impact on our business at this point,” Ms van der Merwe said. “What we have seen as a material step-up in the advertising very aggressively across the country from those entities.
“We think that’s creating confusion in the market, and it’s certainly concerning our retailers, many of whom are our newsagents – we expect that they likely to step up their campaigning.”
In May 2023, The Lottery Corporation implemented a subscription price increase for Powerball along with an increase to maximum commission rates for Lotteries retailers from 10.3 per cent to 12.3 per cent. In the last financial year, more than $604 million in commissions was paid to newsagents, licensed venues and other retailers.
“In terms of our response, we’re very much focused mostly on ensuring we’ve got strong products for our customers… but at the same time we’re looking at how we make sure that the model that has been in place for a long period of time… is
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