Sugal & Damani in Race to Run the UK National Lottery

Sugal & Damani Group, the 40-year-old diversified conglomerate that is India's largest lottery operator, has announced it has entered the UK Gambling Commission's (UKGC) competition to be the operator of the fourth license to run the UK National Lottery. It has begun by completing its response to the Gambling Commission's Selection Questionnaire.

Sugal & Damani also participated in the 2007 tender process. It was declared as a reserved bidder for running the UK lottery.

Kamlesh Vijay, Group CEO of Sugal & Damani said: "As a leader in operating lotteries across India and other jurisdictions, Sugal & Damani has shown its deep interest to operate the UK National Lottery since 2007 when it participated and also got selected as a reserve bidder by qualifying all Required Standards like propriety, technology, player protection, channel management, financial capability, etc."

"We are looking for a fair and open competition that UKGC has initiated, we are very much in the game, we are in the final stages of creating a strong consortium of credible partners, the details of which will be shared in due course".

"As far as the UK lottery market is concerned, it is a large one and highly reputed. There are a huge local following and brand reputation for the UK National lottery, but there are challenges in the market too because people are looking for new excitement and there is stiff competition from other gambling products. We believe that people have a soft corner due to the fact that lotteries contribute more towards well defined good causes, so that attitude is a big plus point. However, continued innovation is very much required in a responsible way to consolidate on this soft corner. Being an organization with deep-rooted innovation in every sphere of our activity we are happy to be in the competition," Vijay concluded in quotes published on Yogonet.

The technology arm of Sugal & Damani, Skilrock Technologies is a leading solution provider for lottery, gaming and commercial services operations across 26 jurisdictions. That includes prominent World Lottery Association (WLA) member lotteries with a combined installed base of over 200,000 POS (point-of-sale) and seven million iGaming players enabled by its platform.

The UK lottery is the sixth-largest in the world by sales and is currently operated by Camelot.

Sugal & Damani doesn't just operate in the lottery gaming space. It has previously partnered with PokerStars India for that firm's website, and launched fantasy sports site KhelpChamps in January 2019.