Atlantic Lottery CEO calls for competitive evolution
Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC) president and chief executive Brent Scrimshaw has called for further changes within the company to help it compete with internationally-licensed operators after profit fell during the 12 months through to the end of March.
Total profit was C$419.2m (£249m/€282m/ $324m), exceeding its budget forecast of C$417.4m.
However, this did represent a decline of C$2.8m on the profit total for the 2016-17 fiscal year. Net revenue was also slightly down to C$756.1m.
ALC is active across the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
The firm reported profit growth in all regions, with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador, where it fell C$4.5m short of its target despite punters spending C$405.5m on lottery games – the most out of all the provinces.
ALC did report success within its digital business, with the number of consumers playing games up from 63,000 in 2016-17 to 72,000 in the past year. Total sales came in at around C$16m for 2017-18.
In December, ALC joined forces with IWG and Scientific Games to relaunch its entire online instant win offering in a bid to attract more customers.
Scientific supplied ALC with a new, omni-channel gaming system while IWG handled the integration process with its Progressive Play remote server.
Scrimshaw said that this focus on expanding its offering will enable the organisation to compete more effectively with other operators.
“Players have so many more options now, and while having a safe and regulated gaming industry is extremely important and at the heart of who we are, we still must ensure that our games, and the means by which we deliver them, are competitive,” Scrimshaw said.
“Speed to market matters. As an organisation we need to be quicker to act and react. The market is evolving and to ensure we remain in the game, our technology, apps and regulatory environment must evolve at the same pace.
“We understand Atlantic Canadians are going to look to gaming for entertainment and by expanding our offering they can choose a safe and regulated provider, which ensures revenue and profits remain in Atlantic Canada.”
Image: Stu pendousmat
