Online lottery betting operator Lottoland has struck a deal for a global sports betting product courtesy of Malta-based B2B tech provider Altenar.
On Tuesday, Lottoland announced that it had quietly launched a sports betting platform in ‘select markets’ – aka Austria and Germany – and has plans to “expand globally throughout 2020.” Lottoland’s main activity is offering betting markets on the results of numeric lottery draws.
Lottoland CEO Nigel Birrell sounded positively giddy at the prospect of providing “a one stop shop for lottery betting, gaming and sports.” Birrell said Lottoland had chosen Altenar, whose other clients include Finnplay, Golden Palace and Colombia’s Wplay, for its “flexible approach and customization of the software.”
Altenar CEO Stanislav Silin said his group was pleased to have popped Lottoland’s sports betting cherry and the company was looking forward to a “long-term cooperation” with Lottoland.
It remains to be seen if Lottoland will now apply for a new German sports betting license. German authorities have insisted that any operator interested in receiving a new betting license would have to switch off any unauthorized products, including online casino, poker and lottery betting. So far, Lottoland has offered no indication that it intends to amend its unauthorized German-facing operations.
Germany is an important lottery betting market for Lottoland – home to the customer who claimed a world record €90m lottery payout in 2018 – and Lottoland previously applied to become German’s first privately run lottery in 2017.
However, Germany’s lottery operators have accused Lottoland of being a ‘product pirate’ out to pillage what the state-run lotteries view as their private booty. Expect fresh howls of outrage when Germany’s lotteries discover Lottoland is now a full-spectrum offender.
Lottoland has done battle with governments and local lottery operators in other major markets, including Ireland and Australia. The latter market banned lottery betting in 2018 but Lottoland got around this by introducing a new ‘jackpot betting’ product. This too was banned but Lottoland mounted a legal challenge that resulted in a rare victory last August.
