UK: Ailing lottery gets new owner
An interactive gaming company today agreed a deal to rescue the online charity lottery “Monday”.
NetPlayTV, which produces a live roulette show on the Sky platform, has bought the rights to the game, as well as its player database.
Monday’s owner Chariot will continue to operate the game for the next four weeks while NetPlayTV works on plans to create an interactive television game show based around the brand.
Chariot launched its Monday lottery game in May, claiming to offer better odds of winning than the National Lottery and higher contributions for charity.
It immediately came under pressure from poor sales and needed a £2.6m (€4m) rescue package in June to keep it afloat after making start-up losses of £8 million.
In September it launched a series of free £1m (€1.52m) prize draws in a bid to lure more customers to its website and it has spend the past few months looking for a buyer. It warned it could go into administration in October.
NetPlayTV chief executive Andrew Higginson said: “The acquisition of the Monday game is an exciting move for the company.
“Chariot has spent a considerable amount of money building a comprehensive database of over 280,000 lottery players. We believe we can use our proven direct marketing skills, together with our recently acquired TV production skills to produce a fun, interactive TV lottery show.”
The sale of Monday for £140,500 (€213,000) will result in Chariot disposing of all its trading business activities. It will now look for a suitable acquisition.
Chariot chairman Peter Jones said: “Despite our best efforts we have unfortunately been unable to secure an independent future for the Monday lottery. Nevertheless we are delighted that the Monday game will continue under the new ownership of NetPlayTV.”
The new owners will continue to raise money for charity after the game made £1.65m (€2.5m) for good causes since May.
