Lottery Reassesses Geosweep


Tuesday November 6,2012 : ATLANTIC LOTTERY CORP REASSESSES GEOSWEEP (Update)
 
Lottery product under scrutiny
 
The Canadian Atlantic Lottery Corporation is reportedly reassessing its total capital investment of around Cdn$3.85 millionon an equity  stake in the British internet gaming company Roboreus and its Geosweep product.
 
Geosweep is an variation on the normal lottery business model but instead of wagering on a lottery ticket number, the punters buy their favourite "geo" – a specific point in the organising country – in this case Atlantic Canada, where 2.3 million geo’s were arranged for wagering at a cost of around Cdn$7.50 for a month.
 
While the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC) is declining to reveal sales on the programme, the pilot programme launched earlier this year in the United Kingdom reportedly yielded a daily income of a mere GBP100 .
 
In July 2012, the Atlantic provinces of Canada were themselves at odds on adopting the programme with Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick each putting up Cdn$4 million on the project, but Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador declined to get involved.
 
At the time, PEI Finance Minister Wes Sheridan defended the project saying the Atlantic Lottery needed new products to maintain revenues as income drops from older-type lottery offerings, believing that the GeoSweep project could pay for itself in three years.
 
More recently, Finance Minister of New Brunswick, Blaine Higgs said the investment is being re-evaluated as the Government is unsure if the game is a viable project for ALC any longer.