British mogul wants to run National Lottery

The owner of the Express Newspapers expressed his desire to bid for the right to run the National Lottery.

Richard Desmond, owner of British national newspapers Daily Star and Daily Express, revealed his intentions to bid for the right to run the National Lottery once it is up for renewal. Desmond currently runs the Health Lottery.

Camelot runs the UK’s lottery franchise since 1994 and was challenged by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group in 2000 but ultimately the latter lost. The company has the right to run the National Lottery until 2023 after it secured a four year extension to the original contract in 2012. The process is expected to begin sometime in 2019.

Desmond’s company, Northern and Shell, which owns the newspapers and other media titles, would make the bid for the National Lottery. The tycoon has run the Health Lottery since 2011, and whilst it’s not a national lottery but a 51 local society lotteries collection that raise funds for social causes, it pays less in winnings than the National Lottery.

Martin Ellice, joint managing director of Northern and Shell, told the Financial Times that the company would make a bid, and added: “We’re in the lottery business now.” Moreover, Paul Ashford, the company’s group editorial director, told the news outlet: “The British people would not mind a British company doing the British lottery.”