Lottoland calls for betting law reform as its numbers come up

Lottoland sales and customer sign-ups both jumped 200pc in 2017 compared to 2016, it has said. Punters have already won more in 2018 than in all of 2017, according to its Irish head Graham Ross.

The Gibraltar-based self-styled disruptor company aims to grab a chunk of the state-owned National Lottery’s business, by offering online bets on the National Lottery and Euromillions, as well as other international lottery games. Lottoland’s 2017 sales amounted to just over 0.1pc of the National Lottery’s in the same period.

Ross hit out at the failure to introduce updated regulation for the sector.

“Everyone accepts a better regulatory framework is needed for online gambling. It must be a fair, sustainable, protect consumers and create a healthy and sustainable marketplace,” he said.

He added that the lack of such regulation has held back the potential of companies such as Lottoland “to consider Ireland as an investment opportunity to build an infrastructure around online gambling“.

“There’s a wave of innovation in this space and an opportunity for Ireland to be a hub but without certainty on the regulatory side it is harder for companies to make decisions to locate here.“