Lottoland CEO Nigel Barrell is a very busy man these days as he defends his company’s business model from fierce criticism in Australia, as well as expanding the scope of Lottoland’s daily operations.
On Lottoland’s business operations side, the company recently announced that has received a financial services from Gibraltar for its Fortuna subsidiary. Fortuna will be handling collateralized payments to lotto winners, as well as insuring the company against massive payouts.
Lottery operators all over the world deal with insurance companies to provide these services, it’s believed that the Fortuna/Lottoland connection marks the first time one company has performed both operations.
In an interview with the Gibraltar Olive Press, Barrell beamed at the prospect of being selected to operate in the insurance business from the island nation saying:
To-date Gibraltar is very selective and restrictive in awarding licenses, at the moment it has only approximately 30 gaming licensees. Gibraltar will only accept the ‘blue-chip’ players of the industry. This approach differs strongly from other countries and we are immensely proud to be one of them.
While things are going swimmingly between Lottoland and Gibraltar, the relationship between Lottoland and various business factions in Australia are not quite as sweet. Barrell’s business model of betting on lotteries has not been embraced by lottery ticket vendors and newsagents in Australia where anti-Lottoland sentiment is a very real thing.
All that Lottoland hating, however, is not keeping Barrell up at night. He told the Olive Press that most of what his opponents were saying about his business was untrue. And for good measure he added, “If anything, all the free publicity is driving more registrations and increased brand recognition.”
After all, there’s no such thing as, “bad publicity,” especially in the online gambling business.