Citizens have overflowed – Newspaper Kommersant No. 228 (7429) dated 12/08/2022

Despite the desire of citizens to save on entertainment, lottery companies are counting on the growth of the market by the end of the year. Thus, the volume of targeted deductions, which directly depends on the proceeds from ticket sales, increased by 16% in the first nine months alone, they say in Stoloto, expecting a traditional increase in demand before the New Year. In 2022, competition in the segment also intensified: the National Lottery, due to an agreement with Russian Post, now has a distribution network equal in number to Stoloto. Market participants themselves consider the low confidence of citizens in lotteries to be a deterrent. Experts believe that in 2023 the overall decline in purchasing power will also affect the situation.

The volume of targeted deductions transferred to the budget of the Russian Federation from the sale of lottery tickets under the brand name of the largest distributor Stoloto increased by 16% in nine months, to 2.2 billion rubles, the company told Kommersant. Stoloto is also counting on growth for the year as a whole, emphasizing that traditionally the peak of lottery sales falls on the last week of December. The company does not disclose the volume and dynamics of proceeds from ticket sales. However, it usually grows in proportion to deductions, the size of which should be 10% of the difference between the amount of proceeds and the value of the prize fund.

Since July 2014, only state lotteries have been allowed in the Russian Federation, the organizers are the Ministry of Sports and the Ministry of Finance. GSL JSC is the lottery operator of the Ministry of Sports, Sportloto LLC is the Ministry of Finance. The largest distributor of lottery tickets is TC Center JSC (Stoloto brand), all three companies are controlled by Armen Sargsyan’s S8 Capital holding. In 2021, the total revenue of GSL, Sportloto and TC Center, according to Kartoteka.ruamounted to about 60 billion rubles.

In 2020, another operator appeared on the market – Sports Lotteries LLC, which distributes the National Lottery organized by the Ministry of Finance. According to Kartoteka.ru, 49% LLC belongs to the structures of VTB, 51% – to the President of the International Boxing Federation Umar Kremlev. The revenue of LLC in 2021 was only 52.3 million rubles. But the National Lottery launched active sales only in August 2022, the company explained to Kommersant: “Since October 1, when the flagship lottery draws started, we have occupied about 20% of the market in weekly draw lotteries, and our ambitions are much higher.” The network of the National Lottery, according to its own data, increased from 1.3 thousand to 74 thousand points of sale over the year. As Kommersant wrote on September 13, the largest lottery distribution channel, Russian Post, broke off cooperation with Stoloto and agreed on sales with the National Lottery: more than 40 thousand post offices are involved in ticket sales.

After the decision of the Russian Post to stop selling Stoloto tickets, the latter is actively working to connect new sales channels, the company claims: “Our tickets have already become available in all Lenta supermarkets, the leading Ural chain Monetka, Victoria grocery stores “, as well as in the arenas of the Continental Hockey League.” The Stoloto ticket distribution network consists of about 72 thousand points of sale, they specified.

Sales of lottery tickets through post offices in 2022 “remained at the level of last year,” Russian Post said, without disclosing numbers. Grocery chains that sell lottery tickets did not respond to inquiries or declined to comment.

Meanwhile, the prospects for the lottery market for the next year remain unstable and, apparently, directly depend on the situation with military operations in Ukraine and Russia’s tough conflict with the European Union, the United States and other countries. “There is a misconception that people are more actively involved in lottery draws when various difficult events occur,” Stoloto explains. “But participants more often purchase lottery tickets, on the contrary, when everything is fine.” The National Lottery notes that market growth “limits the low level of trust in lotteries.” InterMedia Editor-in-Chief Yevgeny Safronov, meanwhile, believes that in 2023 the market will be more affected by the decline in the purchasing power of Russians. The expert emphasizes that “everything depends on the military, political and economic conditions.”

Valeria Lebedeva