National Lottery plc commences operations of the national lottery of malta

Valletta Malta – July 5^th, 2022

IT’S TIME becomes – IT ALL STARTS HERE. In a commemorative event held at the Saluting Battery at the Upper Barakka Gardens, in Valletta, National Lottery plc celebrated the start of the takeover of the national lottery of Malta.

Earlier in the morning National Lottery plc a subsidiary of the IZI Group was granted an exclusive license to operate the national lottery of Malta which includes the popular games of Lotto and Super5 by the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) for the next ten years.

In a short speech to commemorate this defining moment for the Group, Mr. Johann Schembri – CEO of National Lottery plc explained how today marks a new era for the national lottery of Malta. ‘Today is the culmination of years of work that we have undertaken as a team. I am very grateful to have found a team of people that have put their life on hold to ensure that we deliver a new national lottery service in record time,’ commented Mr. Schembri as he thanked the hundreds of employees that form part of the IZI Group.

We are committed to delivering an innovative, forward-looking and above all, fair and transparent national lottery service, powered by the world’s leading lottery technology company, International Game Technology (IGT). We are also proud and privileged to be the first fully-owned Maltese company to operate what essentially is the most important gaming operation in Malta which now allows our Group to take an active role in all the land-based gaming business verticals. Our aspiration is to take the national lottery of Malta to unprecedented levels in line with the highest operating standards found in Europe.

Mr. Schembri thanked all the stakeholders that were involved in making this project a reality, including the Malta Gaming Authority, the Privatisation Unit, the representatives of the Lottery Agents (GLAA, LRU, and Chamber of SMEs), Bank of Valletta plc, the bondholders, and the Government of Malta for the trust that they have shown in National Lottery plc.

In his address, Minister Silvio Schembri expressed his satisfaction that the process of assigning the exclusive license to the National Lottery of Malta was completed within very stringent time frames. He also wished National Lottery plc the best of luck in their endeavors as the national lottery concessionaire and licensee. “I’m sure that the new National Lottery Licensee shall continue to enhance the popular games such as the Lotto, and Super 5 among others, as well as introduce other lottery games which will further enrich the games portfolio. Together, we have ensured that National Lotteries plc will be committed to promoting, designing, and putting into practice the principles of actively responsible gaming while protecting the personal well-being of players. The national economic profit that translates from gambling should be given importance, but not at the expense of the player” said Minister Silvio Schembri

National Lottery plc is expected to bring several improvements to the existing games, including improved odds for Lotto, the elimination of prize capping, a new Tuesday Lotto draw, and larger jackpots for the Super5 game. National Lottery plc will also introduce new games to enrich the current portfolio, including add-ons to the Super5 game (Super5 Plus and Super5-4-3-2-1) and the introduction of a new digit game known as Pick3. The popular game of Keno will be distributed under a new brand name – FastKeno.

National Lottery plc has also managed to acquire the rights to distribute Malta’s most popular sports betting brand – IZIBET which from today will be available through more than 200 points of sale across Malta and Gozo.

National Lottery plc takes over the operation of the national lottery of Malta from Maltco Lotteries today, with the first Lotto draw earmarked for Saturday 9^th July 2022 at 20:35hrs, followed by the first-ever Tuesday Lotto draw on the 12^th July 2022 also at 20:35hrs on TVM.