BREAKING: Bad luck for Camelot as High Court lifts stay on handing over National Lottery licence to Allwyn

Camelot has lost its legal battle to block the National Lottery licence handover to Allwyn.

In March, the Czech-backed operator Allwyn was named the preferred applicant for the fourth National Lottery licence, meaning Camelot lost its licence after 28 years.

Camelot CEO Nigel Railton said he was “incredibly disappointed” by the Gambling Commission’s decision, and was deciding the company’s next steps

Camelot chief executive Nigel Railton said the Gambling Commission had not responded appropriately to questions about how and why the licence was given to Allwyn.

“We are therefore left with no choice but to ask the court to establish what happened,” he said

Camelot launched a legal battle against the Gambling Commission’s decision in April.

The crux of Camelot’s challenge focuses on the scoring system and ‘risk factor’ applied to judging the candidates for the lottery licence.

The voting essentially meant that Allwyn’s ambitious but potentially more risky business plan was able to score the jackpot prize.

According to the outgoing National Lottery’s operator, Camelot had a 15 per cent “risk factor” discount that was supposed to be applied to bidders’ financial forecasts, which was first applied and then discounted by the Gambling Commission.

The change in rules turned Allwyn’s projections for good causes to be significantly higher than Camelot’s. 

In a court submission, Camelot said that awarding the fourth licence to Allwyn would effectively put Camelot “out of business”.