UK's Lottery ownership changes hands for £100 million ending bitter dispute

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New Camelot owner Karel Komarek and wife Stepanka with the Camelot buildings in Watford, UK.   Photo: Karl Schoedorfer/REX

Camelot UK, the owner of the UK National Lottery, has been bought for a reported £100 million (US$115.3m).

The new owner is Allwyn Entertainment, owned by Czech billionaire Karel Komarek, 53, and the purchase is expected to close months of bitter legal wrangling.

The new UK National Lottery bid winner Allwyn Entertainment is owned by Czech oil and gas tycoon Karel Komarek.  

The Daily Mail reports that the dispute will end a dispute with the Gambling Commission's decision in March this year to hand over the National Lottery license.

The license, which has been held by Camelot since the lottery began in 1994, is being officially transferred to Czech-based Allwyn in February 2024.

New owner Allwyn plans to reduce the price of National Lottery tickets by half when they take over in Feb 2024.  

Allwyn's successful bid included plans to cut the price of lottery tickets from £2 to the original £1 fee.

The 10-year license deal still needs to be cleared by the Gambling Commission but is expected to be finalized early next year.

The move is estimated to generate up to £100 billion (US$115 billion) in sales for Allwyn, which also runs lotteries in other European nations.

British entrepreneur and billionaire Sir Richard Branson also tried to buy the profitable UK National Lottery license   Photo: Supplied

Camelot UK will continue to be run separately, but most of its 900 staff were already due to transfer to Allwyn when the license changes in 2024.

Karel Komárek was born 15 March 1969, and is a businessman worth $5.5 billion as of August 2021. He is one of the wealthiest Czech citizens and the founder-owner of the KKCG Group,