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By Julian Goldsmith, 26 June 1998 10:22

NEWS National Lottery operator, Camelot, plans to use its data network as a trump card in bidding to run racing pool business, Tote. Camelot chief executive, Tim Hollis, has expressed an interest in running Tote, and said its network could be a major selling point if the company is offered for tender. The comment comes just two months after the main supplier of the lottery network, Gtech, was cleared of impropriety by the regulator, Oflot. A spokeswoman for the lottery company stressed that it has made no formal offer for Tote, but agreed that its network would be an advantage if it has the opportunity to bid. "We process 90 million tickets per week electronically on the most efficient lottery network in the world," she said. The network currently serves 25,000 online tills. Tote is considerably more low-tech at present. A spokesman for the company said: "A large degree of our business is personnel driven. It is mainly the pool betting on the racecourses and Tote Direct which Camelot would be interested in."
The Tote spokesman explained that the course-side betting and Tote Direct, run in collaboration with Ladbrokes, was run on only 4,500 terminals. There are similarities in the operation of both companies but they do not currently share any technology suppliers. Tote was a member of one of the consortia that lost the National Lottery contract to Camelot.