After winning its third licence to operate The National Lottery for 10 years from February 2009, Camelot is implementing its carefully-prepared transition plans to ensure that the lottery is in the best possible shape for the start of the new licence period. The plans include the introduction of a new communications network to replace the existing ISDN network in National Lottery retail outlets.

Camelot will operate the new infrastructure within a dedicated datacentre suite at the Equinix facility, which will form the central hub of Camelot’s information systems, processing all of the data coming in from its new satellite network. The move will provide Camelot with direct access to a high-performance datacentre platform designed to host high-density computing infrastructures offering a rich source of robust network connectivity.

These important elements will provide Camelot with a cutting-edge infrastructure that offers a high-performance and reliable platform for new lottery products and player services for the next 10 years. 

Jonathan Root, Chief Systems Architect at Camelot, said: “Equinix is playing a critical role in enabling us to meet our plans for the third licence. Our service delivery infrastructure demands a more sophisticated datacentre and we were attracted by the premium solution provided by Equinix. We can build our systems in an extremely secure environment, which benefits from acknowledged operational excellence and the added resilience of direct access to multiple network providers.”

Michael Winterson, VP Sales and Marketing at Equinix in Europe, commented: “Camelot has made considerable achievements over the last 13 years, running the most cost-efficient lottery in Europe and returning a higher proportion of lottery revenue to society than any other major lottery operator in the world. Its commitment to a high-performance communications infrastructure has played a critical role in these successes. The partnership with Equinix will provide them with a perfect platform to continue this outstanding success story.”

About Camelot and The National Lottery

Camelot Group plc is the licensed operator of The National Lottery® and is committed to raising money for the Good Causes designated by Parliament. Camelot is not responsible for distributing or awarding these funds. To date, over £21 billion has been raised for the Good Causes by The National Lottery, and more than 294,000 individual awards have been made across the UK – the biggest programme of civic and social regeneration since the 19th Century. The National Lottery has given away over £32 billion in prizes and created more than 2,175 millionaires or multi-millionaires since launch in 1994.

Camelot runs one of the most cost-efficient lotteries in the world, with around 5% of total revenue taken in operating costs. At 40% of total sales (28% to the Good Causes and 12% in lottery duty to the Government), Camelot returns a higher proportion of lottery revenue back to society than any other lottery operator in the world. National Lottery retailers receive 5% of total revenue in commission, and 50% of sales is paid out to players in prizes.

Players of all National Lottery games must be aged 16 or over. The crossed fingers logo is the registered trademark of the National Lottery Commission.
 

About Equinix

Equinix is the leading global provider of network-neutral data center and interconnection services, offering premium colocation, traffic exchange and outsourced IT infrastructure solutions.  Global enterprises, content companies, systems integrators and network service providers look to Equinix Internet Business Exchange (IBX®) centers for world-class reliability and network diversity.  Equinix IBX centers serve as critical, core hubs for IP networks and Internet operations worldwide.  With 39 IBX centers located in 18 strategic markets across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, Equinix enables customers to reliably operate their mission-critical infrastructure on a global basis.