| Type | Public (ASX: TTS) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Gambling |
| Founded | Melbourne, Australia, Merger of Tattersalls Limited and UNiTab Limited in October 2006 |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Australia Queensland, Australia |
| Key people | Harry Boon, Chairman Dick McIlwain, Managing Director & CEO |
| Products | Totalisator wagering Casinos Gaming machines |
| Revenue | $3.298 billion A$ (2009) |
| Website | www.tattsgroup.com |
Tatts Group Limited (ASX: TTS), formerly Tattersall's Limited, is a Victorian lottery/gaming company. Tattersall's is licensed to sell lottery related products including Tattslotto, Super 66, Monday & Wednesday Lotto, Super 7's Oz Lotto, The Pools, and Powerball in the Australian states of Tasmania and Victoria, as well as the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory. Tattersall's-related products are sold in 900 venues across Tasmania and Victoria.
Until 1 July 2008, Tattersall's were also permitted to sell instant 'scratchies', as well as Tatts 2, Tatts Keno and Wednesday Tattslotto.
In October 2006, UNiTAB Limited was merged into Tattersall's Limited. UNiTAB owns the Totalizator Agency Boards (TABs) in Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory, as well as gaming machine monitoring services in Queensland, the Northern Territory, and New South Wales, under the maxgaming brand. The UNiTAB Limited operations is currently considered a subsidiary of the merged company, separate from the previous Tattersalls operations.
At their Annual General Meeting on 2007-11-30, shareholders approved a resolution changing the name of the merged company to Tatts Group Limited.[1] The lotteries arm of the group will remain under the Tattersall's branding. Its major competitor in the gaming and wagering industry is Tabcorp Holdings Limited.
In 2010, Tatts purchased NSW Lotteries from the Government of New South Wales.
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Tatts Group's lotteries division, currently known as Tatts Lotteries, operates lottery games in three states and both internal territories of Australia. The division consists of two entities:
As part of the Australian Lotto Bloc, the Tatts Lotteries entities operate the following national lottery games in their jurisdictions:
In Tattersall's-branded areas, a range of additional games are offered, including Wednesday Tattslotto, a reduced version of Tattslotto played with 40 numbers instead of 45; and the daily Tatts Keno and Tatts Two games. In Queensland, Golden Casket runs Wednesday Gold Lotto as well as a draw lottery, known as Casket, which is drawn approximately seven times a year. Both also offer their own-branded instant scratch lotteries.
Proceeds from Golden Casket-branded products are currently primarily directed towards children's public health funding, in particular the Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane and Mater Children's Hospital. Some proceeds of Tattersall's products are also made available through grants to various entities.
In 2007-10-24, the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation announced that Tattersall's' monopoly on lotteries in that state will end, and effective from 2008-07-01 there will be two lotteries licencees in the state of Victoria, effective for ten years[4]. Tattersall's will continue to operate its existing national lotto games, such as Tattslotto (Saturday only), Super 7's Oz Lotto and Powerball. The Australian arm of Greek-based gaming company Intralot has also been awarded a licence to operate games in some categories currently run by Tattersall's, such as keno and instant scratch lotteries, as well as a number of new games.[5] As of May 2008, Tattersall's is in the process of winding these games down before the 30 June deadline, which requires them to distribute any reserve prize funds before their licence expires[6].
Tatts Group ran a statewide tipping competition for AFL matches through its seller network in Victoria, under the Tatts Tipstar brand, from 2001 until 2007. Originally a consortium also including the company of current Collingwood Football Club president and Nine Network personality, Eddie McGuire, Tattersall's has been the sole shareholder of the operating company since 2002.[7]
Originally granted as a seven-year licence by the Victorian government, the licence for Tatts Tipstar expired at the end of the 2007 AFL season.[8] During that season, two products were offered: a statewide, season-long tipping competition (Tipstar Footy Tips), and a weekly pool for tipping all eight teams in a round (Tipstar 8). A reduced version of the latter, dubbed Tipstar 4, was initially offered upon Tipstar's inception, but was eventually removed from sale.
Tatts Group has a significant investment in operation of gaming machines in Victoria, where it is one of two companies licensed to do so (Tabcorp being the other). Tatts owned a total of as of 13,850 machines as of 2007-06-03, trading under the Tatts Pokies branding. However, Victorian government policy, which in August 2006 was amended to enforce regional machine limits as well as a state limit (27,400 in total, plus 2500 operating at Crown Casino)[9][10], would see this number reduced by 283 in 2007[11].
Tatts, through its UNiTAB arm, also operates gaming machine services (such as statewide jackpot operations) to Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory, under the "maxgaming" brand. Originally operated by the former Tab Limited (who operated the New South Wales TAB), maxgaming was purchased from Tabcorp by UNiTAB effective 2004-01-01. Tabcorp, who already owned Sydney's Star City Casino, was forced to divest its holdings of maxgaming by the NSW government as a condition of taking a controlling stake in Tab Limited.[12][13]
Tatts Group's UNiTAB arm owns the statewide Totalizator Agency Board agencies in Queensland, South Australia, and the Northern Territory, providing wagering on horse and greyhound racing, as well as major sports events under Tabcorp's TAB Sportsbet brand (which is used by all TABs nationally). UNiTAB also operate radio stations in these states. Tatts Group (through UNiTAB) and Tabcorp own the TABs in all states and territories except Western Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory, where they remain government-owned.
The history of Tattersall's can be traced back to George Adams in 1881. Adams moved to Australia from England at the age of 16 and worked in many positions including publican, stock broker and baker. In 1881 Adams who worked as a publican in Sydney took bets on horses which could be considered the start of the gambling company.
However, the company started a serious lottery when Adams moved to Hobart in 1895 a move supported by the Tasmanian Government. He set up his first operation there and eventually the company grew/developed in other states.
Being a gambling company Tattersall's is subject to controversy. While the company has often enjoyed support from both the Victorian and Tasmanian governments, gambling has become a problem in both these states. Neither state has banned advertising of Tattersall's products despite the fact they run advertisements cautioning engagement in gambling. The company could be subject to legal battles, some complain about the odds of games. Tattersall's generally only returns 60% of weekly revenue back into the prize pools (some is saved for a Super Draw). It is estimated that 1/3 of Victorians play Tattersall's games each week. This rising in the Super Draws. In 2004 Tattersall's changed the appearance of their tickets and replaced the outlet machines across Australia. The new tickets they developed were considerably longer and the numbers were squashed smaller; making them harder to see for older players (who make up a large proportion of their customers). Other people complained that Tattersall's tickets looked too similar to supermarket receipts and were being thrown away. Their exclusive licences to many gambling operations are constantly under review by state governments.
When Tattersall's was founded, George Adams structured the company so the original workers' families would inherit the profits. This created so-called "Tattersall's heirs": subsequent generations inherited a share in the company's profits. This was sometimes thought of as being unfair seeing people inherited the profits of a multi-million dollar company (that benefited from a state-granted monopoly on much of its business) simply through birth. In 2005 the company decided to list on the Australian Stock Exchange "Tattersall's heirs" were now allowed to sell their stake in the company and for the first time the public could buy into it. After the listing on the stock exchange local newspapers and other news media listed the names of these "Heirs".[14]