The pool of hockey Loto-Québec’s deficit

Jean-Luc Lavallée

Monday, 4 September 2017, 00:00

UPDATE
Monday, 4 September 2017, 00:00

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Loto-Québec has not earned a penny with the first edition of his pool of hockey, last year, due to the low number of participants. That’s not a problem, the Crown corporation will try again the experience this autumn with a ” improved “version.

In an interview with The Newspaper in September 2016, the director of the paris sports and entertainment at Loto-Québec, Louis Beaudet, said to expect the participation of 30 000 to 50 000 punters for the pool’s annual, and the pools weekly accessible via the platform espacejeux.com.

Finally, only 6300 hockey fans paid $ 25 to register for the pool’s annual and 13 500 have participated in the pools weekly, for a total of 19 800 participants, well below projections of Loto-Québec.

“For the first year, the pool weekly, and the pool annual, combined, have finished close to the threshold of profitability. This is correct for the first year of a new product. We are quite satisfied. It is sure that we would have hoped for better, but for the next year, we will make improvements. We think that people will appreciate, ” replied the spokesman of Loto-Québec’s Danny Root.

The pool is to be annual, with a grand prize of $ 125,000, was equipped with a total purse of $ 195,000 for. Loto-Québec had revenues of slightly less than this amount.

It is, after all, a deficit well marginal, and a drop of water in the ocean of the profits generated by the State-run company that has reported a dividend of $ 1.2 billion to the government of Quebec in the last year, relativizes-t-it.

Increase the bets with Mise-o-jeu

“For the first few years of existence of the pool, the primary objective is to enhance and diversify the supply of Mise-o-jeu. The pool represents a very small percentage of the budget of Mise-o-jeu “, swatch Mr Root, who also welcomes an increase of 16.5 % in the sales of sports betting and the events in 2016-2017, compared to the previous year.

The pool has also allowed Loto-Québec to attract new customers to the sportsbook and to generate new revenue, since 58 % of the participants had never played Mise-o-jeu before. Several of them have done after their registration at the pool.

No other pool sports

The new rules of the pool for the season 2017-2018 will be known in September. Loto-Québec has confirmed to the Newspaper that the jackpot will be maintained to $ 125,000 regardless of the number of participants.

In the short term, it is not intended to launch pools for other sports than hockey.