logo
Sizekhaya Holdings outlines its vision for the national lottery

Sizekhaya Holdings outlines its vision for the national lottery

IOL News4 days ago

Sizekhaya Holdings has been confirmed as the fourth national lottery licence operator, promising to enhance local participation and uplift communities through its empowerment initiatives.
Image: Supplied
Sizekhaya Holdings says it is in the process of setting up its structures and putting in place the necessary infrastructure following its confirmation as the fourth lottery licence operator.
In a statement on Thursday, the consortium said it was delighted to be awarded the fourth national lottery licence. It explained that the Sizekhaya consortium consists of a variety of shareholders and a management team that have experience in business and gaming along with operational experience.
"The Sizekhaya consortium is backed by the Goldrush Group, a JSE-listed company renowned for its extensive experience in gaming and online betting. Goldrush holds a 50% stake in Sizekhaya Holdings, ensuring a robust foundation for the consortium's operations. Over and above this, some of the other shareholders include Bellamont Gaming (of which Moses Tembe is a director) and Sandile Zungu, who bring a wealth of business expertise.
"Sizekhaya's broad-based empowerment scheme encompasses 40% new black entrants, including a grouping of young black professional women. The Sizekhaya Foundation NPC will hold six percent of the issued share capital, which is 200% of the target for ownership through broad-based schemes."
Video Player is loading.
Play Video
Play
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
-:-
Loaded :
0%
Stream Type LIVE
Seek to live, currently behind live
LIVE
Remaining Time
-
0:00
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque
Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps
Reset
restore all settings to the default values Done
Close Modal Dialog
End of dialog window.
Advertisement
Next
Stay
Close ✕
Ad loading
It said that its team had extensive experience in gaming in South Africa, cutting-edge game design, a strong technology partner, optimised localisation, expanded broad-based economic empowerment and a commitment to increase ticket sales to create a winning combination.
Sizekhaya said its technical partner is China's Genlot, the technology partner for the largest lottery operator in the world.
"Genlot has formed a local 51% BEE-held technology company which will supply lottery and technology products and services at competitive rates while also ensuring that local skills are developed. In total, Sizekhaya boasts a local content ratio of 96.16%, ensuring that for the first time in its history the National Lottery is truly local."
Tembe said: 'South Africa has hit the jackpot with Sizekhaya. Our vast experience in gaming in the country along with the brains trust we have assembled driven by the collective vision of creating a more enhanced national lottery for good causes, will grow the lottery so more good causes benefit.
'Our choice of technical partner was deliberate as well as we were determined to minimise the amount of foreign exchange that leaves the country."

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

The Finance Ghost: The retail lowdown on Lewis, Spar, Pick n Pay and Dis-Chem
The Finance Ghost: The retail lowdown on Lewis, Spar, Pick n Pay and Dis-Chem

Daily Maverick

time4 hours ago

  • Daily Maverick

The Finance Ghost: The retail lowdown on Lewis, Spar, Pick n Pay and Dis-Chem

There was a flurry of corporate activity in the past week as companies with February and March year-ends looked to get results out before the end of the month. Many companies manage to get results out within two months of the end of the reporting period, with others using the full three months that they are allowed by the JSE. Amongst all the noise, there were several retailers that released important results. As a major source of employment in South Africa and with businesses that everyone can relate to as you can easily visit the stores yourself, this sector is always deserving of attention. Lewis: the pick of the litter The narrative around furniture group Lewis is nothing like it used to be. For years, this was a story of tepid growth and a focus on cost control, with a capital allocation strategy that took full advantage of the benefits of share buybacks. Now, Lewis is behaving like a growth stock with double-digit revenue growth and a colossal jump in Heps of 60.3% for the year ended March 2025. Such has been the extent of share price growth that they didn't do any share buybacks at all in the second half of the financial year! advertisement Don't want to see this? Remove ads Can they keep it up? This is the question on everyone's lips. Somehow, they've managed to boost credit sales (up 12.1% versus cash sales up 3.4%) without sacrificing the quality of the debtors' book. This is a holy grail outcome, as retailers that sell on credit must always consider the benefit of additional sales against the risk of credit losses. So far, so good at Lewis. The market is still wary of how sustainable this growth path is, so investors will be paying a great deal of focus to the next interim period. Spar retreats from Europe – well, mostly With Spar having been through such a terrible time in recent years, it was always unlikely that the pain would end with the disposal of the business in Poland. Things got so bad there that Spar essentially paid someone to take that asset away, with the group incurring debt to recapitalise the business in Poland before selling it for next to nothing. It's the equivalent of begging someone to arrive with a trailer to drag your broken old car off your lawn. advertisement Don't want to see this? Remove ads To add to the headaches, the business in Switzerland had been showing some worrying signs for a while, as food is so expensive in that country that Swiss residents literally cross the border to buy their groceries instead of going to their local retailers like Spar. Risks like these are extremely hard for South Africans to foresee, which is why it's advisable to stick to familiar markets rather than doing business somewhere completely different. Unlike in the case of Poland where they waited until the very end to remove that tumour from the group, Spar has decided to sell the Swiss business. They are also letting go of AWG in southwest England, which came as a surprise as there weren't any obvious concerns around that business. This leaves them with only the businesses in Southern Africa and Ireland going forwards. Of course, there's a difference between simply deciding to sell something and actually getting it sold, so it will be a while until the group is so clean and simple. In the meantime, investors have to suffer through diluted Heps from total operations dropping by between -24% and -34% for the 26 weeks to 28 March 2025. If you look at only the continuing operations, it should be between 0% and -15% lower for the period – still a poor outcome. They have a lot of fixing to do at Spar. Pick n Pay is a reminder that turnarounds are hard Speaking of fixing, there's still a long way to go at Pick n Pay. In fact, with the results for the 53 weeks to 2 March 2025 now out in the wild, the group has noted that they only expect their core Pick n Pay segment to break even by 2028. CEO Sean Summers has agreed to extend his contract until then to help drive that outcome. advertisement Don't want to see this? Remove ads This leaves the group in a situation where the controlling stake in Boxer is doing the heavy lifting, with the plan being to stem the bleeding in Pick n Pay as quickly as they can. There are at last some encouraging signs, like an uptick in like-for-like sales, but Pick n Pay will have to fight every step of the way in a market that is a bloodbath of competition. advertisement Don't want to see this? Remove ads If you dig into the underlying earnings or read the company announcements, just be cautious of getting excited about the trading profit line. Due to silly accounting rules, lease costs (which are obviously substantial for retailers) are actually recognised in net finance costs, which come in below trading profit. In other words, trading profit ignores lease costs, so it's a very flattering view of profitability. This is why Pick n Pay clarifies that their breakeven goal for 2028 is based on trading profit net of lease costs, which is the correct way to look at things. Dis-Chem keeps delivering – but did the market want more? With Dis-Chem's share price closing 6.3% lower on Friday after the release of results for the year ended 28 February 2025, you would be forgiven for thinking that the numbers were weak. Instead, we find Heps growth of 20% and a similar increase in the total dividend for the year. Sure, Dis-Chem is now on a demanding Price:Earnings (P:E) ratio of 24.4x based on latest numbers, but could the market really have been expecting so much more than 20% growth in earnings? In such a case where the share price move isn't easily explained by the earnings, it's best to skip to the outlook section of the announcement to see if there are any clues there. Dis-Chem notes a constrained consumer environment, but we are hearing that story everywhere and it's not exactly anything new. Helpfully, they've also given a sales update for 1 March to 27 May (i.e. about the first quarter of the new financial year) that reflects 8.6% growth in group revenue. This is even better than the 8% full-year growth that they just reported! Comparable pharmacy store revenue has accelerated from 4.1% for FY25 to 4.6% for these past few months. Perhaps the worry was around growth in wholesale revenue to external customers, which slowed down significantly from 22.1% to 13.6%. Still, that really shouldn't be enough to drive a 6.3% drop in the share price. advertisement Don't want to see this? Remove ads advertisement Don't want to see this? Remove ads This share price dip comes after a strong 30-day performance in the market, so it may be due to profit-taking by punters in response to earnings. Regardless, the underlying business is strong and Dis-Chem has continued to deliver for investors despite the pressure on consumer spending. As local retail businesses go, this is one of the best. DM

Incoming lottery operator Sizekhaya Holdings commits to giving IP to govt once licence expires
Incoming lottery operator Sizekhaya Holdings commits to giving IP to govt once licence expires

Eyewitness News

time11 hours ago

  • Eyewitness News

Incoming lottery operator Sizekhaya Holdings commits to giving IP to govt once licence expires

JOHANNESBURG - Incoming National Lottery operator Sizekhaya Holdings has committed to handing over its intellectual property (IP) to government once its licence expires. This will allow the government to be able to run its Lotto operations in-house. ALSO READ: Lotto operations to run normally after Ithuba Holdings licence temporarily extended Sizekhaya was recently announced as the fourth National Lottery and Sports Pool licence holder, starting from 1 June 2026, taking over from Ithuba. This is one of government's most expensive tenders, worth about R200 billion over eight years. 'We have promised to hand over the intellectual property of our lottery design, development and execution to the government for insource capacity to run the Lotto at the end of our tenure. This and many reasons are why we believe we won the right to operate the Lotto for the next eight years,' said the chairperson of Sizekhaya Holdings, Moses Tembe.

How deal was struck to save National Lottery from shutdown
How deal was struck to save National Lottery from shutdown

IOL News

time12 hours ago

  • IOL News

How deal was struck to save National Lottery from shutdown

Sizekhaya Holdings is led by a consortium that includes KwaZulu-Natal business figures such as Moses Tembe, former Chairperson of the KZN Growth Coalition, and Sandile Zungu, owner of AmaZulu football club. Image: Sihle Mlambo/IOL In tense, last minute discussions at the weekend, Trade, Industry, and Competition Minister Parks Tau intervened to prevent a shutdown of the popular National Lottery. Tau's intervention came after a high-stakes meeting on Saturday with the National Lottery Commission (NLC) and Ithuba, the current lottery operator. The situation arose after a Gauteng High Court ruled that Ithuba's operating license could only be extended for five months, until the new operator, Sizekhaya Holdings takes over. However the NLC had argued that a 12-month temporary license was necessary to ensure a smooth transition, but the court disagreed. However, in a surprise move, Tau announced that he had granted a 12-month temporary license to Ithuba Holdings, allowing them to continue operating the National Lottery from June 1 until the end of May next year - when Sizekhaya Holdings takes over as the operator. According to sources close to Tau, the minister promised Ithuba that they would not lose any revenue and would instead make a profit, although the details of how this would be achieved are not clear. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading "It was an intense meeting, and the minister knew what impact it would have on the country's economy given the scale of the tender and people relying on playing the lotto week in and week out," a source said. Ithuba had argued in court that if they accepted a five-month extension, they would incur a loss of R51 million. Ithuba has agreed to continue operating the National Lottery, ensuring that all games, draws, and prize payouts will proceed normally. The company has reassured the public that they will maintain their commitment to integrity, transparency, and the benefit of South Africans. "As a proudly 100% black-owned South African operator, Ithuba remains steadfast in its commitment to operate the National Lottery with integrity, transparency, and for the benefit of South Africans," the company stated on Saturday. While this agreement provides short-term relief, the long-term future of the National Lottery remains uncertain. Sizekhaya Holdings, the preferred bidder, is set to take over the lottery in June 2026, but questions remain about the transparency of the licensing process and the impact of further legal challenges. Announcing the preferred bidder Tau said he had received a report from the NLC regarding the satisfactory conclusion of negotiations with the preferred bidder for the Fourth National Lottery and Sports Pools Licence. 'I am pleased to announce that I have awarded Sizekhaya Holdings (RF) (Pty) Ltd ('Sizekhaya') the licence in terms of section 13 of the Lotteries Act 57 of 1997. As I indicated previously, I intended to announce the successful bidder on 28 May 2025 provided that the licence agreement negotiations with the preferred bidder were successfully concluded. I wish to thank the parties to the negotiations for completing their work in time. 'It is most unfortunate that this matter has already become the subject of litigation and a judgment of the High Court. I am seeking legal advice with a view to appealing against the judgment's findings and orders, and I reserve all my rights concerning this judgment. 'With due respect to the Honourable High Court, my announcement is the result of my undertaking made to the bidders and the Court before the hearing of the ends a long and difficult process of evaluating eight applications for the fourth licence. I appreciate that this has been an enormous and complex endeavour,' Tau said. On Sunday, Sizekhaya Holdings chairperson Moses Tembe, expressed his gratitude for being awarded the fourth lottery licence by the National Lottery "We welcome that the honourable Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Parks Tau appreciated the power of our vision. When the National Lottery was first mooted after the ushering in of our democracy, the most compelling argument for its existence was income it could generate to help the poorest and most vulnerable of South Africans," said Tembe. Tembe is a co-owner with Sandile Zungu, the owner of Amazulu Football. Ithuba had previously expressed disappointment at the decision to award the license to Sizekhaya Holdings, stating that they had invested significantly in developing the lottery infrastructure and had made significant contributions to good causes. "As a fully South African-owned and black-empowered operator, Ithuba Lottery has invested significantly in developing the first African central lottery system, owned and developed for Africa by South Africans," the company stated.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store