Advisers at KPMG Consulting have been described as 'the best people for the job' after the firm was named project manager for the high profile attempt by Richard Branson to take over the National Lottery.
The Big Five firm, which will help Virgin win the lottery from Branson’s arch rivals Camelot, was this week praised by John Jackson, the man heading up the People’s Lottery bid.
The endorsement comes with just a month left before all the bids to run the lottery are made public.
Jackson said: ‘We went to a number of firms and companies. They tendered for the business, a number of companies did that, and KPMG, we felt, were the best people for the job.’
KPMG will occupy a unique position in the race for the lottery as the Virgin bid is not constructed as a consortium. KPMG will be a service provider to Virgin and not a partner.
However, the lottery work only extends what has been a close relationship with Virgin. KPMG Consulting recently completed implementation of an IT system for Branson’s Virgin Vie and in 1997 a survey by the Big Five firm voted Branson ‘best British business leader’.
Acting as co-ordinator of the technical aspects of the bid KPMG’s key role will be overseeing the delivery of services supplied to Virgin to run the lottery.This may well include working with AWI, one of the world’s largest lottery system providers and a direct competitor to GTech, technology provider to the Camelot attempt to hold on to the lottery.
Camelot and Virgin are the only known bidders for the lottery though seven letters of intent to compete for the lottery have been received.
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