Smart Lotto to bring 20 jobs to Belmullet

Smart Lotto to bring 20 jobs to Belmullet


Ciara Galvin

A mobile app which allows users to play their local lotto and donate to charities is to create 20 jobs in Belmullet.
From Burrishoole to Bondi and everywhere in between, people can now play their local lotto thanks to the fundraising app ‘Smart Lotto’.
The company behind the app, created jointly by Mayo men Padraig Cosgrove and Noel Rowland, intends to create the jobs in Belmullet in the next two years.
The innovative new app was the brainchild of founding director Padraig who was simply looking to develop a service to assist him to fundraise on behalf of his son’s local soccer club.
It took Rowland and Cosgrove just over two years to develop and complete the app and its services.
Speaking to The Mayo News, Sinead Keane of Smart Lotto said the app will allow clubs and charities to fundraise easier and connect with their members.
The company manages each club’s lottery from sending members push notifications to remind them to do the lottery, to uploading news onto members’ feeds. The app allows a person to virtually pick their numbers, with the price of the ticket being deducted from their account.
Currently the company has six employees at its Belmullet office, but this figure is set to increase to 20 over the next two years.
“It’s been a long time since this type of jobs announcement has happened in Belmullet. Padraig and Noel could have set up offices in Dublin or Galway but it is great they chose to keep it local,” said Ms Keane who is head of marketing for Smart Lotto.
At the launch of the Smart Lotto service in Dublin last week, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny spoke of the company’s plans to fundraise an additional €15 million on behalf of clubs and charity organisations by March 2016 with the use of the Smart Lotto App.
Attending to opening of the Smart Lotto office in Belmullet, Minister for State at the Department of Tourism and Sport Michael Ring, said the creation of 20 jobs was good news for the town and people of Belmullet.
Minister Ring outlined that the company has been supported by various local Government enterprise funds including, Fiontar Chomhraic Teo, Belmullet Community Gain Investment Fund, and Mayo North East Leader Company.
“This is an example of how government is spreading the recovery by bringing sustainable full time employment to the outlying regions of the country,”  concluded Minister Ring.