Ex-retail chief joins Sazka for lottery bid

The battle to take control of the UK’s National Lottery is hotting up in favour of the Czech company Sazka Group, run by Karel Komarek.

The former CEO of supermarket group Sainsbury’s, Justin King, has joined an advisory board that is chaired by Sir Keith Mills at Sazka. It has also enlisted “experts from a range of fields” to help win the licence fro Camelot when it expires in 2023.

Komarek, who the media consider is worth $3.8bn, put forward his company as a bidder to take over the operation last year.

He is joined by Apollo Global Management from the US, which plans to invest $500m into Sazka to help it handle the business, taking control of Sazka out of Komarek’s hands.

Justin King was head of Sainsbury’s for 10 years. His background is in retail, with Marks and Spencer and another supermarket group, Asda.