Overseas Expansion

"Karl, how is the company developing?" As soon as he returned to the German Welfare Lottery Company, Oscar headed straight to the office of the general manager, Karl.

Currently, Oscar was a man burdened with massive debt, and the German Welfare Lottery Company had become his sole source of funding to repay it. Naturally, he was extremely concerned about the company's growth. The greater the profits of the lottery company, the more capital Oscar would have to invest in other fields. In this way, he would no longer have to worry about his heavy debts.

Oscar now felt that relying solely on his own strength to drive the development of Germany's military power was undoubtedly very difficult. If he were the Emperor of the German Empire or the Crown Prince, it might be much easier. Unfortunately, both of those positions were likely out of his reach. Crown Prince Wilhelm's right to the throne seemed very secure for now. Furthermore, Oscar knew that Wilhelm II still had a long life ahead of him; in the other timeline, he had lived until 1941.

"Your Highness, our company has been developing steadily. Currently, sales of the Double Color Ball lottery account for at least half of the entire German lottery market. The other lottery companies are almost being squeezed out of business by us," Jonath said with a smile on his face.

The more profit the welfare lottery company made, the more they would naturally be able to distribute in dividends.

Oscar nodded; the rapid development of the welfare lottery company did not exceed his expectations. Especially when the winners of the Five Million Grand Prize were publicized through newspapers, making it known to all of Germany, it made others itch with anticipation. Even those who did not originally buy lottery tickets would be tempted after seeing ordinary people become lucky winners and overnight millionaires. This caused the German lottery market to expand continuously, and the revenue of the welfare lottery company naturally grew as well.

In addition, the Double Color Ball launched by the welfare lottery company offered many small prizes in addition to the massive grand prize. In particular, just matching one Blue Ball would win five Marks. This gave many lottery players a thought: after all, if they could win a small prize this time, perhaps they could win the grand prize next time? This naturally made the Double Color Ball the favorite lottery for German players.

"However, Your Highness, the German market is ultimately too small. Although it is a large market compared to other countries, I have already sensed that it won't be long before our development hits a bottleneck." Karl was not blinded by the huge profits the company was currently making. Now was not the time to rest on their laurels.

"Karl, the German market is only so big. Once the domestic market gradually hits a bottleneck, there are only two ways for us to increase revenue. The first is to introduce new lottery games to further extract more funds from the pockets of the players. However, the effectiveness of this method is very limited. Moreover, if players invest too much money into buying lottery tickets, it will have some adverse effects on the German economy. We cannot kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Even if we want to introduce new lottery games, it must be done with a plan," Oscar said.

"If that is the case, then, Your Highness, we cannot choose the first method for the time being," Karl sighed.

"Then, only the second method remains: expanding into foreign markets. We must increase our profits by expanding the scale of our sales." Oscar said. Since the German lottery market had already been pushed to its limit, expansion was inevitable.

"Yes, Your Highness, we should indeed expand outward. Although Germany has a population of 70 million, it is not considered large. Russia has a much larger population than us, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not much smaller. Furthermore, Britain and France, Italy, and Spain all have significant populations. If we can enter the lottery markets in these places, it will inevitably bring us huge profits, perhaps even much greater than those of the domestic market," Karl nodded.

As the general manager of the German Welfare Lottery Company, he naturally could not just take his share of the profits without doing any work; otherwise, he would be far too incompetent for his position.

Karl had been thinking about foreign expansion for a long time, but he had not yet decided which countries to target first.

"Your Highness, with so many countries in Europe, which ones should we expand into first? If we expand into all of them at once, I fear our manpower and financial resources will not be enough," Karl said with concern.

Oscar pondered for a moment and then said, "Let the first round of expansion target the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy! Regardless, both of these countries are our allies. As a Prince of the German Empire, if the enterprises under my name enter their countries to develop, they should show some respect. These two countries have large populations; if handled well, we should be able to obtain considerable profits."

Karl nodded. Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Kingdom of Italy had long formed the Triple Alliance. Although there were many conflicts within the alliance, everyone was still an ally in name. Although the Italians were fickle and had little credibility, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a staunch ally of Germany. If the German Welfare Lottery Company were to enter the Austro-Hungarian Empire, there should be no problems. As for Italy, although there might be some resistance, it should not be a major issue.

"The second round of expansion should be aimed at Britain and France. Both of these are highly developed economies. The public is relatively wealthy, and the pool of lottery players and potential customers is quite large. If we can successfully enter these two countries, it will bring us substantial profits," Oscar said.

There was less than a decade left before the war would break out. If they could earn massive profits from Britain and France through the German Welfare Lottery Company, it would be a great help in boosting Germany's strength while weakening theirs. Using the money of the British and the French to build warships, cannons, planes, and tanks for Germany, only to use them against Britain and France later—perhaps there was nothing more tragic for those two nations than that.

"The third round of expansion will target the remaining countries. If the first and second rounds of expansion are successful, we will have sufficient financial resources to carry out the rest by then," Oscar said with a smile.

Once the expansion across Europe was completed, the German Welfare Lottery Company would become a giant in the European and even global lottery industry, and the profits obtained would be an astronomical figure.