Annual sales

NATIONAL LOTTERY: CAMELOT UK

Lottery sales break £8bn for first time

DESPITE THE CHALLENGES OF THE LAST YEAR, SALES OF THE NATIONAL LOTTERY HAVE GROWN BY ALMOST £470M, TAKING THEM THROUGH THE £8BN BARRIER FOR THE FIRST TIME

Camelot has revealed record National Lottery sales of £8,374m for the financial year to the end of March, an increase of £468.8m, taking total sales through the £8bn mark for the first time.

As a result, the amount of money donated to good causes across the UK also hit a record high of more than £1bn.

Camelot Chairman Sir Hugh Robertson said: “This is the fourth consecutive year of rising sales since our strategic review in 2017. The National Lottery has delivered for the UK again this year, with the highest-ever returns for Good Causes from sales alone. A remarkable £1.2bn has been distributed to help the country respond to the impact of coronavirus. Without this money, many organisations would have ceased to function.

“I would like to thank government, the National Lottery Distributors, our retail partners and, most importantly, National Lottery players – without whom this remarkable success story would not have been possible.”

With unclaimed prizes factored in, £1,887.5m was generated for good causes in 2020/21 – the equivalent of £36m every week. With approximately 1% of sales retained as profit by Camelot under the terms of its licence, and 4% spent on operating costs during the period, The National Lottery continued to return around 95% of all sales revenue to win ners and society – delivering for everyone.

Announcing the results, Camelot CEO Nigel Railton said: “I’m very grateful to our partners in retail who went to work each day to serve their communities, and to National Lottery Distributors who got funding out the door when it was essential.”

LOTTO LEADS DRAW GAMES GROWTH

Camelot succeeded in growing sales of all six of its draw-based games to £4,690.7m, an increase of £153.6m. This was primarily driven by Lotto, with a new feature introduced in November that sees around a million players win an additional cash prize of £5 for matching two main numbers in a ‘Must Be Won’ Rolldown draw. Meanwhile, sales of Instants grew to £3,683.2m with growth in the sales of online instant games offsetting a decline in scratchcard sales which were down year-on-year due to lower retail footfall, particularly in the first half.

Lots of people playing a little, and winning

Camelot awarded a record £4,854.7m in prizes to players, £349.7m more than in 2019/20, and created 389 new millionaires.

Adapting models

For the past four years, Camelot has been adapting The National Lottery’s retail footprint to reflect changes to the way people shop. It has new partnerships and national roll-outs with discounters. It is also making it convenient to purchase a ticket in self-checkouts, as well as making it possible to buy tickets ‘in lane’. Its rewards programme for independent retailers saw commission paid to retailers reach £275.9m – the equivalent of around £6,200 per store.

Digital growth

Less welcome news for retailers is that the National Lottery recorded its highest ever digital sales at £3,509.5m – an increase of £1,052m. Within digital, mobile sales grew by £876.4m to an all-time high of £2,481.9m, with most of these sales via The National Lottery’s apps.

What you need to know...

National Lottery sales up £468.8m to £8,374m

£1.2bn given to good causes

All six draw-based games in growth

£4,854.7m in prizes handed to players, up £349.7m

Commission paid to retailers rose to £275.9m – around £6,200 per store

Digital sales grew £1,052m to £3,509.5m