Camelot reports boost in National Lottery ticket sales

Tuesday, 28 October 2008

Camelot Group plc today announced that it has succeeded in growing National Lottery ticket sales by more than £181m in the Half Year to 27 September 2008.

New games and ways to play drove sales in all major areas, including retail, interactive and subscriptions channels.

This performance was further buoyed by Britain's Olympic Games and Paralympic Games successes - and a series of mega EuroMillions jackpots .

Total National Lottery ticket sales across the portfolio of National Lottery games increased by £181.3m (7.6%) to £2,559.7m.

This performance was driven by a £119.1m (6.4%) increase in sales of draw-based games which rose to £1,974.5m - including a £9 million rise in Lotto sales - in addition to double-digit growth in non draw-based games, which rose by £62.2m (11.9%) to £585.2m.

At the Beijing Olympic Games and Paralympic Games alone, 145 out of 149 GB medallists were backed by The National Lottery.

The association struck a chord with National Lottery players, with the new version of the Go for Gold game delivering the highest sales of any non draw-based game this Half Year.

The latest increase in ticket sales further underlines the upward trend of the last five years - driving direct returns to Good Causes over the Half Year by £38.3m to £689.2m, and bringing the total raised for Good Causes to more than £22 billion.

The National Lottery is playing a major part in funding the infrastructure for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games - and contributions to the Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund (OLDF) also remain ahead of schedule with over £350m of the £750m target from designated games already raised.

National Lottery players benefited as well - in addition to creating around four million winners a week across the portfolio of National Lottery games, there were over 130 Lotto jackpot winners in this Half Year alone.

The recent series of EuroMillions mega-jackpots saw a raft of UK winners, culminating with the £102m jackpot draw on 26 September, when four of the 15 lucky ticket-holders were based in the UK - more than any other country. These results take the total number of millionaires created since the start of The National Lottery in 1994 to more than 2,200.

The continued increase in sales underlines the success of Camelot's long-term strategy over the past five years, which has been to grow portfolio National Lottery sales by introducing new games and ways to play, in order to appeal to a broad range of players - and so increase returns to the Good Causes.

Bricks and mortar retail remains the largest single National Lottery distribution channel, with sales in this area growing by £104.3m from £2,182.8m to £2,287.1m.

The groundbreaking National Lottery Fast Pay service, which enables players to store their game preferences on a reusable card and play National Lottery draw-based games at the checkout, continues to prove popular in store.

Total Fast Pay sales rose by over 103%, from £152.6m to £310.2m in the Half Year to 27 September.

The most recent results have also seen Camelot cement its position as the operator of the most successful interactive lottery in the world, with Half Year sales across national-lottery.co.uk, Sky Active and the Play by Text mobile phone service recording further double-digit growth, to reach £230.1m - an increase of £66.8m.

Following the recent ‘Who's Next?' Lotto integrated advertising campaign, National-lottery.co.uk recently signed up its 4.4 millionth registered player, becoming one of the top five e-commerce sites in the UK by monthly visits.

Subscriptions also proved increasingly popular with players. The National Lottery subscription service has now signed up almost half a million players, driving sales from £32.2m to £42.5m - an increase of 32%.

Camelot is working closely with its partners and stakeholders on its plans for the third lottery Licence - including a totally revamped website with new 3D interactive games, further expansion of its non draw-based games portfolio and a pioneering world lottery draw.

Camelot is also progressing well with the introduction of the new state-of-the-art lottery terminal and communications equipment for the start of the third Licence in February 2009.

New terminals have so far been installed in more than 15,000 outlets - over half the current retail estate - with the number of communications installations already over the 19,000 mark. To date, over 99% of those retailers surveyed reported that they were ‘satisfied' or ‘very satisfied' with their new National Lottery terminal.

Around 70% of the adult population now plays the National Lottery on a regular basis - with players spending, on average, around £3 per week. This year Camelot has again been recognised for the highest standards of corporate responsibility by both the World Lottery Association and Business in the Community.

Dianne Thompson, Chief Executive of Camelot Group plc, said: "The performance of GB athletes in Beijing really brought home to millions of people here the difference that National Lottery funding can bring to sport and UK society as a whole, so I'm very pleased to be able to announce a further rise in National Lottery ticket sales and returns to the Good Causes.

"Thanks to the performance of our athletes we've seen a real ‘Beijing Boost' in awareness of all lottery-funded projects - but the underlying driver of this growth has been our five-year strategy of expanding the range of National Lottery games to appeal to a diverse cross-section of players.

"The National Lottery has now created more than 2,200 millionaires and has raised over £22 billion for the Good Causes, funding more than 300,000 awards - the equivalent of over 103 grant awards for each postcode district in the UK.

"We have made a good start to the 2008/2009 Financial Year across the portfolio of games, building on the achievements of the last five years which have seen an 8.5% rise in National Lottery sales.

"We are also progressing well with preparations for the third lottery Licence, successfully introducing new technology which will enable our retailers to serve our players even more effectively to ensure continued long-term growth in National Lottery sales and returns to the Good Causes."

Source: Camelot