Mar
04
Winners all round!
2009 | Filed under Previously Featured | (0) 
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The National Lottery creates around four million winners a week across its portfolio of games. At the time of publication, over £33 billion has been paid out in prizes and more than 2,200 millionaires or multi-millionaires have been created since The National Lottery’s launch in 1994.
In addition to this, Camelot, which operates The National Lottery, delivers around £25 million each week for Good Causes throughout the UK from the sale of National Lottery games. By the end of 2008, The National Lottery had raised over £22 billion for Good Causes, a sum that that has so far been used to fund more than 300,000 individual awards. With an average of 103 grants for every UK postcode area, this amounts to the largest programme of civic and social regeneration since the 19th Century.
The other big, but sometimes unsung, winners are National Lottery retailers. To date, they have earned a staggering £3.4 billion and counting in commission from selling lottery products - and this is set to continue with Camelot winning the competition to operate The National Lottery from 2009 to 2019.
Camelot has a proven track record of innovation, corporate responsibility and delivering for Good Causes, but all of this is only possible by engaging players and with the enthusiasm, vigilance and hard work of all of its retail partners. Camelot’s relationship with retailers is therefore vital and the company has been working closely with them to ensure that the lottery is in the best possible shape for the start of the new licence on 1 February 2009 – and in delivering the next stage of National Lottery sales growth.
PROVEN DRIVER OF FOOTFALL
As successful retailers already know, The National Lottery is a proven driver of footfall in stores. Research shows that one-in-five customers visit stores because they want to buy a lottery ticket. On top of this, lottery shoppers visit their store more frequently and spend on average 45 per cent (Source: HIM! CTP 2008) more than non-lottery shoppers – a figure that rises even more sharply between 5pm and 7.30pm on draw nights. This is already a great starting point for retailers to build on and the good news is that it’s about to get even better following Camelot’s implementation of a package of measures to transform The National Lottery in retail outlets ready for the start of the new lottery licence.
Retailers will continue to be given the equipment, training and support packages they need to make sure that The National Lottery is constantly fresh in their stores, available to players when and how they want it, and continues to add value to their businesses – both in lottery pounds and in that all-important incremental footfall.
At a time when retailer margins in some categories are declining, Camelot has underlined its commitment to retailers by announcing that, for the third licence, it will maintain commission on National Lottery draw-based games at 5 per cent and increase retail commission on Scratchcard games – now a £1 billion-a-year business – by 20 per cent, from 5 per cent to 6 per cent.
EXCITING NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Retail operations will continue to be by far and away the largest lottery sales channel in the third licence period. Through exciting new games and innovative play styles, Camelot aims to boost overall sales and returns to the Good Causes, further adding to retailers’ cash margin opportunities.
Camelot is looking to offer players an even wider range of exciting games with bigger jackpots as well as smaller, more frequent prizes. Proposals are subject to approval by Camelot’s regulator, the National Lottery Commission, but include a pioneering World Lottery Draw building on the success of the blockbuster EuroMillions game.
In addition to these exciting new opportunities, retailers will continue to enjoy the dedicated specialist advice, support and hotline services they always have. They will also continue to receive free installation and maintenance of lottery equipment, as well as new and improved point-of-sale communications through the digital media screen network.
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