Serving the nation’s dreams

National Lottery funding will contribute almost £2.2 billion towards the funding of the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in London. We are delighted to be playing such an important role in this magnificent event and we are continuing to make good progress in meeting our funding targets.

London 2012 is by far the biggest single project funded by the Lottery but in many ways it is an extension of the link that already existed between the lottery and the Olympics Games. Since 1994, over £3 billion of National Lottery funding has been invested in sport in the UK and a total of 287 Olympic and Paralympic medals have been won by athletes funded by the lottery.

Of the £2.2 billion of lottery funding destined to go towards the 2012 Games, £750 million will be raised by specially-designated Olympic lottery games to support London 2012. The rest will come from general National Lottery sales. As with the other Good Causes, Camelot has no involvement in how the London 2012 money is spent.

By 31 March 2008, a cumulative total of £275.9 m had been raised, putting us well ahead of our targets. This is thanks to strong support from players across the UK for our lottery games designated for the Olympics. Sales of the first designated draw-based game, Dream Number, together with designated Scratchcards and interactive Instant Win Games, raised £137.1m in 2007/08.

With the Games still four years away our fundraising work remains a marathon rather than a sprint – and we expect to see our players’ enthusiasm for the designated games to build as we get nearer to 2012.

The £750 million target set for us by the Government is stretching – but achievable – and we are confident of hitting it.

We are continuing to take an active part in promoting the relationship between the lottery and London 2012. For example, Camelot and the lottery had a strong presence in the Olympics roadshow, which visited 27 locations across the UK during summer 2007, to promote the benefits the Games will bring to the entire country.

We have also highlighted our fundraising role for London 2012 through our draw broadcasts on the BBC. The Dream Number draw is introduced every Wednesday and Saturday with a special animated sequence reflecting the connection between the National Lottery draw and the London 2012 games. In the summer of 2007 there was also the first series of 'The National Lottery Jet Set 2012', highlighting the link between the lottery and London 2012.