Returns to Good Causes pass £35 billion as Camelot delivers another record year for The National Lottery...

...As Camelot delivers another record year for The National Lottery

Best-ever performance driven by digital innovation and growth

Camelot UK Lotteries Limited (‘Camelot’) today announced that National Lottery players have now raised over £35 billion for Good Causes since the lottery’s launch in 1994. The total has been reached after Camelot delivered another record-breaking year for The National Lottery in 2015/16, with impressive digital growth driving annual sales to an all-time high of £7,595 million, an increase of £317 million on the previous year.

Announcing the landmark figures, Camelot CEO Andy Duncan said:“It’s amazing that National Lottery players have now raised over £35 billion for Good Causes – which breaks down as over 150 lottery grants in every neighbourhood. That’s a measure of the huge, life-changing good that The National Lottery does for the UK.

“I’m delighted by the fantastic year we’ve had – especially across our digital channels. With our own world-leading mobile platform and over eight million registered online players, Camelot leads the field of digital lottery innovation. To build on the year’s outstanding performance, we’ve got some really exciting plans lined up – starting with Rio, where The National Lottery is supporting our elite athletes in their quest for gold.”

Camelot’s performance during the year saw Good Causes and players share a record £6 billion – underlining how The National Lottery is continuing to transform the lives of individuals and communities across the UK. Combined with the Lottery Duty it pays to the Government and the commission earned by its retail partners, Camelot returns 95% of all revenue back to society.

In the year to 31 March 2016, Camelot raised £1,901 million for Good Causes (excluding investment returns) – more than £36 million every week – to take the total delivered to date to over £35 billion. Over the same period, Camelot awarded a record £4,198 million in prizes to players and created almost one new millionaire a day. The National Lottery has now awarded over £59 billion in prizes and created more than 4,250 millionaires or multi-millionaires since its launch.

Camelot’s success in achieving record sales in 2015/16 was driven by strong growth across The National Lottery’s digital channels, with sales through mobile (smartphones and tablets) soaring by 53%. Of this, smartphone growth was particularly strong – with sales through these devices increasing by 71% year-on-year. Boosted by a range of exciting new instant win games, innovative app enhancements and the launch of the first-ever mobile payment option through Barclays Pingit, mobile sales now account for almost half of all interactive National Lottery sales – with mobile players alone raising over £175 million for Good Causes last year.

Sales over the year were also buoyed by impressive growth across The National Lottery’s GameStore range of online and in-store instant play games, following the launch of over 70 innovative new games and the introduction of second chance draws to give players more chances to win prizes. Sales of Lotto increased in 2015/16 too, following the changes Camelot introduced last autumn to give players more chances than ever to become a millionaire. In six months after the changes, Lotto created over 100 millionaires – more than double the number of millionaires than in the preceding six months – and awarded more in prizes to players.

Today’s announcement by Camelot coincides with the half-way point of its current licence to operate The National Lottery – and its performance over this seven-year period reinforces its position as one of the world’s leading lottery operators, with an unrivalled track record in innovation and long-term, responsible growth.

In just seven years, Camelot has succeeded in growing total sales by almost 50%. This has enabled it to raise more for Good Causes in the first half of this licence period – £12.4 billion – than it did in each of the first two full National Lottery licence periods. This far exceeds the additional £60-£100 million a year for Good Causes that Camelot was expected to raise during this licence period – and means that the company is now delivering £11 million a week more for Good Causes than it was at the start of the licence in 2009. On top of that, The National Lottery has created almost as many millionaires in the first seven years of this licence period (2,050) as it did over the first 15 years of The National Lottery (2,200).

Total ticket sales and all related financial results figures for 2015/16 are subject to final audit.

Notes to Editors:

• Camelot UK Lotteries Limited is the licensed operator of The National Lottery® and is committed to raising money for National Lottery Good Causes designated by Parliament. Camelot is not responsible for distributing or awarding these funds.
• Each week, Camelot generates over £36 million for National Lottery-funded projects – in total, over £35 billion has now been raised and more than 490,000 individual grants have been made across the UK, the biggest programme of civic and social regeneration since the 19th Century.
• The National Lottery has so far awarded over £59 billion in prizes and created more than 4,250 millionaires or multi-millionaires since its launch in 1994.
• Camelot runs the most cost-efficient major lottery in Europe, with around 4% of total revenue spent on operating costs.
• The UK National Lottery is ranked at just 52nd in the world in terms of per capita spend, despite being the fifth largest lottery in the world by sales – clear evidence of Camelot’s longstanding commitment to being a responsible operator (Source: La Fleur’s 2016 World Lottery Almanac).
• Total sales in 2015/16 were a record £7,595.2 million, an increase of £317.4 million on 2014/15.
• Total returns to National Lottery Good Causes in 2015/16 were £1,900.9 million, an increase of £104.1 million on 2014/15.
• The National Lottery created 353 millionaires and awarded a record amount of prize money in 2015/16 of £4,198.9 million, an increase of £155.9 million on 2014/15.
• Total sales of draw-based games in 2015/16 were £4,642.8 million, a slight decrease of £6.2 million on 2014/15.
• Total sales of GameStore games in 2015/16 were a record £2,952.4 million, an increase of £323.6 million on 2014/15.
• Total retail sales in 2015/16 were a record £6,010 million, an increase of £72.6 million on 2014/15. Accounting for around 80% of all sales, retail remains the largest National Lottery sales channel.
• Total digital (interactive and subscription) sales in 2015/16 were a record £1,585.2 million, an increase of £244.8 million on 2014/15. Mobile sales were a record £595.5 million, an increase of £206.1 million on 2014/15. With over eight million registered players, national-lottery.co.uk is Europe’s largest online lottery in terms of sales and one of the top 10 e-commerce sites in the UK.
• For further information on Camelot, The National Lottery and its games, please visit: www.camelotgroup.co.uk and www.national-lottery.co.uk
• Players of all National Lottery games must be aged 16 or over.