Camelot has reported a £255m increase in National Lottery ticket sales to £7,206.8m for the 2018/19 financial year ending 31 March 2019.
Altogether £1,654.7m was generated for good causes and £4,128.5m was awarded in prizes to players, with a record 406 new millionaires created over the 12-month period, the lottery operator said.
Record digital sales of £1,833.5m were recorded, with purchases made via smartphones and tablets at an all-time high of £1,019.5m, accounting for 55% of digital transactions.
Retail still remained the largest National Lottery sales channel with almost 75% of total sales made in this way, generating £5,373.3m over the period, an increase of £73.8m on last year.
Sales across Scratchcards and online Instant Win Games reached a record £3,125m, an increase of £290.1m on the previous year, but draw-based games were described as “broadly flat”.
EuroMillions and Lotto were both slightly down, EuroMillions as a result of fewer rollover draws of over £100m in 2018/19. Lotto gained momentum in the second half of the year following enhancements introduced in November 2018, Camelot said.
The new game can now create 56 new millionaires - almost 30% more than would have been made under the old model.
The lottery operator described the progress as “clear evidence” it was making good progress following its 2017 strategic review.
Last year it doubled the size of its sales force and began trialling the sale of National Lottery products in a number of Aldi stores.
It has also started to make National Lottery games available at self-checkouts and recently rolled out this facility to more than 550 Asda stores nationwide.
“As we celebrate 25 years of the National Lottery and the massive difference it has made to UK society, with an incredible £40bn raised for good causes, I’m delighted to see our hard work paying off,” said Camelot CEO Nigel Railton. “Sales across most of the business are up, with our ongoing investment and innovation in retail and digital continuing to yield positive results. In particular, we’ve spent much of the last 12 to 18 months getting our draw-based games back in good health.”
He added that the National Lottery would continue to face economic uncertainty and increasing competition.
“While there is still a huge amount of work to do, I’m delighted that the foundations we’ve put in place and the initiatives we’ve already implemented are paying off. And with the innovative plans we have lined up, I’m confident that the National Lottery will continue to make a huge difference to the lives of people and communities throughout the UK.”
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