Driven By Camelot's Organisational Strategy, UK Lottery Sales are Booming
Published June 21, 2019 by Lee R
A uniform marketing strategy for the lottery system in the UK is providing fruitful results.
Thanks to digital sales, the UK Lottery is hitting record highs.
Camelot Figures
According to information released by UK Lottery operator Camelot UK, the UK’s National Lottery generated a record £1.83bn (€2.06bn/$2.32bn) in digital sales in 2018-19 in a year which also saw record highs in overall tickets sales also at £7.21bn.
Year Figures
The 12-month yield for total ticket sales from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019 turned out a healthy £255.1m over the previous year.
Social Contributions
Camelot paid out a total of £4.13bn in winnings to players during the past year while generating £1.65bn for Good Causes. Further returns included to winners and society, which climbed £205.0m to £6.76bn in 2018-19.
Drivers of Record Growth
Camelot attributed the record jumps in lottery ticket sales to record digital sales, which climbed from £1.65bn last year to £1.83bn.
The Mobile Advantage
Over half of the contribution came in from mobile devices, as mobile and tablet sales climbed to an all-time high of £1.02bn, representing 55% of all digital sales.
Retail Lottery Strong
Retail sales remained the cash cow for Camelot and the National Lottery. The £5.37bn spent on retail products in 2018-19 represented a £73.8m jump from the previous year, with the majority of these sales occurring physically in-store.
New Lottery Products
Moving forward, Camelot will seek to build on retail gains with the introduction of new facilities for players to purchase National Lottery products. Camelot has been offering product on a trial basis since last summer in Aldi supermarket stores while making National Lottery games available at self-checkouts in over 550 UK Asda supermarket sites.
Draw-Based Impact
In the draw-based category, proceeds were flat by Camelot identified Thunderball and EuroMillions HotPicks as individual strong performers, while fewer £100m+ rollover draws brought EuroMillions and Lotto sales down.
Camelot predicts a draw-based games rebound in 2019-20 led by the impending release of Set For Life, a game set to be launched March 15th of this year.
Social Forecast
The charitable Good Causes is expected to receive a boost of some £100m in the next financial year.
Camelot CEO Speaks
Camelot CEO Nigel Railton was happy to see sales “across most of the business...up,” attributing the success to Camelot's “ongoing investment and innovation in retail and digital.”
UK Lottery Outlook
As Camelot balances its portfolio, look for more significant contribution to social benefit from the Lottery Sector, and a potential precedent set for neighbouring European lottery systems as well.
