National Lottery sales surpass £8 billion for second consecutive year

Camelot, the National Lottery operator, has on Tuesday announced its best-ever returns to Good Causes from ticket sales for the second consecutive year.

Sales again surpassed £8 billion following four consecutive years of growth, touching £8.09bn in the 2021-22 financial year ending on 31 March.

Although this represents a decrease of £283.2 million on last year’s record sales of £8.3bn, it is only the second time in the National Lottery’s history that ticket sales have broken the £8 billion mark.

“At a time when the National Lottery has faced uncertainty on a number of fronts, Camelot has once again raised a record amount for Good Causes from ticket sales, and has also ensured that a record-equalling £3.1bn was once again generated for society through Good Causes, Lottery Duty and retailer commission – at a time when other funding sources are being squeezed,” Sir Hugh Robertson, Camelot chairman, said.

“An incredible £46bn has now been raised for National Lottery Good Causes – around 65 per cent more than government expectations at launch. With sales of over £8 billion for two years running, the National Lottery as a whole remains in fantastic shape – with sales of draw-based games continuing to be especially strong.”

Including unclaimed prizes, £1.91bn was generated for Good Causes over the period – an increase of £24.3m on last year and the equivalent of £36mn every week. This makes it the second best-ever total raised for Good Causes – second only to 2012-13 during London 2012 and when there were significantly more unclaimed prizes – and only the third time in the National Lottery’s history that the Good Causes money generated has exceeded £1.9bn.

“Achieving National Lottery sales of over £8bn two years in a row while maintaining very high levels of public participation – despite the challenging and changing external environment – proves that our strategy of offering great consumer choice in a safe and convenient way continues to be hugely successful,” Camelot chief executive Nigel Railton said.

“It’s also testament to the resilient, innovative and responsive business model that we’ve put in place over the last few years.”

He said the performance has been driven by unmissable brand connection and continued strong Lotto sales.

Despite fewer large EuroMillions rollovers – with 15 draws with a jackpot of over £100m in 2021-22 compared with 22 the year before – Camelot still achieved draw-based game sales of £4.64bn, a slight dip of £43.2m.

The flagship Lotto game continued to be the most popular game, with a steady stream of ‘Must Be Won Rolldowns’ resulting in boosted prizes for everyone – including around a million players on average per ‘rolldown’ who win an additional cash prize of £5 for matching two main numbers.

The majority of sales decline for the year is attributable to a decrease in sales of National Lottery Instants, down £240m year-on-year to £3.44bn.

Making up almost 60 per cent of sales, retail remains the largest National Lottery sales channel and Camelot achieved in-store sales of £4.67bn in 2021-22, with retailers earning £265.4m in commission, the equivalent of around £6,000 per store.

The sales figure in the channel was down by £190.2m from the previous year, when sales touched £4.86bn. Camelot said the ongoing challenges caused by the pandemic in the early part of the year and, more latterly, the cost-of-living crisis impacted the sales.

The company added that its in-store standards and rewards programme for independent retailers continued to prove hugely successful over the year – resulting in the company seeing some of its best-ever store standards and awarding a massive £548,000 in cash rewards to independent shopkeepers.

Despite having a record number of people playing online in 2021-22, this year’s digital sales of £3.41bn were £93m lower than last year – with players individually spending less as consumers enjoyed greater choice post lockdown, and also due to the introduction of lower online play and wallet limits for potentially at-risk players.

Over the course of the year, National Lottery players won £4.61bn in prizes, down from a record £4.85bnn in 2020-21, and 364 new millionaires were created – just short of one new millionaire a day, with three new EuroMillions jackpot winners making it into the top 20 biggest-ever National Lottery winners over the period.

Railton continued: “My 1,000 Camelot colleagues and I are incredibly proud of what we’ve built: a strong, resilient business and a huge UK brand that brilliantly connects the National Lottery’s unique purpose with play. In the year ahead, we’ll continue to invest and innovate to respond to the changing consumer environment because we all care deeply about the future of The National Lottery – and the vital difference that it continues to make to the whole of the UK.”

Earlier this year, Camelot has lost out to Allwyn Entertainment in the bid to run the National Lottery after 2024, when the current licence expires. Camelot has held the licence since its inception in 1994.