- The Innovation Award category is brand new to Local Retail Champions this year and encourages National Lottery retailers to come up with ideas about how to celebrate local National Lottery Good Causes
- Entries for the category – which will see two retailers each win £2,500 cash, and up to £2,500 to implement their idea – open today (29 September) and close on 19 October 2025
- The awards evening will take place at London Hilton Syon Park on 20 November 2025
Allwyn, operator of The National Lottery, has revealed further details about Local Retail Champions 2025, including that retailers will be able to enter the brand-new Innovation Award category, now open.
London Hilton Syon Park has also been named as the venue for this year’s evening awards ceremony, which will take place on Thursday 20 November.
Local Retail Champions 2025 is once again recognising National Lottery retailers who go that extra mile to support their local high streets and communities. The main awards nomination period opened earlier this month for the national and regional award categories and has already amassed almost 1,100 customer nominations.
And retailer-submitted entries for the new Innovation Award have opened today. This category will celebrate the impact of local National Lottery Good Causes and the significant role National Lottery retailers play in raising money for these Good Causes by selling tickets.
All retailers have to do to enter is visit www.TNLPartners.co.uk and share suggestions on how to bring local National Lottery Good Causes to life in their store. The two retailers with the best ideas will each win £2,500 cash, and up to £2,500 to implement their idea.
Some examples of ideas about how to bring Good Causes to life include:
- A retailer having a community mural painted on the side of their shop to highlight local Good Causes in their area.
- Hosting a street party celebrating the local community and local Good Causes.
- Installing a neon sign in store that tells customers how much they've helped raise for Good Causes by buying National Lottery tickets at the store.
Whatever the idea, big or small, retailers are welcome to submit their own entries for the award from today.
Allwyn has also added a new function to TNL Partners Hub which allows National Lottery retailers to view a page which lets them see how much they've raised for Good Causes so far this year. This gives them real-time information on the positive impact they’re having on National Lottery-funded projects up and down the UK.
"By introducing the new Innovation Award category this year, we’re celebrating local Good Causes and their impact on communities up and down the UK, while also recognising just how important National Lottery retailers are in generating the funding that powers these projects," said Allwyn’s Director of Commercial Partnerships and Retail Sales, Alison Acquaye-Acford. "They sell the tickets to players and, by doing so, help to raise around £30m every week for Good Cause projects.
“Whether it’s a youth centre, a conservation project, a community theatre or anything else that sends out ripples of positivity into the local area, we’re looking forward to seeing some of the wonderful ideas from National Lottery retailers about how best to highlight these projects in their stores – and then celebrating the two winning entries at the special awards evening in November.”
Local Retail Champions is being enabled by using part of Allwyn’s dedicated Social Value Fund, which is £1m that the company has committed to investing annually to help communities and high streets across the UK and Isle of Man to thrive.