A Swansea convenience store claimed a place in National Lottery history after selling the first ticket following the UK’s largest-ever lottery technology upgrade – as 8,000 retailers switched to brand-new, state-of-the-art terminals.
The Family Shopper Post Office in Swansea sold the first ticket at 9am on 4 August for that evening’s Set For Life draw, just minutes after National Lottery systems came back online following a 34-hour shutdown for the upgrade.
Retailer Matthew Tyrell, who runs the store, had predicted he would be the first seller once terminals were switched back on – and proved himself right.
Within 10 minutes of reopening, around 1,000 tickets were sold nationwide, climbing to 118,000 within the first hour.
The weekend shutdown (2–4 August) saw operator Allwyn UK and its partners complete the biggest transformation of any lottery in the world, replacing systems first introduced in 2009. Over 30 new systems went live, including a completely new back-end gaming system and the migration of tens of thousands of retailer records and millions of transactions to the new platform.
Around 8,000 National Lottery retailers began trading on new Wave terminals from 4 August, offering faster transactions and expanded functionality. The rest of the UK’s 43,500 retail partners are now using upgraded software on existing Altura terminals until they receive their Wave machines in the coming months.
Allwyn chief executive Andria Vidler called the change “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” to modernise the lottery, promising new games, an improved player experience, and a doubling of weekly returns to Good Causes to £60 million by the end of the current 10-year licence.
“We're very grateful to players, our retail partners, and our partners, stakeholders and colleagues for their support,” Vidler said.
Patrick McHugh, CEO of Scientific Games, which supplied the new system, described the changeover as “the largest and most complex lottery conversion in the industry's history” – and the smoothest he had seen.
While a small number of retailers still using legacy Altura terminals experienced initial teething problems, Allwyn said this was expected and would be resolved as the full Wave rollout continues.