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// PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // January/February 2016
certain amount of adjustment when set-
tling into a new role—particularly when
you’re talking about a £7 billion-plus
business! The fact that we are stewards of
a national asset that generates over £34
million each and every week for Good
Cause projects is a huge responsibility.
So, I am very pleased to be able say that
my first year in post has been another
successful one for us at Camelot UK. We
announced record annual lottery sales
of £7.2 billion back in April and, more
recently, published our highest-ever half-
year sales. A lot of this success is down to
the work we’ve been doing to transform
our digital services. This includes the
launch of a major new online and mobile
platform in autumn 2014, which has rev-
olutionised the way players interact with
National Lottery games across all devices.
Another big part of our recent achieve-
ments has been down to us growing sales
of our GameStore range of online and in-
store instant play games. This has been
driven by the launch of over 70 innovative
new instant play games every year, higher
prize payouts as well as the completion of
our rollout of around 10,000 standalone
terminals to satisfy untapped demand for
National Lottery Scratchcards. The record
results were also driven by strong sales of
our flagship Lotto game, which, following
its successful re-launch in October 2013
after a decade of decline, has now enjoyed
two years of consecutive growth.
The decline or flat sales of draw games is
somewhat of a global trend. What have you
done, and what are your strategies going for-
ward, to invigorate draw games in the UK.
A. Duncan:
Draw-based games are
hugely important to our business because
they return more in percentage terms to
Good Causes than our GameStore instant
play range of games. Over the past few
years, we have seen sales of instant play
games growing at a much faster rate than
draw-based games, so we’ve had to up
the ante, so to speak, in terms of keeping
them fresh and appealing.
As I mentioned, we first re-launched
Lotto in 2013. This consisted of a prize
rise—we went from £1 to £2 per play—
and a refresh of the prize structure. The
2013 re-launch got the game back in
growth after a period of steady decline,
and late last year, we introduced some ad-
ditional changes to help furtwher secure
the long-term health of the game. These
changes, which are performing really
well, included an increase in the Lotto
matrix from 49 to 59, which is resulting
in bigger jackpots and is obviously great
for driving player excitement. We are
also creating a millionaire in every draw
through a raffle element, and for the first
time, players who match two numbers
get a free ticket for a future draw, which
further keeps them invested in the game.
Some of these free tickets have already
gone on to win substantial prizes, so it re-
ally is a win-win.
In terms of EuroMillions, we and the
other eight countries where the game
operates have been hit by a poor run of
rollover luck. So, here in the UK, we have
come up with other initiatives to keep it
exciting. For example, since late 2014, we
(L to R) Andy Duncan, Olympian Sir Chris Hoy MBE, and Secretary of State
for Culture, Media and Sport John Whittingdale MP at the House of
Commons in December 2015. The trio hosted a 200-strong event to
celebrate the 21st birthday of The National Lottery—which has raised over
£34 billion for Good Cause projects since its inception in 1994. Sir Chris
commented: “At the beginning of my career, I received a National
Lottery grant of £10,000—which gave me the chance to pursue my dream
of becoming Olympic champion. 21 years on, National Lottery funding
allows athletes to train at the highest level—and has undoubtedly changed
the face of British cycling and British sport.” Secretary of State for Culture,
Media and Sport John Whittingdale MP commented: “21 years on, The Na-
tional Lottery has exceeded all expectations. It was originally forecast to raise
£1 billion a year if we were really lucky—and here we are, £34 billion later.”