Camelot reports record digital sales on National Lottery
National Lottery sales increase by £26.4m as mobile sales hit an all-time high of £701m
Camelot today announced National Lottery ticket sales for the 2017-18 financial year increased by £26.4m to hit £6.95bn in total.
The annual sales increase was in part driven by record digital sales of £1.65bn, including the best-ever performance by online Instant Win Games.
Mobile sales shot up to an all-time high of £701m, with smartphones and tablets now accounting for well over 40% of all digital sales according to the firm.
Sales through the official National Lottery app for iPhone and Android also set a new record following the launch of a full version of the Android app in 2017.
Camelot CEO, Nigel Railton, said the increase in sales was evidence that the National Lottery operator’s growth strategy was working after a 3.2% drop in H1 2017 figures.
Railton said: “Given that we had anticipated a further sales decline this year, our achievement in getting The National Lottery back into growth and delivering more money for good causes underlines the importance of the work we have been carrying out after the strategic review.”
EuroMillions had a particularly strong 12 months, with the game benefiting from an unexpectedly high number of £100m+ jackpots and special draws offering £1m prizes.
Railton added: “It’s fair to say that sales benefited from a nice run of luck – particularly on EuroMillions with some incredible jackpots – but the strong foundations and new initiatives that we are putting in place have also started to play a part.”
Camelot is looking to launch annuity-style games in 2018 to increase its good cause contributions after facing criticism from GambleAware for “a failure to promote safer gambling initiatives”.