Following two years of successive growth, Camelot has further grown total National Lottery ticket sales for the first six months of its 2019/20 financial year (1 April to 28 September 2019) to a record £3,921.3m – an increase of £465m on the first half of 2018/19.
Announcing the results yesterday (14 November 2019), Camelot CEO Nigel Railton said: “Our record half-year performance clearly shows that The National Lottery is in its best-ever shape.
“As passionate advocates for The National Lottery, our retail partners have played a crucial role in this success story – and I’d like to thank all of them for their continuing hard work and loyalty in what remain very challenging trading conditions.”
Accounting for over 70% of all sales, retail remains the largest National Lottery sales channel. Over the period, Camelot grew in-store sales by £132.2m to £2,757.2m. As a result, National Lottery retailers earned £158.3m in commission over the half year, £11.1m more than in the first half of 2018/19.
Camelot couldn’t – or wouldn’t – supply a breakdown of how retail sales were split between convenience stores, multiples and other outlets, stating only that the average retailer payout was almost £3,600 for the half-year. This figure represents a £300 increase over the same period last year.
It did, however, flag up an extension of its Aldi trial, a new trial in Iceland stores and its introduction to Asda self-checkouts.
Railton concluded: “Although there is much work still to do, we’ve made a fantastic start to our 25th year and, with the exciting plans we have lined up for the next few months, we’re confident that we’ll finish the year on a high.”
