ABOUT US
We’re responsible for operating The National Lottery – one of the UK’s most well-known and life-changing brands.
Whether it’s the work we do with the wider National Lottery family to highlight the amazing difference that National Lottery players make every single week for UK-wide Good Causes, the comprehensive after-care programme we have in place for our major prize-winners, our reputation for selling National Lottery tickets in a socially responsible way or the wide-ranging support we offer our employees, we’ve built a business that truly sets us apart – one that has been recognised as one of the top 10 Best 100 Large Companies to work for in the UK.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to change lives – not only the lives of National Lottery winners who have scooped life-changing prizes, but the lives of millions of people who benefit from the £30 million-plus in Good Causes funding that National Lottery players raise every week.
We look to do this by continuing to prioritise long-term, responsible growth by:
- building a brand that encourages lots of people to play but to individually only spend small amounts;
- designing a range of games that offers something for everybody;
- making our games accessible so that people can play anytime, anywhere, on any device;
- getting to know our players to help us understand how they play; and
- clearly communicating the uniqueness of The National Lottery and the extraordinary good that it does.
WHAT WE DO
Our overarching objective is to maximise returns to Good Causes through selling National Lottery products in an efficient and socially responsible way.
This involves creating, marketing and promoting new games; developing and running The National Lottery’s infrastructure; providing services for players and winners; and working in partnership with around 44,000 retailers. As a private company, we also have responsibilities to our shareholder, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which has owned Camelot since 2010.
OUR APPROACH
We’ve always believed that the key to The National Lottery’s long-term health is to give players a positive and enjoyable experience, with lots of people playing but each spending relatively small amounts. We therefore strive to attract the broadest player base possible by offering a range of distinct games with prizes, chances to win and prices to suit different needs, tastes and pockets.
Around 60% of UK adults currently play National Lottery games, with the demographics of play closely mirroring the demographics of the UK population as a whole. And despite being the fifth largest lottery in the world in terms of sales, The National Lottery is ranked just 60th in the world in terms of per capita spend – underlining the ongoing effectiveness of our work to ensure we have lots of people playing a little. (Source: La Fleur’s World Lottery Almanac 2021)
The success of this approach is evidenced by the fact that we’ve now grown total National Lottery sales by 62% over the course of the third National Lottery licence period – with annual returns to Good Causes now more than £500 million higher than they were at the start of the licence in 2009. Combined with the Lottery Duty we pay to the government, the commission earned by our retail partners and the prize money awarded to players, we continue to return 95% of all revenue to winners and society – one of the highest percentages of lottery revenue given back in the world.
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY FAMILY
As the operator, our role is critical to The National Lottery’s ongoing success. But we couldn’t deliver over £30 million each and every week to Good Causes without working in close partnership with a number of other bodies, each of which plays a key role as part of the National Lottery family:
PARLIAMENT, through The National Lottery Act etc. 1993 (as amended), governs the operation and regulation of The National Lottery, and sets out National Lottery policy, including which Good Cause areas will benefit from National Lottery money and the funding levels for each. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) is the government department responsible for The National Lottery.
THE GAMBLING COMMISSION (formerly the National Lottery Commission) is sponsored by DCMS, and is responsible for licensing and regulating The National Lottery. Its objectives are to preserve the integrity of The National Lottery, protect players and maximise returns to Good Causes.
ONTARIO TEACHERS’ PENSION PLAN (OTPP), which has owned Camelot since 2010 following a competitive tender process. OTPP is known for taking a long-term view of its investments, providing an environment of stability, commitment and continuity that is vital for The National Lottery’s continuing success. It has invested significantly in Camelot – and remains committed to further investment – to enable us to deliver as much money as possible for Good Causes.
12 NATIONAL LOTTERY DISTRIBUTION BODIES, each with specialist knowledge of their sectors, which decide which beneficiaries should receive National Lottery funding. All of the distribution bodies operate at arm’s length from government and Camelot, and follow strict guidelines when deciding which applications for funding will be successful.
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY PROMOTIONS (NLPU), is a joint venture between the distribution bodies, Camelot and DCMS, and is responsible for promoting positive public awareness of National Lottery funding and the projects it supports.
AROUND 44,000 RETAILERS throughout the UK, ranging from small corner shops and newsagents to larger convenience stores and supermarkets – with independent outlets making up the majority of our retail footprint.
THE SINGLE-OPERATOR MODEL
Many countries and states around the world operate a lottery to raise money for good causes or the public good.
The UK, like the vast majority of jurisdictions with a lottery, operates a ’single-operator’ model, as this has repeatedly been deemed the most efficient way to maximise returns to good causes and society, as well as ensure the consistent protection of players, and the fitness and propriety of operation.
The single-operator lottery model maximises player interest and participation. If there are lots of lotteries operating at a similar scale, the inevitable consequence is that the money players spend on tickets becomes fragmented across all of the different lotteries available.
As a result, instead of one big single jackpot, only smaller jackpots would be on offer. As experience shows, these lower jackpots are not as appealing to players, so fewer tickets would be sold and fewer people would play – resulting in less money being raised for society. We’ve long maintained that a single lottery offering a jackpot of £10 million will sell more tickets than 10 individual lotteries each offering a jackpot of £1 million.
The single-operator model also helps to minimise operating costs. Having multiple operators would lead to diseconomies of scale, with operating costs being duplicated across providers. In addition, multiple operators would develop very similar products and end up competing for market share by having to make their offerings more appealing by increasing prize payments to players – at the expense of returns to society.
OUR LICENCES
In May 1994, the National Lottery Commission (NLC) awarded Camelot a seven-year licence to run The National Lottery. The first draw-based tickets went on sale on 14 November 1994, with the first draw taking place on 19 November.
In December 2000, we were awarded the second seven-year licence, which started on 27 January 2002 and ended on 31 January 2009.
In August 2007, we were awarded a third licence to operate The National Lottery, which started on 1 February 2009 and was due to run to 2019. However, in March 2012, the licence was extended by four years to 2023, following the NLC’s agreement to our proposal to deliver around £1.7 billion in additional National Lottery funding to society.
In August 2020, the Gambling Commission launched the competition to award the fourth National Lottery licence. Having run one of the world’s most successful lotteries for more than 26 years, delivering almost £150 billion to winners and society in the process, it’s only natural that we are interested in bidding – and, having successfully completed the Gambling Commission’s Selection Questionnaire, we are actively engaged in the process.
With four years of successive growth resulting in record sales in 2020/21, The National Lottery, under Camelot’s stewardship, is in its best-ever shape – and our immediate focus is on continuing to keep it strong and healthy for the benefit of everyone, and, as you will see in this Report, raising even more money for society at a time when funding has never been more vital.
OUR LOCATIONS
We’ve been proud to call Watford our home for the past 27 years – with the majority of our 900-plus employees working from our head office in Watford, Hertfordshire.
We also have a prize payout and IT operations centre in Liverpool, a national distribution centre in Northampton and a corporate affairs department in London, while our Retail Sales Executives and Winners’ Advisors are based throughout the UK.
