A win-win result? | Big Story: Lottery switchover

Trade body The Fed said at the time it was “disappointed” to see Camelot lose out in its bid for the new 10-year licence, having had such a good relationship with the previous licence-holder. Other independents expressed their concerns that Allwyn, the Czech-owned incoming operator, would be more focused on driving sales online than in-store.

Enormous project

In the event, however, the handover at the start of this month (February) seems to have happened fairly seamlessly.  “It went really well,” director of channel operations Alex Green told Independent Retail News. “It’s been an enormous project but we’ve had great co-operation from all our amazing retailers across the UK.”

Retailers were required to complete a transfer agreement to officially switch from Camelot to Allwyn and in the event 98.5% of independents did so in time for the transfer deadline, said Green.

“With some of them, it just provided too difficult to get in touch with the proprietor, despite attempting to contact them in multiple ways. But we were really pleased to get to 98.5%.”

Those still outstanding are now being helped to re-connect so they can continue selling lottery tickets.

Business as usual

The initial emphasis has been on continuity and ‘business as usual’, which was helped by the fact that Allwyn was eventually able to acquire Camelot, meaning that a lot of the personnel dealing with the trade have transferred over from the old operator.

“Retailers and players didn’t see much change from the first week,” said Green, with the necessary software updates having rolled out smoothly by 8am on 1 February. “The priority was about minimal disruption, but we’re now making lots of gradual changes behind the scenes designed to benefit retailers and players over the longer term.”

Changes already on-stream include a new TV ad for Lotto, emphasising the fact that, on average, it creates two millionaires a week, a new £5 scratchcard game called Black Pearl featuring a £2m jackpot, some new POS and a ‘must be won’ £15m draw coming up on 2 March.

An ad campaign for Set for Life will go live at the beginning of March, while a dedicated scratchcard team based at its new warehouse in Warrington, Cheshire, will begin pro-actively contacting retailers shortly to make sure they have everything they need to sell National Lottery scratchcards effectively.

Sales force

One change that seems to have landed particularly well with retailers was the announcement that Allwyn is to increase the size of its sales team by 50%, adding 55 new reps by the middle of the year. “Ultimately, this means we can significantly enhance the amount of support we can provide to our retailers and it confirms that Allwyn is going to walk the talk,” said Green, who hopes the move will signal to independents its ongoing commitment to the bricks-and-mortar channel.

“Retailers are absolutely central to our vision to grow the National Lottery responsibly over the next 10 years – and expanding our sales team is just the start of what we have planned.”

Also on the cards is a big investment in technology that will see Allwyn working with Vodafone and global lottery tech firm Scientific Games to update its network, moving to a mobile-first platform and delivering enhanced digital training to retailers while also enabling them to move away from pen-and-paper processes in-store.

A more visible change towards the end of 2024 will be the introduction of a whole new suite of POS, including scratchcard dispensers, play stations, terminals and outdoor signs. “It will be very much a phased roll-out, because we’ve got in excess of 40,000 retailers to visit,” said Green.

More players

Allwyn’s stated aim is to “re-ignite the magic that lies at the heart of the National Lottery, bringing in more players and creating more winners and millionaires”.

The new operator has promised to “gradually introduce changes over the course of the next few years that will strengthen the bond between the National Lottery and consumers, with many more people playing a little, which will lead to more money raised for National Lottery-funded projects.”

Green said even the £2 price-point for Lotto tickets would be up for discussion as the group looks to attract more players. “Price is one of the things within the marketing mix that can be changed,” he said. “The team are doing a lot of research on it. We have got to make sure the marketing mix is as potent as it can be in order to get more people playing Lotto, but it’s going to be subject to research.”

The company will also look at bringing more retailers on board to sell National Lottery products, including working through the list of independents who have previously expressed an interest in becoming a lottery retailer.

“There are a number of independents we know would be interested,” Green said. “We will be going back to that list and working through it.”