Where were you on the night of Saturday 19, November 1994? I know where I was: sitting around the television with my friends over dinner, waiting for the magic numbers to appear and reveal who’d won Britain’s first ever National Lottery.
More than 22 million people watched that first prize draw. Shops were swamped by people queuing to buy a ticket. It was a real shared national experience.
Over the past three decades, magical moments like that have become rarer. Screens in hand and earphones in, we can all watch what we want, when we want — individually, not together.
I’ve just taken over as chief executive of Allwyn UK, the company that will run the National Lottery from next year, because I want to bring back some of the magic of that first Saturday night, to make the lottery a genuinely national experience again. Our target is to double annual returns to good causes by the end of the ten-year licence period.
From February next year, we’ll be running a national institution that over the past 29 years has seen more than 670,000 good cause projects receive National Lottery funding, the equivalent of 240 grants in every postcode district, and gives £5 million to good causes every day. It has handed out more than £90 billion in prizes and created more than 6,800 millionaires or multimillionaires since its launch. I took this job to have the chance to change more lives like that.
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We want to do more. More of that magic, more money for good causes, more winners and millionaires, more excitement for people and more players.
Right now, 28 million people play the National Lottery at least once a year, but that number could be higher. There are still plenty of people who aren’t part of that national game.
Our research shows that the lottery could be more appealing to a broader range of adults, playing a little. We’re working hard to understand these non-players and to offer them games and an experience that better meet their needs and interests. Some of those games will be brand new; some will be old favourites given an injection of new energy and excitement, such as improving the flagship Lotto game.
For several years now, men have been more likely than women to play, so we’re looking hard at ways to make sure that more female players can enjoy the lottery. We’re working on new value-for-money ways to play, too.
Making the National Lottery more relevant for more people in our digital world will take time, but Allwyn has great experience of responsibly invigorating lotteries around the world, by encouraging more occasional players to buy tickets.
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In our other European lottery markets, Allwyn’s draw-based games have more people buying occasionally. I want to match my Austrian colleagues’ success and have three quarters of the UK population enjoying one of our draw-based games at least once a year.
Delivering growth responsibly is at the heart of our plans for the next ten years. We will be making some important and bold changes with our partners and suppliers. We want to introduce purchase limits and to change the way in which certain games are designed and marketed. We’ll significantly increase our own funding of outside organisations and charities involved in player protection. We’ll use new technology, new partnerships and new research to support healthy play.
In 100 days’ time, we’ll be running an institution that’s vital to good causes, players and the UK as a whole. We have a big job in front of us, but it’ll be worth it to bring some of that magic back into living rooms across the nation. I, and everyone at Allwyn, can’t wait to get started.
Andria Vidler is chief executive of Allwyn, the next operator of the National Lottery
