Lotto revenues up 83.8% following price hike
Price increase makes for higher takings despite ticket sales fall, after Camelot doubles ticket price
Camelot’s revamped Lotto product suffered a decline in tickets sold for Saturday’s draw, the first since the operator doubled the price of its lottery ticket to £2, but saw revenues from sales increase by 83.8%.
Although the operator refused to confirm official sales figures, calculations based on the draw’s prize pool and Camelot’s prize allocation formula indicate approximately 23m tickets were sold.
This is 2m down on the 25m tickets that were sold for the previous main draw, but when factoring in the price increase, total revenues from sales increased 83.8% to around £47m.
A Camelot spokesperson told eGaming Review that it was a “fantastic” opening night for the new Lotto and described it to be a “resounding success”.
“Our online channel steadily built since tickets went on sale on Thursday, with a last-minute frenzy of players logging on to get their tickets just before the draw on Saturday afternoon,” the spokesperson added.
Camelot decided to double the price of a ticket and increase the prize fund in an attempt to reinvigorate the game which has suffered from dwindling ticket sales. In recent years sales have fallen from an estimated 80-90m during its peak in popularity to around an average of 30m.
Camelot launched a £15m marketing campaign in order to advertise its new product, which represented its most significant promotional campaign since its launch in 1994. Experts had estimated ticket sales would plummet by 50% as a result of the price rise.