National Lottery ticket sales dip ahead of major Powerball launch

National Lottery operator Allwyn has reported a dip in UK sales and earnings for the first quarter of 2026, even as it completed a major tech upgrade hailed as an “inflection point” for its British business.

Czech-based Allwyn, which took over the 10-year licence from Camelot in 2024, saw UK gross gaming revenues (GGR) drop 7 per cent to 942 million euros (£814.2 million) in Q1.

Underlying UK earnings more than halved, falling to four million euros (£3.5 million) from nine million euros (£7.8 million) a year earlier.

Allwyn attributed the decline partly to tough comparatives from a year earlier, when a record EuroMillions jackpot boosted demand.

Costs from changes to its online gaming platform following the recent tech overhaul also weighed on performance.

The £450 million tech upgrade, completed in the first quarter, involved migrating 18 million player records and over three billion historical transactions. It also updated the lottery’s website, mobile apps, and transformed retail partner technology.

This investment paves the way for the biggest overhaul to the draw-based Lotto game since its 1994 launch. It will also facilitate the National Lottery’s first new draw-based game this summer: a UK-specific version of the global Powerball jackpot.

Allwyn said: “The completion of the transformation enables the rollout of new commercial initiatives in the United Kingdom, completes the incurrence of transformation-related costs and initiates the recovery phase for these costs.

“It therefore marks an important inflection point in the financial profile of the business.”

Lotto’s new Lotto format will launch this month, giving players two chances to win for every £2 ticket in its main draw for the first time ever.

The change will be rolled out from 7June and is expected to more than double the number of Lotto millionaires – from around 140 a year to about 345.

The Powerball launch later in the summer will also see UK players pay £4 per line to compete with their US counterparts in the world’s biggest jackpot game for the first time.

Allwyn signalled there were more launches to come.

“We continue to progress the development and regulatory approval of additional product innovations,” it said.