New National Lottery owners look to increase the £49billion already raised for good causes

MORE than £49billion has been raised for good causes by the National Lottery — and its new owners are setting their sights on raising even more cash.

In February, after a lengthy regulatory process, Allwyn took over from Camelot — which had held the licence since 1994.

Andria Vidler, the firm’s chief executive, said that there was a huge amount of work to modernise the National Lottery and bring back the buzz.

Its existence has proven vital as its grants have been relied upon for the country’s sporting and artistic triumphs — as well as at grassroot levels.

Since funding began British athletes have won over 1,200 Olympic and Paralympic medals.

Allwyn has set out plans to double the amount of cash for good causes from £30million to £60million a week over the next decade of its licence.

Ms Vidler, said: “One of the biggest challenges with the National Lottery is that it has aged.

“The world has changed massively since the National Lottery was launched 30 years ago.

“Back then it was a TV spectacular hosted by Noel Edmonds and Anthea Turner and watched by a third of the population.

“Now we’re facing increased competition, not just from other lotteries but from competing demands for our attention from streaming box sets, to video games and social media.”

Still, in the eight months since Allwyn took over, it has raised £1billion for good causes.

Ms Vidler revealed Allwyn, which was founded by Czech billionaire Karel Komarek, has invested more than £350million in modernising operations.

Its revamp involves improving tech, scrapping charges for ­terminals and upgrading point of sale kit for retailers.

To come next year will be a new and improved digital app and website for customers.

It is also rolling out a festive launch with scratchcard gift cards and Christmas cards with more prizes to be launched next year.

Ms Vidler added: “I want the next decade for the National Lottery to be the best yet.”

‘We’ll hand shopkeepers £10k bonus for every millionaire’

WITH over 41,000 shops selling Lottery tickets we know how important the local store is to every neighbourhood in the UK.

The ripple effect of each ticket sold in a shop needs to be championed more.

From our beginning, 30 years ago, local retailers have been at the heart of the National Lottery.

You couldn’t buy tickets from a phone screen — the only place to get them was your local store.

Much has changed since then but despite the world becoming increasingly digital we know there’s still a thrill from buying a physical ticket, whether that’s ­filling in your lucky numbers or buying a scratch card.

Without local retailers selling our tickets, National Lottery players could never have raised the amazing £49billion for good causes and had such a profound impact on British society.

The National Lottery has backed Olympians and Paralympians to ­fulfil the nation’s dreams.

And we’ve invested in some of the UK’s most loved landmarks — including the Angel of the North, Cornwall’s Eden Project and Stonehenge.

Money from tickets has also backed over 600 films, including award winners such as Billy Elliot and The King’s Speech.

None of this would be possible without your local shopkeeper and we want them to be part of our winners’ celebrations.

So when a winning National Lottery ticket is sold with a jackpot of £50,000 or more, we’ll hand them a cash prize of up to £10,000.

It’s a meaningful commitment — there’s nine million winning tickets a week and seven new millionaires.

ASHLEY’S BLAST AT BOOHOO

MIKE Ashley’s Frasers Group has blasted Boohoo for its “utter disregard for shareholders” and threatened the online retailer’s directors with legal action.

Mr Ashley is reeling from Boohoo snubbing his demands to become its next chief executive and promoting insider Dan Finley instead.

In response, Mr Ashley has issued another public letter saying: “This has to stop. What will they try next? Desperate people do desperate things”.

The tycoon, who is Boohoo’s biggest shareholder with a 37 per cent stake, is now calling on Boohoo to put any brand disposals to a vote and hire an investment bank to scrutinise the terms of any brand sale.

It comes amid concerns that Boohoo could sell one of its brands to someone with ­connections to chairman and founder Mahmud Kamani.

Boohoo said last month it could break-up the business to revive its share price.

’SPOONS PINT RISE

WETHERSPOONS’ boss Sir Tim Martin has warned the price of a pint will rise after the Budget added £60million in costs to the pub chain.

Wetherspoons, which employs more than 40,000 people, plans to pass on the costs of hikes in employers’ national insurance contributions and the minimum wage.

Analysts think it could add 5p to the price of a pint, despite record sales over the last 14 weeks, with like-for-like sales rising by 5.9 per cent.