It also confirmed the return of its popular ‘Big Thank You’ giveaway, following its successful summer debut, to thank retailers for their ongoing support.

Running from 1^st to 14^th December, the ‘Big Thank You’ will reward 40 lucky independent retailers with the choice of seven incredible prize options – including a Eurostar city break, Michelin Star culinary experience, and cricket hospitality.

This year’s festive draw line-up includes a £15 million Lotto ‘Must Be Won’ draw on Christmas Eve, supported by a nationwide advertising campaign across TV, press, online, and digital billboards from 18^th December. Retailers could see Lotto sales boosted by up to 178%* for the draw and are advised to site POS prominently from 15^th December and suggest tickets to customers.

The celebrations continue into the New Year with the EuroMillions 10 UK Millionaires draw on 2^nd January, backed by in-store POS from 25^th December. Retailers could see a 145%** uplift in EuroMillions sales and are encouraged to keep playslips topped up and Scratchcard dispensers full to maximise sales opportunities.

Scratchcards remain a key driver of in-store footfall, and Allwyn’s £7 million media campaign across November and December – featuring the playful new ‘Scratchcard-igans’ creative with Olympian Tom Daley – is designed to bring festive fun to retail. With Scratchcards exclusively available in-store, retailers are perfectly placed to benefit from the campaign’s reach and appeal.

There’s also a boosted rewards opportunity in December for National Lottery retailers, where they can earn a £30 reward instead of £10 for the month by uploading pictures of the festive POS on https://tnlpartners.co.uk.

Moreover, Allwyn has signed up to the National Council on Problem Gambling’s 2025 Gift Responsibly Campaign as a Level 3 sponsor – the highest level and a UK National Lottery first. The campaign raises awareness about the risks of youth gambling and reminds people that National Lottery products are for adults only.

As part of its commitment, Allwyn will feature the ‘18+ Gift Responsibly’ mark across festive gifting ads and is encouraging retailers to share the message with customers. This builds on Allwyn’s existing and extensive safeguards, including retailer training and its rigorous Operation Guardian mystery shopping programme, which helps prevent underage and excessive play.

Alison Acquaye-Acford, Director of Commercial Partnerships and Retail Sales at Allwyn said: “Retailers are central to our festive plans, with exclusive Scratchcards and three major event draws creating a huge opportunity to boost sales and spread some cheer.

“We’re urging them to make the most of POS, talk to customers about the draws, and join the fun of our Scratchcard-igans campaign. And with the return of our ‘Big Thank You’ prize giveaway from 1^st December, there’s even more reason to get involved and win incredible rewards. It’s the perfect way to end 2025 and kick off 2026 – for retailers, players, and the Good Causes they help support.”

To enter the ‘Big Thank You’, retailers simply need to log on to the TNL Partners Hub (https://tnlpartners.co.uk), visit the News Section, and complete the entry form before 11pm on Sunday 14^th December. The full list of prize options includes:

• Cricket hospitality tickets at the Oval or Edgbaston, including accommodation and travel allowance
• Tickets for Chesterton’s Polo in the Park at the Hurlingham Club, including accommodation and travel allowance
• Return Eurostar Plus tickets for two adults to Paris or Amsterdam, including accommodation, food, travel and excursion allowances
• A Michelin Star dining experience for four adults, including accommodation and travel allowance
• A home and garden bundle, including an Ooni outdoor pizza oven, Solo stove smokeless fire pit, Weber BBQ and Kettler Kalos Copper Floor Standing Patio Heater
• A home entertainment bundle, including a smart TV, soundbar, gaming chair and more
• A sport and fitness bundle, including a Mirafit home gym bundle, Garmin watch and membership, Apple AirPods and more

*Based on 25 Dec 2024 ‘Must Be Won’ draw sales vs base draw sales 11 Dec 2024 

 **Based on 31 Dec 2024 10 UK Millionaires draw vs base draw on 8 Oct 2024 

The post National Lottery retailers ready to unwrap festive sales boost and another ‘Big Thank You’ from Allwyn first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

Since taking over as operator of The National Lottery in February 2024, Allwyn has gotten straight to work introducing new initiatives and upgrading systems and equipment.

Having stepped into the role of Director of Commercial Partnerships and Retail Sales, Alison Acquaye-Acford has been leading the team involved with their core customers, keeping retailers updated on the ongoing changes and plans for the future.

Having marked the 30^th anniversary of The National Lottery last November, Allwyn took the opportunity to celebrate with its retail partners here in Northern Ireland earlier this year, when Chair Justin King MBE hosted a special celebratory breakfast at the Titanic Hotel.

As Alison explained, continued communication with their 43,500 retail partners is key to them being able to deliver on their ambitions, namely on their ultimate goal of growing returns to Good Causes from £30 million a week to £60 million a week by the end of their 10-year licence.

“Our retail partners are the backbone of The National Lottery and, to most players, our public face. So, we need to effectively communicate with them to ensure they continue to be great supporters and advocates of The National Lottery and everything it delivers across the UK,” said Alison.

“One of our main priorities is to make buying The National Lottery as easy and convenient for people as possible. That means being in the places that people are shopping and also ensuring we’re keeping up with the ever-changing retail landscape.

“For example, we’ve partnered with Snappy Shopper to offer independent retailers the ability to sell Scratchcards for home delivery, as that is becoming more popular for people with busy lives from a convenience perspective. And, for any retailer that does not yet have The National Lottery in their shop, we’d love to hear from you.”

In the last 20 months, from taking over as operator of The National Lottery a number of retail initiatives have been introduced, including rolling out the new, sustainable suite of National Lottery permanent point of sale (PPOS) equipment; launching the Local Retail Champions campaign, which is now in its second year; and introducing ‘Share the Win’, which rewards retailers who sell high-tier winning tickets in their stores.

Significantly, during the summer, they took National Lottery systems and terminals offline for 34 hours to allow them to deliver the biggest tech upgrade since The National Lottery was first launched in 1994.

“This saw us deliver 30-plus new systems, including new gaming software on every National Lottery terminal, and a series of complex data migrations, including the transfer of tens of thousands of retailer records and millions of transactions from the old to the new systems,” said Alison.

“We also upgraded our Retailer Hotline to new modern contact centre technology.

“Thanks to the support from our 43,500 retail partners, we were able to get systems back up and running several hours earlier than expected and the vast majority of stores were able to continue selling National Lottery tickets in good time.

“A small minority of stores experienced residual issues, and we have worked hard, and continue to do so, to carry out remote troubleshooting and face-to-face visits. Subsequently, we’ve also started the scale rollout of the new state-of-the-art Wave lottery terminals – with the new terminals being universally welcomed by the retailers that have received them.”

It’s fair to say that most of the focus for Allwyn this year has been on preparing their systems, tech and, most importantly, their retail partners for the recent technical switchover weekend. This involved delivering and installing the new Wave terminals in around 8000 stores that previously had Compact Lottery Terminals.

Alison explained that as the new terminal software wouldn’t work on the Compact Lottery Terminals, they had to ensure those stores didn’t experience any interruption to trading following the switchover.

“We then also carried out more than 39,000 phone calls, emails and face-to-face rep visits to National Lottery retailers ahead of the weekend; sent out comprehensive upgrade support packs to all stores, which included customer-facing posters and table-toppers to keep in-store players informed; and we doubled the amount of retail support resource available on the ground,” said Alison.

“Now our primary focus turns to rolling out the remainder of the Wave terminals and the PPOS items across all stores, with the rollout carrying on at pace in Northern Ireland as we speak.

“For the retailers that are patiently waiting, we are replacing thousands of Altura terminals each week and the PPOS is also steadily arriving in stores, so look out for communication from our support team who will be in touch to book in your installation date.”

Allwyn returned as platinum sponsor for the 2025 Neighbourhood Retailer Awards, as well as sponsoring the Community Store of the Year category, with Alison stressing the importance of them recognising and celebrating the achievements of Northern Irish retailers.

“It’s a real honour to be given the opportunity to help highlight, recognise and celebrate the huge contribution that independent retailers make to local high streets across Northern Ireland,” she said.

“It means a great deal to everyone at Allwyn to be able to celebrate the diligence, passion and perseverance shown by these retailers, day in, day out – many times 365 days a year.”

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH ALISON ACQUAYE-ACFORD IN THE OCTOBER ISSUE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RETAILER HERE

The post Retail partners are backbone of The National Lottery first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

The National Lottery ‘Big Thank You’ giveaway is giving 30 lucky retailer winners the option to choose one of eight amazing prize options – including two hospitality tickets to the Men’s Six Nations matches in the UK, return Eurostar Plus tickets for two adults to Paris or Amsterdam, or a home entertainment bundle.

Karl Southworth, Head of Field Sales at Allwyn said: “As National Lottery operator, we love to make big winners, but we also want to regularly surprise and thank our retail partners too – which is what The National Lottery ‘Big Thank You’ is all about.

“The support and commitment that we’ve seen from our independent retailer partners in recent months – especially through the recent major tech update – has been incredible, so this is our way of giving something back to them. I can’t wait to hear who wins and which of the amazing prizes they choose!”

To enter, independent retailers simply need to log on to the TNL Partners Hub (https://tnlpartners.co.uk/), visit the News Section and complete the form linked. Entries will close at 11pm on Sunday, 31^st August 2025.

The full list of prizes on offer is:

• Two hospitality tickets to the Men’s Six Nations matches in the UK, including accommodation and a travel allowance
• Two hospitality tickets to a Premier League game of your choice, including accommodation and a travel allowance
• A hospitality experience for two on board the British Pullman, including accommodation and a travel allowance
• Return Eurostar Plus tickets for two adults to Paris or Amsterdam, including accommodation, food, travel and excursion allowances
• A Michelin Star dining experience for four adults, including accommodation and travel allowance
• A home entertainment bundle, including a smart TV, sound bar, gaming chair and much more!
• A beauty and wellness bundle, including a spa day voucher, 12-month wellness subscription and much more
• A family entertainment bundle, including a 12-month cinema pass, restaurant gift card, Merlin Annual Pass and much more

The post Allwyn launches ‘Big Thank You’ giveaway for independent retailers first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

The rollout immediately follows the successful completion of its largest-ever technical upgrade since the inception of The National Lottery in 1994.

The Wave terminals contain state-of-the-art technology that benefits both retailers and National Lottery players. The sleek machines feature a high-speed processor that ensures faster transactions, a bigger and tilt-adjustable LCD screen, wireless 1D barcode and 2D code scanners, and a play slip reader that can be fed both horizontally and vertically.

They also provide retailers with more functionality, including enhanced reporting features and the ability to change numbers on National Lottery Fast Pay cards.

In the first half of 2025, around 8,000 retailers received their new Wave terminal – the majority of which were retailers which previously had Compact Lottery Terminals (CLTs). This was before The National Lottery technical upgrade that took place from 2^nd to 4^th August, as the CLTs worked on a different operating system from the one being installed across the entire UK network.

The early-August tech upgrades included the delivery of more than 30 new technology systems, a completely rebuilt back-end gaming platform, a new in-store network provided by Vodafone, and the migration of tens of thousands of retailer records and millions of transactions from legacy systems dating back to 2009.

With the conclusion of the largest and most complex lottery systems updates in history, a complete, national rollout of Wave terminals commenced on 11^th August to the remainder of the legacy Altura terminal estate. While these machines work with the upgraded software, Allwyn always planned to replace Alturas with Wave machines over the coming months, as most of the legacy terminals date back to 2009.

By the end of August, nearly 4,000 retailers will have their Altura replaced with a Wave terminal. From September, Allwyn is aiming to install thousands of Wave machines a week at National Lottery retailers in every postcode district of the UK.

Allwyn’s Director of Operations, Jenny Blogg said: “This is another massive undertaking from Allwyn as we deliver generational change to The National Lottery.

“We have invested more than £350 million in a comprehensive plan to transform The National Lottery, substantially improving its operations and technology. These will support exciting plans we have for new games, a better player experience, and a commitment to double returns to Good Causes from £30m to £60m every week by the end of our 10-year licence.

“Over the coming months, our team will be delivering and installing thousands of Wave machines every week. We understand the importance of this new technology in enhancing the in-store experience for both retailers and their customers. We are thrilled at the highly encouraging feedback we have received for the new Wave machines.”

National Lottery retailers from across the UK that have had their Alturas replaced with Wave machines have spoken positively about the new technology and the difference it is making to their businesses and customers.

Karen McDonnell, of Centra in Bangor said: “The new Wave terminal looks great, and I’m pleased with the fact that it seems to be much faster and quicker to respond. The new layout makes the Lucky Dip ticket transactions even quicker, and I really like the wireless scanner.”

Stephen Harrison of Nisa in Belfast added: “Having the new terminal in store has been amazing. It is so much more responsive and easier to use, which has been especially important to us as we recently had some PR around a millionaire made in store, so our store has been much busier selling those lucky tickets!”

Mandy Henry of Vivo in Belfast said: “I’m enjoying how our new Lottery terminal is high-speed and simple to use. I like the fact that you can see the transaction history, especially when scanning multiple winning Scratchcards. The design is also much more slimline and easier to keep clean.”

The post Allwyn begins scale rollout of over 30,000 new state-of the-art Wave Lottery terminals first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

Allwyn’s new range of Christmas Scratchcards, which is bespoke for 2024, features two firsts for The National Lottery – a foldable £2 Christmas card with top prizes of £50,000, and a £1 gift tag Scratchcard with top prizes of £10,000.

With National Lottery Scratchcards exclusively sold in retail, Allwyn’s huge new festive Scratchcard TV advertising campaign – which sees a family at Christmas playing ‘Musical Scratchcards’ around the dinner table – is solely aimed at driving players into stores. Retailers can also tap into the campaign by suggesting a Scratchcard to customers as the perfect fun addition to festive social games and gatherings, or as a last-minute Secret Santa or Christmas gift. 

Two special event draws will spread even more National Lottery festive cheer in stores in December, starting with a £15 million Lotto ‘Must Be Won’ draw on Christmas Day – which will be supported with UK-wide advertising from 19^th December. This will be followed by the EuroMillions 10 UK Millionaires special event draw on New Year’s Eve. This will guarantee 2025 starts with a bang for the 10 guaranteed lucky UK millionaires and will be supported with advertising from 26^th December.

National Lottery retailers will be receiving special POS for both draws and should site this kit in prime positions to drive talkability and sales.

Earlier this year, Allwyn became a more advanced member of National Council on Problem Gambling’s (NCPG) 2024 Gift Responsibly Campaign. Founded in the early 2000s, the Gift Responsibly Campaign works to raise public awareness about the risks of youth gambling. Through partnerships with lotteries and other organisations, it educates communities about the risks of buying lottery tickets for children. 

This enhanced partnership follows on from the recent introduction by Allwyn of a pioneering 10-Scratchcard limit per purchase, to help minimise any likelihood of excessive play.

Allwyn’s Director of Commercial Partnerships and Retail Sales, Alison Acquaye-Acford said: “With retail being the only place customers can buy Scratchcards, National Lottery retailers will already be directly benefiting from our huge new festive advertising campaign – which shows the fun that can be had with Scratchcards at Christmas time.

“Our special EuroMillions and Lotto draws will help further drive sales for retailers, and we suggest retailers talk to their customers about the draws to get them excited and buying tickets. This festive extravaganza will ultimately help to boost retailers’ bottom lines while at the same time helping to raise around £30 million every week for National Lottery Good Causes.”

The post Special Christmas Lotto and Euromillions draws to boost retailer sales first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.