This marks the halfway point in Allwyn’s scale rollout of the new machines, which will modernise and improve The National Lottery in-store experience for retailers and players alike.

Shop owners and staff are continuing to respond enthusiastically to the new terminals – which are replacing legacy machines dating back to 2009 – with the new technology making an immediate difference to their businesses and customers.

The new machines offer retailers a significant upgrade to the previous technology, including:

• A high-speed processor for faster transactions
• A larger, tilt-adjustable LCD screen
• Wireless 1D barcode and 2D code scanners
• A versatile play slip reader that can be fed both horizontally and vertically
• Enhanced functionality, including improved reporting and the ability to update National Lottery Fast Pay cards

Allwyn’s Director of Operations, Jenny Blogg said: “Our wide-ranging transformation of The National Lottery continues at pace, with thousands of Wave terminals being installed every week.

“We’ve now invested more than £400m upgrading The National Lottery’s outdated operations and technology. Not only is this generating a hugely positive response from our retail partners, but it stands us in good stead to deliver on the 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.”

The rollout is part of Allwyn’s broader strategy to overhaul The National Lottery to ensure it delivers even more for its millions of players, tens of thousands of retail partners, and hundreds of Good Cause projects in every postcode district right across the UK.

The post Allwyn hits halfway milestone in Wave terminal scale rollout first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

London Hilton Syon Park has been named as the venue for this year’s evening awards ceremony, which will take place on Thursday 20^th November.

Local Retail Champions 2025 is once again recognising National Lottery retailers who go that extra mile to support their local high streets and communities. The main awards nomination period opened in early September for the national and regional award categories and has already amassed almost 1,100 customer nominations.

And retailer-submitted entries for the new Innovation Award have now opened. This category will celebrate the impact of local National Lottery Good Causes and the significant role National Lottery retailers play in raising money for these Good Causes by selling tickets.

All retailers have to do to enter is visit www.TNLPartners.co.uk and share suggestions on how to bring local National Lottery Good Causes to life in their store. The two retailers with the best ideas will each win £2,500 cash, and up to £2,500 to implement their idea.

Some examples of ideas about how to bring Good Causes to life include:

• A retailer having a community mural painted on the side of their shop to highlight local Good Causes in their area.
• Hosting a street party celebrating the local community and local Good Causes.
• Installing a neon sign in store that tells customers how much they’ve helped raise for Good Causes by buying National Lottery tickets at the store.

Whatever the idea, big or small, retailers are welcome to submit their own entries for the award.

Allwyn has also added a new function to TNL Partners Hub which allows National Lottery retailers to view a page which lets them see how much they’ve raised for Good Causes so far this year. This gives them real-time information on the positive impact they’re having on National Lottery-funded projects up and down the UK.

Allwyn’s Director of Commercial Partnerships and Retail Sales, Alison Acquaye-Acford said: “By introducing the new Innovation Award category this year, we’re celebrating local Good Causes and their impact on communities up and down the UK, while also recognising just how important National Lottery retailers are in generating the funding that powers these projects. They sell the tickets to players and, by doing so, help to raise around £30m every week for Good Cause projects.

“Whether it’s a youth centre, a conservation project, a community theatre or anything else that sends out ripples of positivity into the local area, we’re looking forward to seeing some of the wonderful ideas from National Lottery retailers about how best to highlight these projects in their stores – and then celebrating the two winning entries at the special awards evening in November.”

Local Retail Champions is being enabled by using part of Allwyn’s dedicated Social Value Fund, which is £1m that the company has committed to investing annually to help communities and high streets across the UK and Isle of Man to thrive.

The post Allwyn reveals further details of new ‘Innovation Award’ category first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

From grassroots sports, heritage projects, and arts initiatives to vital health and well-being services, The National Lottery funding has made a significant difference to the lives of people across Northern Ireland since funding began in 1994.

To mark this incredible £1.6 billion milestone, The National Lottery joined together with the Mae Murray Foundation, one of the 35,000 projects that have received National Lottery funding to celebrate the positive impact the funding has had to their members. The Mae Murray Foundation is a charity based in Larne dedicated to creating inclusive environments for people with all abilities, including beach access.

One of the beaches that has been made inclusive is Portstewart Strand, which has been named the best beach in the UK in 2025 by the Sunday Times. The National Lottery and the Mae Murray Foundation joined with MLA Maurice Bradley on Portstewart Strand to reveal a striking 7ft sand sculpture representing the iconic National Lottery ‘Fingers Crossed’ symbol. Part of a series of National Lottery Fingers Crossed installations across the UK, the sand sculpture symbolises the hope and optimism the funding to Good Causes provides in Northern Ireland.

Kyleigh Lough, CEO, Mae Murray Foundation said: “This funding has been truly life changing. Many of our members have never been able to access the beach or experience the joy of the seaside until now. Thanks to The National Lottery, we’re creating more inclusive opportunities for people of all ages and abilities.”

Maurice Bradley, MLA for East Londonderry, praised the impact of The National Lottery funding in the local community.

“The National Lottery funding has been transformational for countless groups and organisations across Northern Ireland,” he said.

“In my own constituency, I’ve seen first-hand how these grants empower local people to change lives every day. Raising £1.6 billion for good causes is a remarkable achievement and a clear sign of the positive legacy that The National Lottery continues to provide. It’s our duty to protect this institution that has driven such powerful change, to ensure the next generations in Northern Ireland can also benefit from life-changing funding.”

One of the first National Lottery grants was awarded in Northern Ireland back in April 1995, to the Belfast City Council, they were awarded £195,000 for the construction of a pavilion at the Mary Peters Athletics Track. Athletes like Hannah Scott, who last summer in Paris became the first woman from Northern Ireland to win an Olympic Gold Medal since Lady Mary in 1972, have also benefitted from National Lottery funding.

Grants big and small have been awarded across Northern Ireland in every single community. Some of the largest grants ever awarded in Northern Ireland include the Odyssey Trust, awarded £45 million for entertainment and educational facilities and the construction of the SSE Arena, and the Ulster Folk Museum, awarded £10 million to help preserve history for future generations. Whilst one of the most westerly grants awarded in the whole of the UK, was for £178,000 to Dolan’s Social Farm in Fermanagh, which provides educational farming visits.

Other notable National Lottery funded projects include the Millennium Forum in Derry, which has benefitted from more than £8.4 million; Rural Community Network NI, which provides community-based support and received more than £6.1 million in funding; and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, they were awarded more than £4.5 million of funding since 2000.

Gillian Taylor, Northern Ireland based Director of Communications at Allwyn, operator of The National Lottery said: “We’re thrilled to celebrate this major milestone which reflects over three decades of support for Northern Ireland. None of this would be possible without National Lottery players – it’s because of them that more than 35,000 good causes across Northern Ireland have benefitted.

“[This] celebration and the Fingers Crossed sand sculpture, symbolise everything The National Lottery stands for – hope, positivity and making a real difference to people’s lives. We’re proud to support organisations like the Mae Murray Foundation, that show the difference this support makes to lives every day.”

The Fingers Crossed installations are appearing across the UK in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales over the summer as a poignant symbol from The National Lottery as a celebration of hope and positivity.

The post The National Lottery celebrates £1.6bn funding milestone with Mae Murray Foundation first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

Mr King invited retailers to a breakfast at the Titanic Hotel Belfast on Tuesday 4^th March to thank them for playing their part in raising huge sums for National Lottery Good Causes through selling National Lottery games over the past 30 years.

He said Allwyn planned to double weekly returns to Good Causes by telling The National Lottery story better, including the role that buying a ticket plays in funding local Good Cause projects.

This was followed by a lunchtime celebration with the First and Deputy First Ministers at Stormont of the £1.5 billion that has been distributed through National Lottery Good Causes funding in Northern Ireland – disbursed via The National Lottery Community Fund, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Sport NI and Arts Council Northern Ireland.

While grassroots projects have been funded in every postcode district in Northern Ireland, some of the most notable projects to have benefited from the funding include the Giant’s Causeway – where £3 million in funding was used to build a Visitor Centre – and the Titanic Quarter in Belfast, which received £17 million of funding. The Titanic Hotel itself benefited from £5 million of such funding, bringing the previously vacant building back to life, providing jobs and boosting the tourism economy.

Going back to retail, Mr King said that The National Lottery was found to be a proven driver for increased footfall in stores – increasing further during special jackpot draws – and is the only large lottery sold on high streets. Most players claim their winnings in the same store they buy their tickets from and are likely to reinvest some of the winnings in stores, for example on wider groceries available in the store.

Shops stocking The National Lottery range from small corner shops to supermarkets, with independents making up the majority. The operator of The National Lottery has consistently championed independent retail in Northern Ireland and the role retailers play in their communities, including sponsoring Retail NI’s High Street Heroes Campaign since 2021.

Late last year, Allwyn also recognised McKees Convenience Store in Belfast as part of its Local Retail Champions campaign – which asked members of the public to nominate National Lottery retailers who go above and beyond to support their local community.

As the new operator of The National Lottery, Allwyn spent two days in Northern Ireland celebrating The National Lottery’s 30th Birthday. The group was led by CEO Andria Vidler and Chair Justin King CBE. During the visit, the pair repeated their pledge to double weekly returns to National Lottery Good Causes from £30 million to £60 million per week by the end of the 10-year licence in 2034.

The critical role of retail in Allwyn’s transformation plans for The National Lottery was also stressed, with new equipment being rolled out and increased in-person support. In Northern Ireland alone, the team on the ground supporting local retailers has grown by 25% since Allwyn took over in February 2024.

Justin King and Glyn Roberts, CEO of Retail NI who joined Allwyn for the retailer breakfast, thanked National Lottery retailers for their work over the last three decades, and also discussed how April’s tax rises will affect high street retailers.

“We have to tell the story of business better. Belfast was built on commerce and continues to thrive on commerce. Community entrepreneurs together can make that point powerfully,” said Mr King.

Read more about Justin King’s and Allwyn’s support of Northern Ireland retailers in an upcoming issue of Neighbourhood Retailer, as we feature an exclusive interview with Justin King CBE.

The post Allwyn thanks NI retailers for role in raising billions for National Lottery Good Causes 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.