“One of our key priorities has been to make National Lottery games available in discount supermarkets whose market share has grown considerably in recent years,” said a Camelot spokesman. “We’ve started this process via a trial with Aldi, which has been going very well. Depending on the outcome of this trial, a decision will be made on whether to roll out more widely.”

Camelot aims for Aldi Lottery boost

NATIONAL Lottery operator Camelot is trialling selling tickets for its games at more than 40 Aldi stores as part of its efforts to reconnect with retailers and the public.

The pilot study is being conducted at Aldi stores in the North-west and could be extended to more.

Sources close to the company add that it also wants to put terminals in Aldi’s discount rival Lidl.

Eventually, Camelot would like to make its games available in Jack’s, the discount chain launched by Tesco last week.

“One of our key priorities has been to make National Lottery games available in discount supermarkets whose market share has grown considerably in recent years,” said a Camelot spokesman.

“We’ve started this process via a trial with Aldi, which has been going very well. Depending on the outcome of this trial, a decision will be made on whether to roll out more widely.”

An Aldi spokesman said: “Customers tell us that a lottery ticket is now one of the items that they prefer to buy as part of their main grocery shop.

We have therefore chosen to trial the sale of lottery tickets for a limited time at selected stores in the North-west of England.

The results of this trial will be evaluated in full before any further decision is made.”

Camelot’s decision to work with Aldi and desire to partner with other discount groups is a recognition of the fact that growing numbers of Britons are switching from the big supermarkets, which are one of the main ways that the National Lottery reaches players, to the discounters.

It is also a rejection of the digital strategy championed by former Camelot chief executive Andy Duncan, who resigned in April 2017.

Shortly after Duncan quit, the firm revealed that National Lottery ticket sales for its 2017 financial year had fallen 8.8 per cent to £6.93billion and that returns to good causes had fallen by 14.4 per cent to £1.63billion.

In response, Duncan’s replacement, Nigel Railton, launched a review aimed at boosting sales, attracting both new and lapsed players to play National Lottery games and restoring its “relevance in modern society”.

Camelot is particularly keen to to boost the appeal of its games to millennials and is developing new ones, such as an annuity game that pays winners and income for at least 25 years. Other changes planned by Camelot include bigger fixed cash prizes and limiting rollovers. 

if there is no winner with six numbers, the jackpot will be split by people with five numbers and a bonus ball. If that fails to happen, the prize money will “cascade down”.

Elsewhere, the fate of 36 House of Fraser stores is uncertain as talks between the department store’s new owner Mike Ashley and its landlords drag on, with the firm’s quarterly rent day approaching this week.

Ashley wants landlords to agree to significant rent reductions to help keep stores open, however some have baulked at his terms.