Licence competitions

The National Lottery Commission is responsible for awarding a single licence to a commercial operator to run the National Lottery for the benefit of the nation.

We do this by running international competitions for the licence and inviting consortia to bid for the opportunity.

There have been three competitions for National Lottery licences which cover the following periods:

First licence (including an interim licence): 1994 – 2002Second licence: 2002 – 2009Third licence: 2009 – 2019.p. The most recent competition took place between January 2005 and August 2007. The Invitation to Apply (ITA) was the formal invitation to bid for the licence and was published on 29 June 2006.

On 9 February 2007, the National Lottery Commission received bids from Camelot Group plc and Sugal & Damani UK Limited. Following a rigorous evaluation, the Commission announced on 7 August 2007  that Camelot Group plc had been selected as the Preferred Bidder for the next National Lottery licence.

Both Camelot Group plc and Sugal & Damani UK Ltd met the seven Required Standards outlined by the Commission in the Invitation to Apply. Camelot Group plc was considered best able to maximise returns to good causes over the ten year term of the Licence. The Commission also concluded that there was a strong probability that Camelot Group plc would achieve higher sales than Sugal & Damani UK Ltd.

On 31 August 2007, we finalised the draft licence and entered into an Enabling Agreement with Camelot Group plc. We are now working with Camelot to oversee the smooth transition to the third licence, starting on 1 February 2009, in order to ensure that the UK continues to have one of most successful lotteries in the world.

Details of the second and third licence competitions can be found under the relevant competition section of this website.

Related Links

• 2009 - 2019 Licence competition

  The Commission ran a competition for the 2009-2019 Licence to run the National Lottery between January 2005 and August 2007. There were two bids: one from Camelot and one from Sugal and Damani UK Ltd. The Commission gave careful consideration to both bids and ultimately selected Camelot’s bid as the one most likely to generate the maximum returns for good causes.

• 2002-2009 Licence competition

  The key publications relating to the competition for the second Licence to operate the National Lottery (2002-2009) are available to download.