Camelot spends £115m of Good Causes budget on marketing

Camelot has spent nearly £115m of its Good Causes budget on advertising and marketing efforts over the last three years.

The National Lottery operator, which recently had its contract extended through to the end of July 2023, has incrementally increased the amount of funds tapped from its Good Causes budget since 2018.

The Times reports that £57m of Good Causes cash was spent on marketing campaigns in 2019-20, while EGR can reveal that figure drops to £39m for 2018-19 and £18.8m for 2017-18 respectively.

In Camelot’s 2019 financial results, the Watford-based firm said the decision to use its Good Causes money on marketing was vindicated by strong returns and a necessity to preserve the long-term health of the National Lottery.

The statement read: “Camelot has sought investment from Good Causes to increase the level of available marketing, having demonstrated that Good Causes will receive a strong return on this investment.

“[£39m] has been retained by Camelot for necessary marketing expenditure to support the long-term health of The National Lottery, as agreed with the Gambling Commission,” the statement concluded.

Camelot said the Gambling Commission allows it to spend the marketing money to maximise returns to Good Causes.

“We’ve had to spend significantly more on marketing to address growing competition from large-scale society lotteries that don’t have to pay tax on ticket sales (we have to pay 12% Lottery Duty) and are able to spend significantly more on marketing their products,” said Camelot.

The National Lottery operator asserted that 95% of last year’s marketing budget was spent on advertising draw-based games as they give the most to Good Causes, far beyond scratchcards and instant win titles.

The total raised for the Good Causes in 2019-20 amounted to £1.85bn.

Elsewhere, The National Lottery recently pledged £600m in UK Covid-19 support using its Good Causes budget.