Allywn reveals plans for retail upgrade for UK National Lottery

Allwyn has revealed details of the planned upgrade to the UK National Lottery retail network, with technology updates scheduled to take place in early August.

Changes to core gaming and retail systems have been planned since Allwyn took control of the lottery in February 2024. The upgrade formed part of its successful bid for the licence, which runs to January 2034.

Technology updates will take place from 2 to 4 August, with National Lottery services to be offline from 11pm on 2 August to late morning of 4 August. This will apply to both retail and online systems.

Players will still be able to purchase physical scratchcards from retail stores but cannot claim any prizes until after the updates complete.

What will the National Lottery upgrade include?

More than 43,500 retail partners across the UK will be included in the upgrade, which includes launching new terminal software and moving onto a new platform. Various other back-end tech upgrades will also take place.

Allwyn will complete a huge data migration project to transfer tens of thousands of retailer records and millions of player transactions onto the new system.

There is no date set for the final testing of systems and to help retailers understand how to use them.

When services come back online, approximately 8,000 retailers will switch to the new Wave terminals. Other retailers will use new software on existing terminals, with the final Wave terminals expected to arrive in the coming months.

Allwyn said some legacy in-store terminals may experience delays after the upgrade and it will provide specialist support where required.

Allwyn ‘modernising’ the National Lottery

The project will be the largest technology upgrade since the National Lottery launched in 1994, Allwyn has said. Jenny Blogg, director of operations, said this project was part of the operator’s wider plan to modernise the lottery.

“These critical tech upgrades follow on from our continuous progress in modernising The National Lottery, which hasn’t had a major refresh since 2009,” Blogg said.

“This includes introducing a fresh new look in our 43,500 retail partners with new stands, dispensers and signage, as well as rolling out state-of-the-art lottery terminals and a new in-store network provided by Vodafone.

“While these significant updates will mean short-term disruption for players and our retail partners, they will allow us to deliver on our promise to bring new, exciting games to The National Lottery; a better player experience; and our commitment to double returns to Good Causes from £30m to £60m every week by the end of the 10-year licence.”

Will the upgrade be enough to avoid regulatory action?

Confirmation of the upgrade comes following reports of delays to the update process.

In May, The Times reported the Gambling Commission was weighing up taking regulatory action against Allwyn over its failure to deliver on certain promises made during its bid for the fourth National Lottery licence.

The commission was said to be concerned that Allwyn had not met certain contractual milestones since securing the licence. Areas of concern reportedly include delays to digital upgrades and reducing ticket prices for the main National Lottery draw from £2 to £1.

In response, Allwyn reiterated that it was committed to upgrading and modernising the system. It added that it plans to spend more than £350 million on improvements.