National Lottery group planning 36-hour outage for long delayed tech update
The Czech-based group – which took over the 10-year licence to run the lottery from Camelot in February last year – has warned retailers it will need to carry out the tech switchover 'one weekend' over the summer months.
It will mean retail point-of-sale terminals will not be able to take ticket sales for around 36 hours.
It is believed that Allwyn is looking to minimise disruption by timing the upgrade to start at around 11pm on a Saturday night, with the National Lottery not trading overnight and no draw-based games on a Sunday.
While the date has not been revealed, Allwyn's UK chief executive Andria Vidler has told retailers it will 'tie in best with our retail partners'.
She has written to them asking for their 'help and diligence to enable a seamless transition'.
The tech switchover has been beset by delays after Allwyn took over the licence, which has held back the launch of new draw-based games.
It was unable to switch to a new technology provider after agreeing to extend the contract for the existing supplier, International Games Technology (IGT).
IGT had challenged the Gambling Commission's decision to award Allwyn the 10-year licence in court, but later dropped the legal action.
Allwyn has previously admitted that delays to the new games it had hoped to introduce in 2024 will hold back the amount of money it can give to good causes in the early part of its 10-year licence.
But the group remained committed to its long-term goal to double money for good causes, despite falling short of early targets.
Allwyn said: 'Allwyn is investing over £350 million into improving the operations and technology of The National Lottery.
'This change is critical – it will give us the springboard from which we can continue to improve the player and retailer experience and enable us deliver on our ambitious plans to double returns to Good Causes from £30 million to £60 million a week by the end of the licence.'
The lottery licence handover has been hampered by intense legal wrangling since it was first announced.
Camelot took action over the Gambling Commission's decision to award the licence to Allwyn, which was finally settled when Allwyn bought Camelot, although the two companies continued to operate separately ahead of the handover.
Media tycoon Richard Desmond is also suing the Gambling Commission after missing out on the licence in what is set to culminate in a High Court showdown.
Details of the tech upgrade come as Allwyn revealed UK earnings halved at the start of 2025 despite a sales boost from March's record EuroMillions jackpot and strong demand for online instant win games.
It reported a 6% rise in UK gross gaming revenues to 1.02 billion euros (£860 million) – up 4% with currency movements stripped out.
Sales by amounts staked lifted 3% on a constant currency basis as players took a punt on the EuroMillions rollover in March with its record-breaking 250 million euro (£211 million) jackpot.
The latest EuroMillions on Friday night could also see a single ticket-holder win the biggest lottery prize the UK has ever seen if they match the numbers in the draw.
The wider Allwyn group, which runs lotteries across Europe, saw underlying earnings rise 1% to 362.3 million euros (£305.7 million) in the three months to March 31.
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