Allwyn UK CEO Andria Vidler has claimed the National Lottery is not a form of gambling, as she lifted the lids on the tech upgrades that remain ongoing at the operator.
Speaking on City AM’s Boardroom Uncovered podcast, Vidler pushed back against host Jon Robinson after he said Vidler’s aim of people spending more on the lottery was encouraging users to gamble more.
Vidler has said if players spent a few pounds extra a week, or infrequent National Lottery players upped their playing days, it would significantly improve the returns to good causes and profits for the firm.
Vidler replied: “Gambling you would claim [involves] skill. There is no skill in lottery. It’s entertainment. We have lots and lots of competitors now. It’s not like it was in 1994 when the National Lottery first launched.”
The National Lottery is regulated by the Gambling Commission, with the authority having overseen the awarding of the fourth licence to Allwyn.
As per the Gambling Commission’s latest Gambling Survey for Great Britain release, 34% of respondents had participated in lottery draws.
Around one-fifth of respondents only took part in lottery draws, which includes the National Lottery and other charity lottery draws.
Lottery draws are the most popular form of gambling in Britain, followed by scratchcards, sports betting and then online instant win games, usually offered by lottery operators.
Vidler’s comments came even though Allwyn UK’s parent company, Allwyn, said the Gambling Commission is reviewing whether it needs to take regulatory action after it missed a contractual milestone.
Allwyn UK has been running the National Lottery since February 2024. It is currently in the process of swapping out its current tech partner IGT for Scientific Games.
Speaking on the tech transition, Vidler explained the existing platform hadn’t been significantly updated since 2009, meaning its capabilities had been curtailed.
She said: “That’s pre-Instagram, pre-streaming and pre-iPads. [2009] was before a lot of technology we have now. We don’t have CRM. Can you imagine another business, especially of our scale, that has no form of CRM whatsoever?
“Our shareholder has already invested a huge amount of money to establish a completely new tech stack, which will enable us to innovate and know our players. That’s really important.”
She concluded: “The tech stack modernisation is not the completion of modernising the National Lottery. There are so many other things to do. I want us to be a brand you think of as an entertainment brand, not the National Lottery.”
The post Allwyn UK CEO says National Lottery is not a form of gambling first appeared on EGR Intel.
Andria Vidler states she wants to brand to become an entertainment business, as she reveals previous tech stack has meant operator has failed to deploy CRM
The post Allwyn UK CEO says National Lottery is not a form of gambling first appeared on EGR Intel.