Returns to Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund Show fourth consecutive quarter of growth

Camelot today announced a further boost to the funding of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games – unveiling new figures which show that returns to the Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund (OLDF) rose for the fourth consecutive quarter.

Figures released today show that in the first quarter of this financial year (1 April to 1 July 2006) returns to the Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund from sales of designated games in support of London 2012 were £13.4m – an increase of over 28 per cent on the figure of £10.4 million raised the previous quarter.

Sales of designated National Lottery games in support of London 2012 have now risen in each of the last four quarters – bringing the total raised for London 2012 up to the end of June 2006 to more than £29.7 million.

Quarter 2 2005/06 £2.7 million
Quarter 3 2005/06 £3.2 million
Quarter 4 2005/06 £10.4 million
Quarter 1 2006/07 £13.4 million

Total raised to 1 July 2006 £29.7 million

The National Lottery® will contribute up to £1.5 billion towards funding the infrastructure of the London 2012 Games. Of this, £750 million will come from a series of designated lottery games to fund the provision of facilities and the supporting infrastructure of the London Games.

The first of the designated games in support of London 2012 – the scratchcard Go For Gold – was launched in July 2005, immediately after the 2012 Bid decision was announced, and was then the fastest-selling £1 scratchcard launched by The National Lottery since November 2002. National Lottery games providing funds to London 2012 in Quarter 1 this year included: Go for Gold, £100k Love, Win Gold, Bee Lucky, £250k Yellow, Dash for Cash £100k Purple – as well as the portfolio of Interactive Instant Win Games.

Earlier this month, Camelot also unveiled the first National Lottery draw to raise funds for London 2012. Dream Number offers players seven prize tiers, ranging from £2 through to £500,000. The twice-weekly draw is broadcast before the main Lotto draw on Saturdays on BBC1, while the Wednesday draw results are broadcast as part of that night's midweek lottery show.

Dianne Thompson, Chief Executive of Camelot, commented: "We are delighted that sales of tickets for designated games in support of London 2012 continue to see strong growth, underlining the tremendous enthusiasm with which National Lottery players have embraced the opportunity to help raise the funding required to stage the London Games."

"This is a great start – but rest assured we will not be resting on our laurels. We're very encouraged by players' response to our new Dream Number game – which created more than 210,000 winners in its first week alone. We look forward to building on this achievement – offering our players the chance to win some fantastic prizes as well as getting behind London 2012."

The National Lottery has already invested more than £3 billion into sport at every level in the UK since launching in 1994 – from schools, community clubs and local facilities, right through to elite performance athletes.