Allwyn Confirms Major Digital Upgrade for UK National Lottery

Allwyn UK has announced what it calls a major upgrade to the National Lottery’s digital platforms, with the update allowing Allwyn to offer the largest ever range of National Lottery games.

The National Lottery website and mobile apps will be temporarily offline, from 11pm this Saturday to the end of this Sunday, while the upgrade is carried out. A total of 11.8 million player accounts will migrate to a new account management system.

During the downtime, players will still be able to buy tickets via retailers, with draw results being available via YouTube and in-store.

A number of new digital experiences will be offered, including an extended range of games, improved player protection tools, and what Allwyn claims will be a refreshed look and feel, with a more simple way to play, check results and claim prizes.

Allwyn investment increases amid issues

Allwyn said the upgrade is part of its £400 million+ investment in upgrading the National Lottery. However, Allwyn is reportedly on course to spend around £500 million in an attempt to overhaul the National Lottery’s IT systems, which is double what it had planned to spend on the project when taking over the running of the lottery from Camelot in February 2024. Camelot had operated the National Lottery since its inception in 1994.

This followed reports in June which suggested Allwyn was under intense pressure from British regulator the Gambling Commission following delays to plans to modernise the lottery, including improvements to its 43,500 terminals. A major systems update took place in the summer, when the National Lottery’s website went down for 34 hours.

Commenting on the digital upgrade, Andria Vidler, Allwyn UK CEO, said:

“These much-needed digital upgrades mark another milestone in our transformation to make the National Lottery more player-focused, with new games, more winners, and greater support for good causes.

“This is just the beginning of an exciting year for Allwyn and the National Lottery, as we work towards our ambitious goal to double weekly returns to good causes from £30 million a week at the start of the license to £60 million by 2034 [the license expires in January that year].”

Financial problems

According to The Telegraph, the National Lottery has projected revenue of £84 billion across the 10-year association with Allwyn, which would be some way off an initial projection of £152 billion. Allwyn is clearly in a period of making significant changes, having recently appointed Bridget Lea as the first ever Managing Director – Retail for the National Lottery.

It has been a busy time for Allwyn, which completed its $1.6 billion (£1.19 billion) acquisition of a 62.3% stake in North American daily fantasy sports operator PrizePicks last week.

Allwyn is also in the process of completing its merger with Greek operator OPAP. The merger was announced in October, in a plan to create the second-largest entertainment company in the world, valued at €16 billion (£13.89 billion). It is expected to complete in the first half of 2026.

Allwyn’s majority shareholder is KKCG, which is owned by Czech billionaire Karel Komarek. Aside from its agreement with the Gambling Commission, Allwyn operates lottery contracts in Czechia, Italy, Austria, Greece and Cyprus, as well as Illinois and Michigan in the US.

Glasgow 2026 partnership

In separate news, the National Lottery has been named as the Official Volunteer Learning and Development Partner of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Allwyn will back a volunteering programme through its Social Value Fund; an annual £1 million fund that Allwyn finances to support initiatives. Allwyn’s investment will give the 3,000 volunteers at the Games access to an online learning portal and in-person training.