National Lottery (United Kingdom) National Lottery is franchised to a private operator; the Camelot Group was awarded the franchise on 25 May 1994. The first draw took place on 19 November 1994 with a television programme presented by Noel Edmonds. The first numbers drawn were 30, 3, 5, 44, 14 and 22, the bonus was 10, and seven jackpot winners shared a prize of £5,874,778. Tickets became available on the Isle of Man on 2 December 1999 at the request of Tynwald. A second lottery draw, Thunderball, was introduced by Camelot on 12 June 1999. The National Lottery undertook a major rebranding programme in
The National Lottery Draws win. Sponsored by national tabloid "The Sun", each week the viewers who had purchased a copy of "The Sun" were supplied with a game-card. They had to cross off numbers that appeared on that week's show and those that crossed off all their numbers by the time the 'big hooter' sounded on the show would win (or share if there was more than one winner) a prize of £20,000. Whilst it lasted three series from January 1995 until July 1997, it was not as popular as "The National Lottery Draws". Unlike the latter show it never aired on Saturdays, with