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
National Lottery Commission It was not the NLC’s responsibility to distribute the good causes funds. There are 14 Lottery distributors who distribute the money to local communities and national projects. The National Lottery is operated by Camelot Group under a licence that was awarded to them by the Commission following a competition to select the operator. The competition for the third Lottery licence took place between January 2005 and August 2007. The Invitation to Apply (ITA) was the formal invitation to bid for the licence and was published on 29 June 2006. Bids were received from Camelot Group plc and Sugal & Damani