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
Lottery syndicate Lottery syndicate A lottery syndicate is a group of individuals who play the lottery together. By pooling their money and buying multiple tickets collectively, players increase their chance of winning a lottery draw and share any winnings between them. In the UK, 1 in 5 of top game prizes across Lotto, EuroMillions, and EuroMillions UK Millionaire Maker are won by syndicates. Lotteries have been around since the days of the Chinese Han dynasty, with keno slips believed to have financed significant landmarks like the Great Wall of China. The first known form of collective lottery playing came about in the