Allwyn’s Busy Summer: UK Powerball, Leadership Change and a £450M Tech Overhaul

One month on from introducing Powerball to the UK, Allwyn is already celebrating a successful summer. Over £13.8 million has been paid out across the UK, and Powerball is not just engaging stalwart National Lottery enthusiasts either. Allwyn pointed out that over 40,000 players tried National Lottery games for the first time through Powerball.

Allwyn recently completed a £450 million technology and infrastructural makeover, introducing new core gaming systems and migrating accounts from older systems to new software. And, it announced that CEO Andria Vidler will be standing down, with Phil Walker (formerly a William Hill and 888 executive) taking over as interim.

It has been a busy summer, and Allwyn hopes that this initial interest in the Powerball is not just a novelty but the beginning of a movement that can firmly establish the jackpot in UK lottery traditions.

Powerball Lands Successfully in UK

Powerball was introduced to the UK on July 21, and since then, over 2.6 million Britons have taken part in it. The danger of bringing in new products, especially foreign lotteries, has always been that they fail to capture the imagination of the local market, or, where they do, it is shortlived. Inevitably, the Powerball had plenty of one and done customers in the UK, but over half of those 2.6 million returned to try multiple draws. Allwyn stated that from Day 1, it has delivered winning prizes to UK customers, with prizes starting out from £8. A total of £13.8 million was paid out in prizes.

• 2.6 million customers tried UK Powerball
• 40,000 new National Lottery users (who tried Powerball)
• 997,038 winners across the prize tiers
• Over £13.8 million paid out in prizes

At the time of introduction, Powerball was in the middle of a 43-draw rollover run that ended in a £1.04 billion jackpot, which was won by a player in Illinois. It was a happy coincidence that seems to have given Powerball a strong surge forward landing in the UK.

UK vs US Powerball

In our previous coverage of the UK Powerball, we pointed out that while the jackpot is the same, the ticket pricing is different. US players pay $2 for basic Powerball play, but UK customers pay £4.

It would indicate that the UK Powerball is not as “good value” as buying Powerball tickets in the US – but that is not really the case. The National Lottery has found a clever way of integrating Powerball in the UK, keeping the same jackpot but changing the secondary prize tier structure ever so slightly.

UK Powerball: 9 secondary prizes (£8 to £1 million)

• 5 main numbers: £1 million (fixed)
• 4 main numbers + Powerball: ~£33,000
• 4 main numbers: ~£1,100
• 3 main numbers + Powerball: ~£500
• 3 main numbers: ~£50
• 2 main numbers + Powerball: ~£30
• 1 main numbers + Powerball: ~£15
• 0 main numbers + Powerball: ~£12
• 2 main numbers: £8 (fixed)

US Powerball: 8 secondary prizes ($4 to $1 million)

• 5 main numbers: $1 million (fixed)
• 4 main numbers + Powerball: $50,000 (fixed)
• 4 main numbers: $100 (fixed)
• 3 main numbers + Powerball: $100 (fixed)
• 3 main numbers: $7 (fixed)
• 2 main numbers + Powerball: $7 (fixed)
• 1 main numbers + Powerball: $4 (fixed)
• 0 main numbers + Powerball: $4 (fixed)

UK customers have one extra low-tier secondary prize, and the secondary prizes (apart from £8 and £1 million) are not fixed. So, rectifying what we previously stated about the UK Powerball perhaps being lesser product – it isn’t. The house edges are very different – UK Powerball has a much lower house edge on secondary tier prizes, and you have a better chance of winning those. The US Powerball has a lower house edge on the top prize – which, we would stress – you have a 1 in 292 million chance of winning the top jackpot with a single ticket.

Allwyn New Lotto Format

Alongside the UK Powerball, Allwyn also made a massive overhaul of the National Lottery game, Lotto, upgrading it with a 2-round format, giving players two chances to win from basic £2 tickets. This was rolled out on June 10, and now, 56 players have already become millionaires. Of those 56, 32 were made in Round 2 of the format, meaning this addition carries significant weight.

Allwyn Renews Tech Infrastructure

Behind the scenes, the operator has also recently completed a £450 million technological overhaul, which Allwyn described as the biggest transformation since the National Lottery was launched in 1994. This involved introducing over 30 new gaming systems, including a new back-end software and migrating over 18 million player records. The infrastructural changes are intended to support more innovation and pave the way for further games and products to be brought into the National Lottery ecosystem.

Third Full Year as NL Operator

Allwyn took over as National Lottery operator in лютий 2024, replacing Camelot, a company that ran the lottery from its inauguration (1994). 2025 was its first full calendar year in charge, and the company reported that it made £8.1 billion in National Lottery sales, an increase of 3.5% in 2024. Over £1.7 billion was raised for Good Causes, and £967 million was raised for the Treasury, keeping in line with the National Lottery’s duty of care and tax duties.

The next phase of growth is already in preparation, with Allwyn bringing in Phil Walker to take over as interim CEO in September after Andria Vidler stands down. Vidler, who was the CEO since 2023, oversaw the technology overhaul, new Lotto relaunch and the UK Powerball, and will remain in an advisory role until the end of October, when Allwyn will look for a permanent successor.

Going Digital

And digitalisation is a primary target for Allwyn. In 2025, it recorded 1 million more users logging onto the site, and digital sales went up 9.8%. That took it to over 51% of all National Lottery sales, marking the first time the digital market took over half the sales in the entire 31-year history of the National Lottery. You would think that given the massive popularity of online casinos and sports betting sites that this should have happened a good few years ago. But it didn’t, and the UK is not alone in that regard.

Norway, which is one of the last state-run gambling monopolies in Europe after Finland will open its market in 2027, actually went through this transition before COVID. But outside of them, most European countries still have higher retail sales for lottery products than digital ones.

It could be because of the fact that 94% of Britons live or work within 1 mile of a National Lottery terminal. Or that Allwyn is a key player in the high street gambling scene in the UK. But the slow transition to digital tickets becoming the primary source of sales can also be attributed to the larger age range of buyers and the social aspects and rituals tied to buying physical lottery tickets.

Whatever the case, the digital sector is gradually taking over, and it is in large thanks to the efforts of Allwyn to invigorate the National Lottery online offering.

What’s Next for Allwyn

Allwyn took over the operation of the National Lottery from Camelot in 2024, who had already started the digitalisation of the National Lottery. In 2022/23, Camelot set a record for £3.69 billion in digital sales, making up around 45% of the total National Lottery sales. The lottery had more than 10.7 million active registered players online, and around three quarters of the purchases online were made through mobile devices. Though there was still plenty of work to be done, and Allwyn has seemed to have delivered on that front.

Also, the digital gambling landscape is one that has jumped in leaps and bounds in the UK across the past few years. It has seen emerging new verticals. For instance, Prize Draw Competitions are soaking up an increasing part of the market, and while they are far off the National Lottery, the growth figures have been impressive. Another, more recent trend, has been in social media raffles, or TikTok lotteries, which have utilised the fast spreading nature of social media to channel lottery-style games. Then, there are gambling operators in the UK broadening their games offering to capture larger audiences, a good example of which is Flutter investing in its Tombola Arcade gaming app, with essentially “mini casino-style games” to fill up the lateral space.

The National Lottery remains one of the most popular forms of gambling in the UK, but it can’t afford to be complacent. And it isn’t, as Allwyn has shown this summer, and continues to show with its tech upgrade to allow for further creative additions.