Allwyn’s two summer game launches have made 56 millionaires and almost one million winners for The National Lottery, with close to 40,000 people playing a National Lottery game for the first time through Powerball.
The operator released the figures on 25 August. They cover New Lotto, which launched on 10 June, and Powerball, which launched in the UK on 21 July, the two products at the centre of the game overhaul Allwyn promised when it took over the fourth National Lottery licence in February 2024.
New Lotto millionaire count runs ahead of last year
Allwyn rebuilt Lotto in June around a two-round format, in which one line gives a player two separate chances to win in each draw.
Two and a half months on, 56 players have become millionaires through New Lotto, against 35 in the equivalent June to August period in 2025. Allwyn says 32 of the 56 won in Round 2, the round the new format added, so they would not have won under the previous version of the game. That single number is the clearest read on whether the format change is doing what Allwyn said it would.
The most recent winners are a family syndicate from Somerset that took a £1m Lotto prize last week. Mark Jefferson, 54, his wife Naomi, 51, and their four adult children almost missed it, having ignored a run of ‘check your account’ emails from The National Lottery. Mark only started to believe the family had won after a phone call confirmed the prize.
Powerball adds almost one million winners in five weeks
The National Lottery became the first lottery outside the United States to run Powerball when the game launched in July, giving UK players access to uncapped jackpots. The UK entry landed during a 43-draw rollover run that ended in a $1.04bn jackpot won in Illinois.
Since 21 July, Powerball has produced 997,038 winners across its prize tiers, with prizes starting at £8, and has paid out more than £13.8m. The jackpot has been rebuilding since and stood at an estimated £49m for the 27 August draw.
Around 40,000 people have played a National Lottery game for the first time through Powerball, and more than 2.6 million players have entered since launch. Over half of those have played more than one draw, the figure that decides whether a launch spike turns into a base of regular players.
Set For Life, Thunderball and returns to Good Causes
Andy Carter, senior winners’ advisor at Allwyn, said:
“With New Lotto delivering more winners than ever before and Powerball giving UK players access to one of the world’s biggest rolling jackpot games, this summer has marked the beginning of an exciting new chapter for The National Lottery, offering players more opportunities to win and more chances to dream big in the months ahead.”
Carter said the operator has also made five winners of £10,000 a month for 30 years on Set For Life and six winners of £500,000 on Thunderball since the start of June.
Play across the games generates around £33m a week for National Lottery-funded projects. More than £53bn has been raised for Good Causes since 1994, funding over 680,000 projects across the UK, while players have won more than £103bn in prize money and the National Lottery has made more than 8,000 millionaires. Distribution of Good Causes money is handled by independent bodies, not by the operator.
Results land during a leadership change
The numbers arrive two weeks before a change at the top of the UK business. Allwyn UK confirmed on 19 August that chief executive Andria Vidler would step down, with Phil Walker appointed interim CEO from 7 September. Vidler stays on in an advisory capacity to the end of October.
Walker inherits the digital growth mandate the two launches were built to serve, and the harder part of the job starts now. Powerball’s first five weeks were sold on a US jackpot run that will not repeat on demand, and New Lotto’s winner count has yet to be tested against a full year of draws. The licence runs to 2034, and the measure that counts is what participation looks like once the launch marketing stops.
Source: Allwyn
