Postcode Lottery is a resounding success in Sweden

Amsterdam/Stockholm, 12 December 2008 – Last week the Swedish Postcode Lottery, a sister organisation of the Dutch National Postcode Lottery, reached the milestone of one million lottery tickets. The lottery, which raises money for Swedish and international good cause organisations, was launched in September 2005. No less than twenty percent of the 4.2 million households in Sweden now play the Swedish Postcode Lottery. The success of the Postcode Lottery in Sweden shows that the concept also has considerable appeal in other countries.

“It goes without saying that we are absolutely delighted with this rapid success,” says Niclas Kjellström-Matseke, managing director of the Swedish Postcode Lottery, ‘Svenska PostkodLotteriet’. “The lottery has clearly won a place in the hearts of the Swedes in a very short space of time. Those who play the lottery know that they stand a chance of winning fabulous prizes while at the same time they are also supporting good causes.” The Swedish Postcode Lottery has handed out 615 million Swedish kronor (59 million euros) to good causes since it was first set up.

As in the case of the Dutch National Postcode Lottery, the intellectual property rights to the ‘postcode lottery’ format of the Swedish Postcode Lottery are owned by the company Novamedia, which also runs both lotteries. In Sweden a subsidiary company has been set up for this purpose. The licence to operate the Swedish Postcode Lottery is held by an association that was specially set up. The various good cause organisations are members of the association.

“The success of the Swedish lottery shows how important it is to have an independent fundraiser for good causes,” says Boudewijn Poelmann, Chairman of the Board of Novamedia and one of the originators of the lottery concept. “The people who play the postcode lottery know that even if they don’t win a prize, they are still supporting a good cause. And the members of the lottery feel it is important that their money is spent on things such as nature conservation, healthcare and development cooperation.”

Novamedia has been running a Postcode Lottery pilot project in North East England since 2005. The People’s Postcode Lottery launched in Scotland in November 2007 now has more than 100,000 lottery tickets entered in the draw and has already donated a million pounds to good causes.

“We want to set up Postcode Lotteries throughout the world - that’s our dream. As far as we are concerned, the Postcode Lotteries in Sweden and Scotland prove that the format is also successful in other countries,” says Poelmann. Back...