Last weekend (2-4 August), Allwyn UK took National Lottery systems and terminals offline for 34 hours in an unprecedented move that allowed for the biggest tech upgrade since it first launched in 1994, in what is the biggest lottery transformation anywhere in the world. The scale and complexity of this project involved the delivery of over 30 new systems, including a completely new back-end gaming system, and a series of complex data migrations, including the transfer of tens of thousands of retailer records and millions of transactions from the old to the new systems.

While these major updates – most of which have initially been behind the scenes – meant short-term disruption for its43,500 retail partners and for players, they were crucial, given the legacy systems and in-store terminals powering The National Lottery date back to 2009,before iPads, Uber and Instagram. So, these now need to be modernised to deliver on Allwyn’s ambitions for a National Lottery fit for the future.  

Thanks to the massive support from retailers, players, and Allwyn's partners, stakeholders and colleagues, the upgrades (which were originally planned to last 36 hours) went smoothly, and the company was able to get all the systems back up and running several hours ahead of schedule – with retail terminals coming back online at 9am and the National Lottery website/app shortly afterwards at 9.30am on Monday (4 August).

In a series of firsts, the first sale after terminals came back online was made at the Family Shopper Post Office in Swansea, Wales for Monday’s Set For Life draw. Brilliantly, the retailer who sold the ticket, Matthew Tyrell, had previously told his Allwyn Retail Sales Executive that he knew he would "sell the first ticket once lottery terminals come backup." Within 10 minutes of re-opening, nearly 1,000 tickets had been sold, which multiplied into 118,000 tickets within the first hour.

Once services came back online on Monday, around 8,000National Lottery retailers switched over to new state-of-the-art lottery Wave terminals. These are allowing them to process player transactions more quickly and provide them with more functionality. The remainder of National Lottery retailers are using the new software that went live over the weekend on their existing Altura terminal and will receive their own new Wave terminal in the coming months.

As with any upgrade of this scale and complexity, some retailers that are still on the legacy Altura terminals experienced some anticipated teething problems. Allwyn said all along that it expected that a small proportion of legacy in-store terminals may experience delays coming backup and some retailers are still in the process of understanding how the new software looks and performs on their legacy Altura machine. However, this is merely a short-term solution until Allwyn is able to get the new Wave terminals out to retailers over the next few months.  

Allwyn’s CEO, Andria Vidler, commented: “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver The National Lottery that the UK deserves. We’ve made unprecedented and much-needed changes, which are moving us closer to achieving our vision for The National Lottery, restoring its magic and significantly increasing its positive impact on lives across the UK.  

“These major upgrades will allow us to deliver on our promise to bring new, exciting games; a better player experience; and our commitment to double returns to Good Causes from £30m to £60m every week by the end of the 10-year licence. We're very grateful to players, our retail partners, and our partners, stakeholders and colleagues for their support over the weekend."

Scientific Games CEO, Patrick McHugh, said: “Congratulations to our partner Allwyn and all involved with The National Lottery’s hugely successful conversion this week in the UK. Not only is this the largest and most complex lottery conversion in the industry's history, but it was also the smoothest transition I have ever witnessed in the industry. A network of 43,500 terminals switched overnight from the legacy system to the new Scientific Games system, and retailers nationally selling two hours ahead of the planned cut-over schedule was amazing to see. 

"The new systems and state-of-the-art terminals mark the next phase of a new, modernised National Lottery that will provide critical funding for Good Causes across the UK. The complexity was enormous, with the migration to a new gaming system, dozens of related business enterprise systems across multiple suppliers, and the simultaneous upgrade of over 40,000 retailer terminals across the entire UK network."

As most of the weekend’s updates took place behind the scenes, digital players still see the same familiar National Lottery online experience. The new Wave lottery terminals are already speeding up transactions for in-store players and retailers alike. Additionally, more great changes will be coming very soon, details of which will be shared with players, retailers and partners well in advance.   

Key facts/figures on last weekend's upgrades:

• The scale and complexity of this project is unprecedented in the 30-year history of The UK National Lottery, and this weekend’s upgrades included:

o The delivery of 30+ new systems

o A series of complex data migrations – including the transfer of tens of thousands of retailer records and millions of transactions from the old to the new systems

o Upgrading to modern contact centre technology to further enhance the player and retailer experience

o Moving to new marketing and finance systems

o All of this was underpinned by a meticulously planned and thorough systems integration and testing programme of work, including 10 weeks of technical rehearsals in the lead-up to the weekend
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• Allwyn has been supporting its 43,500 retail partners with:

o More than 39,000 phone calls, emails and face-to-face rep visits – with another 20,000 follow-up reminder calls which took place on Sunday (3 August)

o Comprehensive upgrade support packs were also sent out to all 43,500 stores – these included customer-facing posters and table-toppers to keep in-store players informed

o Double the amount of retail support resource – including Retail Sales Executive and engineers – available on the ground
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• The number of agents taking calls on The National Lottery Line and Retailer Hotline trebled on Sunday – and there have been four times the usual number this week – to be able to provide enhanced support to players and retailers during this significant upgrade

o Customer service colleagues have carried out over 6,500 hours of training on the new systems