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National Lottery operator Allwyn has revealed lower UK sales and earnings at the start of 2026 but said the completion of its recent tech upgrade marks an “inflection point” for the British business.

Allwyn – whose UK arm took over the 10-year licence to run the National Lottery from Camelot in 2024 – posted a 7% drop in UK gross gaming revenues (GGR) to 942 million euros (£814.2 million) for the first three months of the year, which saw UK underlying earnings more than halve to four million euros (£3.5 million) from nine million euros (£7.8 million) a year earlier.

The group said its UK performance was partly lower because of tough comparatives from a year earlier, when demand was boosted by a record high EuroMillions jackpot, but was also dragged down amid costs from changes to its online gaming platform following the recent tech overhaul.

Allwyn completed a lengthy £450 million major tech upgrade to the lottery during the first quarter, which involved moving 18 million player records and more than three billion historical transactions from old platforms to new ones, updating the lottery website and mobile apps, as well as transforming the technology used by retail partners.

It has also paved the way for the group to unveil the biggest overhaul to its draw-based Lotto game since its launch in 1994 and the first new draw-based game in the National Lottery’s history this summer, with the launch of the UK specific version of the world’s biggest jackpot game, Powerball.

Allwyn said: “The completion of the transformation enables the rollout of new commercial initiatives in the United Kingdom, completes the incurrence of transformation-related costs and initiates the recovery phase for these costs.

“It therefore marks an important inflection point in the financial profile of the business.”

Lotto’s new Lotto format will launch this month, giving players two chances to win for every £2 ticket in its main draw for the first time ever.

The change will be rolled out from June 7 and is expected to more than double the number of Lotto millionaires – from around 140 a year to about 345.

The Powerball launch later in the summer will also see UK players pay £4 per line to compete with their US counterparts in the world’s biggest jackpot game for the first time.

Allwyn signalled there were more National Lottery launches to come.

“We continue to progress the development and regulatory approval of additional product innovations,” it said.

The wider Allwyn group – which is headquartered in Switzerland and runs lotteries across the UK, Europe and North America – reported a 24% jump in underlying earnings to 443 million euro (£383 million) for the first quarter after net sales lifted 21%.

Allwyn recently merged with Greek firm OPAP to create a global listed gaming giant worth around 16 billion euro (£13.8 billion).

The combined group has given Allwyn a presence on the stock market, having retained OPAP’s Athens listing for the merged group, but with aims to launch an additional stock market listing in either London or New York.

Allwyn already owned a near-52% controlling stake in Athens-listed OPAP before the all-share tie-up.

Robert Chvatal, Allwyn chief executive, said: “I’m immensely proud of this transformative quarter, during which we have brought together two fantastic businesses to create a scaled global leader in gaming entertainment.”