About Charity Lotteries

Novamedia is a fine example of an area in which the Netherlands excels: innovation with a worldwide impact.
Novamedia is the founder and (intellectual property) owner of the successful formats of the Dutch Postcode Lottery, the BankGiro Lottery and the FriendsLottery, and of the Postcode Lotteries in Sweden, Germany and Great Britain.

The Dutch Postcode Lottery (Nationale Postcode Loterij) was launched in 1989 to raise money for charity organisations that work to create a fairer, greener world.

In 2005, the success of the Postcode Lottery in the Netherlands prompted Novamedia to launch two more lotteries abroad – the Svenska PostkodLotteriet in Sweden and the People’s Postcode Lottery in Great Britain. In 2016, the Deutsche Postcode Lotterie launched throughout Germany.

In the Netherlands Novamedia operates two other lotteries besides the Postcode Lottery: The FriendsLottery and the BankGiro Lottery, launched in 1998 and 2002 respectively. The three lotteries share the same parent company (Holding Nationale Goede Doelen Loterijen NV)

Since the beginning, Novamedia’s charity lotteries have donated over €8.6 billion to thousands of charities and projects all over the world. This ranks Novamedia/Postcode Lotteries as the third largest private donor in the world, after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (USA) and the Wellcome Trust (UK).

Charity lotteries that use the Novamedia formats

The Netherlands

The Dutch Postcode Lottery, the BankGiro Lottery and the FriendsLottery

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The Dutch Postcode Lottery, the BankGiro Lottery and the FriendsLottery were established to raise funds for charities. Half of the price of every ticket sold goes to charity (in 2017, this was €491 million). The Dutch Postcode Lottery supports people and planet, the BankGiro Lottery supports culture and the preservation of cultural heritage in the Netherlands and the FriendsLottery supports social initiatives (charities, clubs and associations) that focus on health and well-being, also through sport.

At the end of 2017, in the Netherlands, 3.8 million households were playing the Charity Lotteries. At an average of 1.5 tickets per household, that makes more than 5.7 million tickets per month bought for the three Charity Lotteries.

The Dutch Charity Lotteries are non-profit organisations: half of the revenue goes straight to charity. The other half covers prize-money and costs. The three lotteries come under the holding company Nationale Goede Doelen Loterijen N.V.

Sweden

Svenska Postkodlotteriet

logos 11The Swedish Postcode Lottery started in 2005, following three years of preparation. It has grown rapidly since 2006 and donates 32 % (in 2017) of its income to about 50 charities (2017: 55 charities). Since its start, the lottery has donated €904.8 Million to charities and their projects at home and abroad. According to the Swedish Gambling Authority, the Swedish Postcode Lottery is the largest charity lottery in Sweden considering both terms of turnover and contribution to charities.

The total investment on the part of Novamedia was € 28 Million. The current number of tickets in use (end of 2017) is more than 1.7 million.

Great Britain

People’s Postcode Lottery

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People's Postcode Lottery was first piloted in the north of England in 2005. Three years later, in 2008, it was launched in Scotland and since 2010 it has been operating throughout Great Britain.

People’s Postcode Lottery supports charities across Great Britain and internationally. Thanks to over 2 million players of People’s Postcode Lottery, more than £263 Million has been raised for good causes and charities so far and £31 Million of those funds have been distributed to local community projects and programmes since 2009.


Germany

dplDeutsche Postcode Lotterie

The German Postcode Lottery was launched across Germany in the summer of 2016. The first draw took place in October 2016. The lottery supports charities in Germany by donating 30% of the funds it raises proportionate to the number of participants in each federal state. Novamedia is carrying all the risks and expenses associated with getting this charity lottery off the ground.

The charity lottery permit is governed by numerous obligations and restrictions in relation to national lotteries in the federal states of Germany. Examples of what this involves include the limited size of the main prize (max. €2 Million), restrictions on the costs incurred and the high lottery tax level on the funds raised (16.67%), a minimum contribution towards charity (30%), rules governing proportionate donations according to the number of participants in each federal state, conditions governing the organisations able to receive donations in Germany, and the permit’s term of validity. Subject to these strict conditions and restrictions, the German Postcode Lottery will try to raise as much money as possible for charities in Germany.

Our mission

Raise funds for social organisations and increase awareness of their work

 

There is no change without them.

We set up charity lotteries to provide financial support for social organisations worldwide and raise awareness of their work through television programmes, print and internet. Novamedia is the inventor and owner of various lottery formats and brands that are operated in The Netherlands, Sweden, Great Brittain and Germany.

 

Goodwill ambassadors

We’re proud that international well-known personalities work with us and support our mission and the charity lotteries we operate.

See all our goodwill ambassadors

Leonardo DiCaprio

Environmental activist and
actor

Richard Branson

founder of the Virgin Group

Sarah Brown

founder and president
of Theirworld

Ruud Gullit

Dutch football legend

Tony Blair

former Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom

Desmond Tutu

South African Anglican bishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner

Rafael Nadal

Spanish tennis player with
14 Grand Slam titles

Katarina Witt

Former figure skating star and
Olympic Gold medalist

Muhammad Yunus

Bangladeshi social entrepreneur and
Nobel Peace Prize winner 2006

Emma Thompson

Actrice & activist

George Clooney

human rights activist and actor

Bill Clinton

42nd President of the United States

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The charities are the beating heart of our organisation

JV NPL Doutzen KroesThese charities always win the lottery

Our lotteries each have dedicated Charity Departments which maintain intensive contact with our affiliated charity organisations and make agreements, conduct evaluations and make payments.

 

 

International Policy

acleuLotteries in Europe

All charity lotteries of Novamedia are a member of the Association of Charity Lotteries in the EU (ACLEU). This association represents the interests of charity lotteries and their beneficiaries at the European level, as well as in the individual member states of the EU. ACLEU wants to give a voice to charity lotteries in the European debate and wants to increase awareness for the charity lottery model that has already been proven to be successful in the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, the UK, Denmark, Spain and Ireland. Fundraising by lotteries should be promoted from ‘ancillary effect of gambling’ to main objective of lottery legislation in all European Member States.

For more information, see: www.acleu.eu

What the support of the Postcode Lottery means to charities

WWFAllard Stapel

World Wildlife Fund

“We trust you to spend the proceeds well.”

This is the final sentence of a letter send by the lottery every quarter. When asked what does the lottery means to us one’s first inclination is to mention the amount of funding we get …15 million euros. However it is not so much the amount but the nature of the funding.

Unrestricted funding is very rare indeed. In our world trust often has been replaced by bureaucracy and control. This makes it difficult for civil society organizations to operate effectively in a fast changing world. The trust of the lottery in our organization in contrast gave WWF enormous possibilities change, innovate, fend off threats, and take up opportunities.

Bill Clinton

The Clinton Foundation

TheClintonFoundation

“The Postcode Lottery is the best thing I have ever seen to involve ordinary people in charitable work. A whole community can win and it must be a great feeling to be a part of it.”

I urge everyone to continue to support the lottery and to try to get more people to do it and I hope it will be copied by other countries. Than you will see the most unprecedented partnership between ordinary citizens across the world that we have ever seen, which us helps to fight against worldwide problems.

Our unique format

The Postcode Lottery Format

The principle of the lottery is simple and the same for every country. The lottery number is based on the member’s postcode. Added to the postcode is a three-digit individual number.

Using the postcode means it’s not just one member who wins a prize but an entire street or neighbourhood. Collecting money for charities that are dedicated to people and nature is the central goal of all three postcode lotteries.

Winning together

Winning with the Postcode Lottery means winning together with your neighbours. The idea of winning together is strengthened by the other side of the lotteries: the distribution of proceeds to charities.


Prizes

Not only the charities win. Each year, more than 11 million participants are treated to a host of prizes, ranging from full VIP treatment at a resort to big cash prizes.

The charities always win

The partnership charities always win with the Postcode Lottery. All Postcode Lotteries must contribute a set minimum percentage of its stakes to charity. In Great Britain this is a minimum of 30%, in Germany a minimum of 30%, in Sweden 31% and in the Netherlands this has been 50% since September 2004.

The charities' work

As part of their mission, the Postcode Lotteries also provide members with information about the charities they support

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Mailings, TV & internet

Television plays an important role in involving members in the work of the organisations supported by the lottery.

Novamedia: revenue from licence fees

Novamedia is the owner, “developer” and investor in lottery concepts with which successful charity lotteries have been established and implemented worldwide to raise funds for charities. Novamedia asks a licence fee for the use of these brands and formats by third parties. This fee may be used to recoup the high investment required to set up a lottery once a new lottery is able to stand on its own feet. After all, Novamedia bears the financial risks. The fees are also used for the (continued) development of its formats. Novamedia receives these fees from charity lotteries in the Netherlands and abroad. The amount of licence fee differs from country to country, partly depending on the local situation. As the operator, Novamedia is also responsible for managing the lottery in all of these countries. The structure of the organisation, and thus the management fee, differs according to the country.

In Great Britain, the format licence fee of People’s Postcode Lottery is 4% of the revenue of the lottery. Management support provided by Novamedia is recharged, to a maximum of 1% of People’s Postcode Lottery revenue.

For the Dutch lotteries working with Novamedia’s brands and formats, the percentage of the licence fee is 2.2% of the lottery’s revenue. In the Netherlands, Novamedia receives a fixed, index-linked annual fee for managing the three lotteries. This was €851,000 in 2017. Novamedia also guarantees the obligation of the three lotteries to pay out 50% of the revenue from ticket sales to the charities. Unforeseen financial setbacks leaving less than 50% of the revenue available for charities have to be covered by Novamedia. The combined licence and administration fee of the Swedish Postcode Lottery is 4.08% of the revenue. Once it is possible, the German Postcode Lottery will pay a licence fee of 3%.

In 2012, F.W. Grosheide, Emeritus Professor of Private Law/Intellectual Property Law (for the Netherlands, at the request of the Dutch Postcode Lottery) and in 2014 Jan Rosén, Professor of Private Law at the University of Stockholm (for Sweden, at the request of Novamedia) were asked to give an opinion on the market conformity of fees in the Netherlands and Sweden. Both concluded that the percentages are comparatively low. This was also the conclusion reached by the accountancy firm KPMG in 2013 in a study in the Netherlands commissioned by the Dutch Gaming Authority.