Camelot group plc is the name of the company that operates The National Lottery in the United Kingdom. Camelot has been in charge of the UK lottery every since it was first launched in November 1994, and made such a success of it that the company was awarded a second lottery licence (both the first and second were for seven year terms) to run from January 2002. Camelot have since won a third lottery licence which has a term of ten years will see the company remain in control of UK lottery gaming until February 2019.

As well as successfully launching the UK National Lottery and many secondary lottery games (everything from scratch cards referred to as Instants right through to draw-based games such as Dream Number) Camelot played an essential role in launching Euromillions, the first multi-national lottery game in Europe.

Euromillions was launched in 2004, with the Francaise des Jeux of France and the Loterias y Apuestas des Estad of Spain working as equal partners in the project. The number of participating countries in Euromillions has since grown to nine, and the lottery – which takes place every Friday – has generated some of the biggest lottery jackpots that players in Europe, if not the world, have ever seen.

With a third licence in place, Camelot are now planning to create a World Lottery Draw which will outsize even the Euromillions game. It will be several years before the World Lottery game becomes a reality, but around 48 lotteries around the world have already expressed an interest in participating, and it is expected that each draw would create up to 100 millionaires.

Camelot is a private company that is owned by five shareholders, namely: Cadbury Schweppes plc, De La Rue Holdings, Fujitsu Services Ltd, Royal Mail Enterprises Ltd and Thales Electronics plc. The company says that its vision is: “To serve the nation’s dreams through The National Lottery” and it has done this by creating over 2,000 lottery millionaires and by raising more than £20 billion for good causes.