ITHUBA’s reinvigoration of SA’s lottery games has seen Powerball overtaking Lotto as the most popular lottery game.

Since Ithuba took over as SA’s third national lottery licence operator in June last year, it has significantly increased the number of locations where the lottery may be played, making the lottery games accessible to more South Africans.

The introduction of the Powerball Plus game which presents players with an extra chance to win and an improved Powerball game with a modified prize structure that allows for bigger jackpots, saw average weekly sales skyrocketing to over R100-million. This represented a 25% year on year sales growth during December and January.

Between November 28, 2015 and January 16, 2016, weekly sales stood at an average of R108-million as Ithuba’s expanded marketing spend; increased prize pay-out percentage and intensified jackpot awareness initiatives, among others, had grown the players™ interest in the lottery games.

During the same period in November 2014 and January 2015 under the previous lottery operator, the weekly average was R86-million.  During this time, Ithuba achieved a weekly high of R140 million which was the second highest total in the history of the South Africa National Lottery.

This was achieved despite Ithuba not having an ideal start with part of its resources focused on a protracted legal battle with the previous lottery operator.

However not to be distracted by this but rather armed with a bold vision and unmatched strategy to bring the fun and excitement back into the lottery games, Ithuba came out strong and still managed to work hard to provide the country with a lottery service every week.

Ithuba’s bold marketing drive, new games and the modification of the existing games has already grown the lottery and led to good revenues as it successfully brought back interest in the lottery games which was fading away.

The fact that the Powerball sales have now surpassed those of Lotto is a clear indication of the massive positive impact the newly introduced changes by Ithuba have made.

Ithuba had forecast that by June 2, 2016, annual weekly sales would average R94-million, with total annual sales totalling R4.9-billion; however it has already exceeded projections  since the introduction of the improved Powerball and Powerball Plus. In comparison, the last full year of the previous operator’s operation only achieved an R86-million weekly sales average missing its projections by almost 50%.

Ithuba is pleased to confirm that it is on track with its mission aimed at growing and reinvigorating the lottery to ensure that good causes benefit more and players enjoy additional chances of winning.