The Health Lottery launches, 8 October 2011

Tickets for The Health Lottery went on sale on Thursday 29 September 2011, and the first draw was on Saturday 8 October 2011. Eamonn Holmes presented the Saturday draw, shown on ITV1 and Channel 5. The game was owned by Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell.

Each £1 ticket meant choosing five numbers from 1 to 50. Three matches paid £50, four paid £500 and all five paid up to £100,000. Prizes were fixed rather than shared.

Legally it ran as 51 separate society lotteries, one for each local authority area in Great Britain. 20p from each £1 was set aside for local health causes. The owners forecast £50 million a year for good causes and spent around £20 million marketing the launch.

By its first anniversary it had raised just over £24.5 million. A second weekly draw followed on Wednesday 17 October 2012.

Sources

• PR Newswire: The Health Lottery launch release (prnewswire.co.uk)
• Marketing Week: Health Lottery launched to rival National Lottery (marketingweek.com)
• Civil Society: Health Lottery midweek draw on sale next week (civilsociety.co.uk)