China’s state lottery experienced a significant surge in total lottery ticket sales during September, with a 58.3% increase to CNY52.8bn ($7.2bn/€6.8bn/£5.9bn), according to data provided by the ministry of finance.
The most notable growth was observed in guess lottery sales, which effectively entails sports betting. This category witnessed a year-on-year rise of 70.1% to CNY21.9bn, likely due to the occurrence of major events such as the multi-sport Asian Games, which commenced during the final week of September. The ministry attributed this surge to the influence of such events as well as the launch of new instant lottery tickets and the expansion of new distribution channels.
Lotto digital lottery sales saw a moderate increase of 15.0% to CNY14.9bn, while instant lottery sales experienced significant growth of 152% to CNY12.5bn. Keno lottery sales witnessed a rise of 36.9% to CNY34.9bn. In terms of the overall sales volume in September, Lotto digital, guessing, instant, and Keno lottery tickets comprised 28.2%, 41.5%, 23.7%, and 6.6% respectively. Instant lottery’s share grew from 22.7% in the previous month.
The rise of sports lottery sales compared to welfare lottery was also influenced by the Asian Games. Welfare lottery institutions experienced a sales increase of 47.9% to CNY18.213bn, while sports sales grew by 64.5% to CNY34.6bn. Sales of lottery tickets increased in all provinces across China compared with the same period last year. Guangdong witnessed the highest rise with CNY2.0bn, although Zhejiang also experienced a substantial increase of CNY1.6bn.
From January to September, a total of CNY428.5bn worth of lottery tickets were sold nationwide, indicating a 52.4% year-on-year increase of CNY147.3bn. Sports betting accounted for 43.2% of sales during this period at CNY184.9bn, which reflects a remarkable 93.6% growth. Lotto sales increased by a more modest 11.9% to CNY129.8bn, constituting 30.3% of the total revenue.
