Chinese lottery sales increased by over 50% in July. Instant lottery tickets and sports “guessing bets” were the main drivers of this growth.
Ministry of Finance data for July shows that nationwide lottery sales were up 55.9% year-on-year to CNY48.09bn ($6.73bn/EUR6.20bn/PS5.31bn).
The sales of sports lottery tickets increased by 63.5%, reaching CNY31.03bn. Meanwhile, sales of welfare lottery tickets rose 44.3%, to CNY17.86bn.
The ministry stated that the increase was due to the sales of “instant lottery tickets” and what they call “guessing lotto tickets”, which is bets placed on sporting events.
Instant lottery sales increase
In July, instant lottery sales were up 144.6% on the previous year to CNY11.2bn. Betting is now the most popular vertical with sales growing 73.6% to CNY18.9bn.
Lotto digital tickets, instant lottery tickets, betting lottery tickets, and keno ticket sales accounted for respectively 31.06%, 28.61%, 22.98%, and 7.35% of total lottery sales.
All provinces in China saw an increase in lottery sales compared to July 20,22. Guangdong and Jiangsu saw significant increases, with CNY1.9bn in Guangdong and CNY1.6bn each for Zhejiang, Shandong and Jiangsu.
The lottery sales for the year ending 30 July 2023 were up by 51.2%, reaching CNY322.8bn. Welfare lottery sales increased by 23.4%, to CNY107.7bn. Sports lottery sales grew 70.5%, to CNY215.1bn.
