Sports betting drives China lottery sales surge in July

Ministry of Finance data for July shows that nationwide lottery sales were up 55.9% year-on-year to CNY48.09bn ($6.73bn/€6.20bn/£5.31bn).

Sports lottery sales were up 63.5% to CNY31.03bn, while welfare lottery sales were up 44.3% to CNY17.86bn.

The ministry said the uptick was mainly driven by the growth in sales of instant lottery tickets and what it calls “guessing lottery tickets”, which are bets on sports fixtures.

Increased instant lottery sales

Instant lottery sales in July were up 144.6% year-on-year to CNY11.2bn, with betting now the largest vertical after sales grew 73.6% to CNY18.9bn.

The sales volume of Lotto digital, betting, instant and keno lottery tickets accounted for 31.06%, 38.61%, 22.98% and 7.35% of the total lottery sales respectively.

Lottery sales increased in all provinces across the country compared to July 2022. Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong increased significantly, with year-on-year increases of CNY1.9bn, CNY1.6bn, CNY1.6bn and CNY1.1bn respectively.

For the year to 30 July 2023, lottery sales were up 51.2% to CNY322.8bn. Welfare lottery sales were up 23.4% to CNY107.7bn while sports lottery sales were up 70.5% to CNY215.1bn.