Increase in global lottery sales for 2011

This growth in sales was led, once again, by the Asia-Pacific region, which recorded an aggregate year-on-year boost of 18.9 percent due, in part, to the continued rise in the popularity of lotteries in mainland China.

The WLA stated that the Latin American market was close behind with annual sales up by 15.7 percent year-on-year for 2011, led by the ‘strong showing’ of Argentina’s Loteria Nacional Sociedad Del Estado.

The WLA declared that aggregate lottery sales in Europe rose by 10.7 percent year-on-year with this improvement ‘simultaneously buoyed’ by stronger second-half sales and the ‘sterling performance’ of Lottomatica over the same time.

“The European market performed vigorously also, recording double-digit growth in the second-half of 2011 versus the second-half of 2010,” read a statement from the WLA. “The robust state of global lottery sales coming into 2012 projects an optimistic outlook for global sales of lottery products throughout 2012.”

In contrast, North American lotteries witnessed an aggregate increase in sales of only 6.2 percent when compared with 2010, although this expansion had been ‘consistent and measured across all four quarters’.

The worst performing global lottery market last year had been Africa as sales dropped 0.5 percent year-on-year despite holding ‘steady overall’. “Better results from Africa in the second half of 2011 were offset by the drop in sales recorded in the first quarter of 2011,” read the statement from the WLA.