Background To The Launch
The Nationale Postcode Loterij was launched in the Netherlands in 1989 and so far has raised nearly €3.5 billion for charities such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace, World Wide Fund for Nature and Oxfam and given out nearly €750 million in prizes. Internationally, the Lottery is backed by high profile figures such as Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton.
Based on this success, the organisers, Novamedia, began to look at expanding into other markets, launching in Sweden in 2004.
Around this time, it was decided to trial the lottery as a regional launch in the UK, where the various regional development bodies bidded to have the lottery trial in their region. ONE North East was successful in its bid to have the Postcode Lottery launch in the North East of England, specifically within postcode areas, NE, DH, DL, TS & SR (Newcastle, Durham, Darlington, Teesside & Sunderland).
The choice of the North East was mainly made because a high proportion of the population already play the successful National Lottery, but the majority of funds raised by the National Lottery are spent in London and the South East of England. They tend to go to good causes, such as the construction of new hospitals or the Millennium Dome for example, rather than registered charities.
Novamedia set up The GoodFund as its charity foundation in the North East. It was quickly registered as a charity and as a Lottery Promoter, then created Postcode Lottery Ltd to run the lottery. Now People's Postcode Lottery promotes the lottery on behalf of its charity partners - details of which can be found on the People's Postcode Lottery website.
Novamedia set up a central office in Richmond for the lottery's customer services, and chose a Newcastle upon Tyne based call centre company Echo U to run its sales call centre. Echo U opened a new office on Newcastle Quayside to handle the business. As of late 2010, People's Postcode Lottery is run from two offices - one in Edinburgh, and the original office in Richmond.
Read more about this topic: UK Postcode Lottery
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