OLIVER L. Author
Last Updated: 18th April 2023
After working in the gambling industry for over a decade, Oliver spotted an opportunity to setup a resource for lottery bettors. CompareTheLotto.com was founded in 2014, with Bet49s.com and Bet49s.co.za following shortly after. The aim is to find the best odds, offers and information for lottery bettors.
Note: *The following article is purely for fun. It is based on individual opinions and does not constitute advice. The drawing of lottery numbers is entirely random. Please always gamble responsibly. #Ad. Find out more on our How Our Site Works page.
Today, we’re excited to launch our Lotto Awards 2022/23. This is our third year of running the awards - we’re continually surprised at the rate of change and innovation in the lottery space and we think you’ll see this reflected in the awards.
This year, to reflect the changes here at CompareTheLotto.com, we’re featuring Operator Of The Year in three different geos - UK/Ireland, South Africa and USA. Then, the popular categories of Innovation Of The Year and Payout Of The Year are an amalgamation of all countries.
This year was the first year we’ve combined bookmakers with bet-on-jackpot operators in one category. This meant bookmakers such as Betfred, bet365 and Boyle Sports are up against the likes of Lottoland and Jackpot.com. You might think we’re comparing apples with oranges, however, we focus on universal features such as usability, offers, terms & conditions and customer service. See our judging process page for more information. As it happens, two bookmakers took the top two spots - Betfred and bet365 - this was due to the fact that they were both highly active in the lottery space and continued to create innovative lottery products. Betfred created the Nifty Fifty £5M jackpot and bet365 created Lotto365. View the award here.
Although CompareTheLotto.com hasn’t fully launched in South Africa (watch this space...) we do have a South Africa version of our sister site - www.bet49s.co.za. Lucky numbers (as the South African’s tend to call Lotto Betting) is massively popular in South Africa with a whopping 17 bookmakers featuring lotto. This means this category was actually really challenging to judge! Betway managed to take the win partly due to their massive range of international lotteries and partly due to their great welcome offer. Hollywood was a close second place. View the award here.
The USA is really starting to hot up with regards to online lottery - in the past few years multi-state lottery messenger services such as Jackpocket, Jackpot.com, Lottery.com, Lotto.com and MidoLotto have popped up. It seems quite hard to believe, but prior to these operators most US citizens would have to queue at the store if they wanted to buy a ticket for the US Powerball or Mega Millions! Although these operators are all quite new companies they’re certainly making proving popular with our users. Jackpocket has a slick app, welcome offer and is available in 15 states - all things that helped them win this year. View the award here.
Another couple of highly competitive awards. For example, Nifty Fifty Jackpot, Lotto365, Win-Win Charity Lottery & 49’s Jackpot at Supabets are just some of the innovative features we’ve seen launch in the past year. Then, payout of the year has had some incredible winners - it seems like every week there’s another headline grabbing lottery win. So, who won? Head on over to our awards section to find out.