The fall, disclosed in UK Sport's recently published annual report for the year to end-March 2014, is not entirely surprising: the previous year included the London Olympics, and lottery ticket sales in 2013-14 were down on the record figure of very close to £7 billion ($11.9 billion/€8.7 billion) set in Olympic year.

However, the extent of the decline in UK Sport's share of the proceeds exceeded both the 3.5 per cent fall in ticket sales and the 10.25 per cent cut in contributions to National Lottery good causes.

Asked about this discrepancy between the rate of decline of ticket sales on the one hand and contributions to good causes on the other, Camelot, the UK lottery operator, explained that draw-based games such as EuroMillions contribute more to good causes than scratch-cards, and EuroMillions had performed exceptionally well in 2012-13.

Camelot also said it had had a "very strong" second half in 2013-14, following the relaunch in October 2013 of its core Lotto game.

This may augur well for sales, and contributions, in 2014-15 - and indeed ticket sales in April 2014 were said to be up 9.7 percent on a year earlier.

In the short term, however, some money that would otherwise have been paid to good causes in 2013-14 went instead to help fund new Lotto-related prizes and jackpots.

The Gambling Commission, the industry regulator, says that the effect of this is temporary and that good causes, such as UK Sport, will be paid the money over future years.

But this may also help to explain why the cut in UK Sport's 2013-14 lottery proceeds was as high as 14 per cent - and indeed the body says in its report that a "factor" in its reduced lottery income was "an adjustment to the National Lottery Distribution Fund (by the Gambling Commission) to divert monies to launch the new game".

The Olympic year of 2012 saw a record figure for lottery ticket sales
©Getty Images for The National Lottery



Approached by insidethegames, UK Sport said lottery income was lower in 2013-14 "partly because 2012-13 was an exceptionally high year of receipts".

It went on: "The 14 per cent reduction compared to the Camelot figure of 10 per cent is due to an accounting adjustment as the accounts for 2012-13 were prepared using an interim certificate of lottery income, the effect of which means that 2012-13 income is slightly higher, and 2013-14 income slightly lower, than it otherwise would have been.

"Also by its very nature National Lottery income varies year to year."

It looks, then, as if this latest figure should be something of a 'blip', and that the decline should be reversed in 2014-15 and probably future years.

UK Sport must certainly hope this is the case, with Exchequer funding set to fall from £240 million ($409.8 million/€301 million) over the 2009-13 period to £158 million ($269.8 million/€198.2 million) between 2013 and 2017.

As the funding body spelt out in its previous annual report for the year to end-March 2013, the approximately £550 million ($939.2 million/€689.9 million) of allocations agreed in its 2013-17 financial plan were "made possible" by the planned release of £46 million ($78.5 million/€57.7 million) from its lottery balance, which stood at £68.3 million ($116.6 million/€85.6 million) at end-March 2014.

"Unless a similar balance can be established by late 2015," that report said, "and assuming all other factors remain constant, then there will be significantly less to invest in the subsequent cycle than there has been towards Rio".