BingoLotto

Published Sunday 13 April 2008

The National Stoolball Association, along with over 150 other national governing bodies, has signed up to be part of BingoLotto: a money-raising scheme supported by the CCPR to help raise funds for grass-roots sport.

BingoLotto is the brainchild of Gert Eklund and his company ISG (Intelligent Gaming Solutions) which was started more than 15 years ago in Sweden. Although they too have a National Lottery as a competitor, it has flourished and achieved a great deal for charities in that country (nearly £1bn since 1991).

With the Olympics awarded to London in 2012, the CCPR soon identified that there would be a large reduction in the amount of money available to sport in the UK from the National Lottery. BingoLotto is a TV game broadcast on Virgin One and Challenge TV on Friday nights at 8pm. Tickets cost £2 each, but you don't need to watch the show to take part. You can use your postcode on the CCPR website to find out where to buy BingoLotto tickets near you and check whether you won the previous Friday.

To quote the promotional literature: "If you do decide to actively take part, the BingoLotto programme is a mixture of great games, moments of real drama and emotion and, of course, sensational jackpot giveaways. There will be nine card spins during the hour-long programme, where unique ticket numbers will win prizes based on the spin of the BingoLotto wheel. There will be three bingo games, the winners being invited to call in and win additional prizes as well as the opportunity to appear on the following week's programme. Contestants will fight it out for the grand prize – a maximum of £200,000. The vast majority of players will play live whilst watching BingoLotto, but it is possible – via the website – to win without participating: each ticket's unique number goes into a lottery drawn prior to the show under the scrutiny of an adjudicator".

We are assured by ISG and the CCPR that there is a 1 in 9 chance of winning a prize, so please help stoolball in particular and grass-roots sport in general by buying a ticket and taking part in this scheme.

This scheme is being run for a trial period and if it is as successful as it has been in Sweden, it will continue.

Our constitution has recently been updated to include the following statement under item 1: "the National Stoolball Association shall be deemed a non-profit making organisation." This statement was added because we needed to clarify our existing status for BingoLotto.