World Cup Drives Lottery Sales in China

The Ministry of Finance recently announced national lottery sales for June. In that month, China sold a total of 58.629 billion RMB in lottery tickets, marking an increase of 24.787 billion RMB compared to the same period last year—an impressive growth of 73.2%.

Among these sales, the China Welfare Lottery generated 19.081 billion RMB, up 1.257 billion RMB (7.1%), while the China Sports Lottery reached 39.548 billion RMB, reflecting a staggering increase of 23.530 billion RMB (146.9%). Notably, the sales volume of sports lottery tickets in June was more than double that of the Welfare Lottery, making it the leader for four consecutive months.

Breaking down the types of lottery, digital lottery sales totaled 23.469 billion RMB, representing an 8.5% year-on-year increase, while sports betting-type lottery sales soared to 29.486 billion RMB, an astonishing 364.7% increase from the previous year.

The explosive growth in sales can be attributed to the World Cup, with quiz-type lotteries accounting for 50.3% of total sales in June. This marked the first month in recent years where quiz-type lottery sales exceeded those of the Welfare Lottery.

Compared to May, national lottery sales in June rose by 17.939 billion RMB, with sports betting lotteries contributing an increase of 19.357 billion RMB. Although other lottery types lagged, sports betting lotteries dominated sales in June and the first half of the year.

This World Cup has set numerous sales records:

Total sales reached 46.34 billion RMB, an increase of 33.4 billion RMB over the previous session (258% growth).

On July 15th, during the final match of the Russian World Cup, single-day sales hit a record high of 2.738 billion RMB. The final match between France and Croatia also set a single-sale record at 2.668 billion RMB.

From June 18th to June 24th, auction lottery sales reached a record 11.897 billion RMB.

As of July 15th, total sales for sports betting lotteries this year have already surpassed 86 billion RMB, exceeding last year’s total of 80.3 billion RMB in just over seven months.