LottoByText: 20 Years of SMS

Did you know on the 3^rd of December 1993, texting as we know it today was born.

While keyboards on phones hadn’t been invented yet, SMS was about to catapult communication into the 21^st century and transform how you and me were to talk ever after.

To mark this momentous occasion, LottoByText, the leading SMS based lottery syndicate operator in the UK, feel obliged to discuss the history of SMS and how far we have come over the previous 20 years.

To get us started, here’s a few examples of how texting has changed the English language and even influenced the way we speak:

BFF – Best friends forever

Swak – Sealed with a kiss

TTFN – Ta Ta for now

LMAO – Laugh my a** off

TTYL – talk to you later

XOXO – Hugs and kisses

LOL – Laughs out Laugh

We have got to thanks the Daily Mail for this entertaining list.

These phrases have actually infiltrated the political establishment. It was only this year, that through the Leveson enquiry, we discovered Rebekah Brooks and David Cameron were on ‘texting’ terms. In one text, she wrote ‘Brilliant speech. I cried twice. Will love ‘working together’. In another the Prime Minister wrote: ‘The horse Charlie Brooks put me on. Fast unpredictable and hard to control but fun DC.’ He also signed off his messages LOL – thinking it meant ‘lots of love’ instead of  ‘laughs out loud’.

Ha, Lolz.

The collusion between politicians and journalists is one thing. SMS has also brought down governments & ideologies. In January 2011 with phone lines and emails being monitored, text messages were the ideal way for activists across the Middle East to organize events and rally support during the Arab Spring. Text communication became so powerful that SMS was blocked in Egypt on January 27^th 2011.

Harnessing the power of SMS has been a focus for LottoByText throughout our stewardship of being the leading mobile lottery syndicate operator in the UK.

Through SMS we are able to offer lottery results and lines, direct to your mobile, at the touch of a button.

If you want to find out more about starting a lottery syndicate on your mobile phone, check out our lottery syndicates guide here. We’ll even give you 5 free lines so you can try out the service.

It’s an estimated £69 M jackpot and your syndicate has every chance of winning it. In fact, playing in one of our syndicates increases your chances of sharing the EuroMillions jackpot.

EuroMillions: 10 Free Lines on Christmas Day

Exciting news has just come from the National Lottery Headquarters.

On Christmas Day, the very generous National Lottery is guaranteeing that they will make an extra 25 UK millionaires.

It will work in the same manner as the typical EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle that occurs on every EuroMillions draw. (This is the line of letters and numbers printed at the bottom of each ticket – a special unique Millionaire Raffle code). However, rather than making just one millionaire, the National Lottery will set aside an extra £25M in order to create 25 millionaires!.

Just imagine how different your life would be if you were one of the lucky winners with a £1,000,000 cheque on Christmas Day.

There you have it. Your chances of winning a huge prize in this draw have increased massively!

What if you wanted to boost your chances of winning even more?

LottoByText, the UK’s leading mobile lottery syndicate operator can help you there!

As a special Christmas offer for new members, LottoByText have created an exclusive offer on Facebook, in which you receive an extra 10 free EuroMillions lines for the guaranteed ‘25 Millionaires draw’ on Christmas Day.

This offer will be running throughout December and all you have to do is click here to open up the Facebook app and play now. If you sign up following the instructions in the app, you will automatically be placed into a special list of potential millionaires.

Then, on the 25^th December, when you’re all stuffed from too much turkey, LottoByText will have reserved 10 EuroMillions lines for YOU and send them straight to your mobile.

All you need to do is to stay as a syndicate member throughout the month of December until the special ‘25 Millionaires’ Christmas draw.

As another goodwill gesture, LottoByText are also offering 5 Free Lines + results alerts for the next big EuroMillions or Lotto draw. This is a trial offer so that you can get a taste of the excitement of playing for the record-breaking jackpots the National Lottery is famous for.

SUMMARY:

25 MILLIONAIRES GUARANTEED on Christmas Day 2012 & LottoByText are giving you 10 free EuroMillions lines in this draw to increase your chances of winning.

How to get the 10 extra EuroMillions lines:

Step1. Go to the LottoByText app

Step2. Become an active member of LottoByText

Step3. Stay and play until Christmas Day 2012 to get your extra 10 EuroMillions lines.

Simple as that!

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EuroMillions Winning Ticket Still Unclaimed

Christmas is approaching and there are rumours that the National Lottery will be promoting a special draw to take place on Christmas Day.

Rumour has it that 25 UK Millionaires will be created on Christmas Day this year – and that’s on top of the usual EuroMillions jackpot!

Stay tuned here for more news on this.                                                  

As we aim to give you the tip-top and current Lotto news, we’ve put together a round up of the most exciting lottery stories of this last week, that you might have missed as thoughts of Christmas shopping, turkeys and mulled wine are probably taking up most of your day.

The big news of the week is the Unclaimed £63M EuroMillions Ticket.

 

Picture (INS News Agency)

Yes, that’s correct. £63,837,547, which was won earlier this year, is still unclaimed and if it remains so, the money will be given to the National Lottery’s charity fund on the 5^th of December.

Both the National Lottery and the local press are making frantic appeals in the Stevenage and Hitchin area of Hertfordshire where the ticket was bought back in June this summer.

Up until now, the largest unclaimed lottery prize was £9 million – so this huge amount is record-breaking.

Imagine being the winner who missed out on over £63 million just because the ticket was misplaced behind the sofa. Or worse, eaten by the dog!

A National Lottery spokesperson , when interviewed, pointed out that there is still time to claim: “There have been occasions when claims have been made on the last possible day. In 2009 someone who had won £2.5 million from the Worcester and Malvern area came forward on the last day. So it is possible.”

The unclaimed ticket is for the EuroMillions draw on the 8^th of June. The numbers drawn were 5, 11, 22, 34 and 40 and the lucky stars are 9 and 11.

This MUST be claimed by the 5^th December 2012!

Let’s move onto the next big news lottery news story: according to new research, playing the lottery is becoming an increasing important part of British culture.

This could also be the reason why the BBC have extended their multi-million pound deal with the National Lottery to continue screening the popular National Lottery draws every week.

It has been reported that the Saturday night show often has an audience of over five millions viewers, so it’s no wonder the BBC wants to keep airing this popular programme.

If you do play the lottery, have you ever thought about improving your chances to win? It’s a great time to start, especially as Britain has had a great year so far in terms of EuroMillions jackpot wins! (If you want more information on this, you can read our article on how lucky Britain really is.)

You can improve your chances of winning by playing within a Lottery syndicate. It works by the fact that you get more tickets for your money; for example if 4 of your friends and you put in £1, you can buy 5 Lotto tickets with this money, and you’ve only spent £1! If you play with LottoByText, you get 10 Lotto tickets and 5 EuroMillions tickets per week, for only £4.50.

A proof of this formula is that LottoByText, the UK’s leading mobile lottery syndicate operator, last month created 53,343 winners through its syndicate service. The number of winners also seems to be growing month-by-month, thus bringing endless happiness to its members.

If you fancy 5 free National Lottery lines with LottoByText or would like more information on playing in a syndicate, please see our lottery syndicate page here.

LottoByText Winnings Now Collected with PayPoint

LottoByText have announced exciting plans regarding how customers can pick up their lottery winnings. Within the coming weeks, any winnings that you claim can be collected from any PayPoint terminal. In laymen’s terms this means more or less any newsagent’s across the country.

Not convinced?

There are 24,000 convenience stores across the country that are PayPoint ready, and therefore primed to dish out those important winnings. Here’s a handy little map to show how much of the country is covered.

The darkest parts are where the highest concentration of PayPoint terminals are found.

As you can see you won't need to travel far to find somewhere you can collect your LottoByText syndicate winnings.

Still not convinced?

See if you recognise any of the retailers below?

 

This is just an example of some of the retailers you can pick your winnings up from.

Why is this so good?

Currently LottoByText allow you to collect your winnings by cheque or preferably from any Post Office nationwide.

This is pretty darn good.

However I checked what this means for residents of Bolton.

A quick search found there is one Post Office available in the centre of Bolton.

While this is great for LottoByText customers; what if our lucky winners had other options.

So I searched PayPoint locations nearby and I found 5 locations within 30 seconds of the Post Office.

Not only does this mean more choice for customers, it also means you don’t have to wait in line at the Post Office, hoping for your number to be called out.

What to do if you win!

When you win, you will be presented with an option to receive your winnings either as a cheque or through PayPoint. Select PayPoint and  you will receive an SMS from LottoByText with your voucher code.

Take your voucher code to the local newsagent or any other PayPoint terminal and inform the cashier of the code.

They’ll verify the code and give you your winnings from the National Lottery or EuroMillions.

It really is as easy as that.

If you win more than £100 you will have to call LottoByText on 0870 803 3037 and customer services will send a cheque out.

Also, make sure you claim your winnings within 30 days to avoid disappointment.

LottoByText are the UK’s most popular mobile alerts & lottery syndicate operator. If you would like to join one of our lucky lottery syndicates visit our 5 Free Lottery Lines page.