A NEW national lottery game is to be launched next month to challenge Camelot’s supremacy.

A cross between bingo and a random number draw, BingoLotto is the brainchild of Swedish entrepreneur Gert Eklund. Tickets for the game will go on sale from the middle of next month and the first televised draw will be made on February 29.

BingoLotto is in talks with two big supermarket chains to sell the tickets, which will cost £2 each, and has already signed up 11,000 independent retailers.

Rather than use dedicated terminals as Camelot does, BingoLotto will use existing Paypoint machines that are used for mobile phones.

Those who buy tickets will be able to watch the draw live every Friday night, broadcast simultaneously on the Virgin 1 and Challenge TV stations.

The hour-long show, to be hosted by comedian Joe Pasquale, will feature a number of games and draws, giving ticketholders multiple chances to win.

Players will not have to watch the show to be able to claim prizes, the most lavish of which will be a lump sum of £100,000 in cash. Around one in ten game cards will win prizes. The backers of the game hope that at least 40% of the proceeds will go to good causes. The Central Council of Physical Recreation and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations have been lined up to take part of this income.

Eklund originally developed the game in 1991 for the Swedish market, where it proved a big success. Although he sold out of the game in Sweden, it is estimated that some 22% of the population regularly plays BingoLotto, and the accompanying television show became the highest-rated programme in Scandinavian broadcasting history.

Eklund said he was undaunted by the failure of the Monday lottery, the last organisation to try to compete with Camelot, believing he had the experience to know what made for a successful lottery formula.

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