A man who created a free online lottery game over a weekend is on the way to becoming a millionaire after signing a deal that valued his website at £10 million.
Chris Holbrook was inspired after hearing James Naughtie discussing medical provision on the NHS as being a “postcode lottery” on a Radio 4 Today programme in 2011.
He came up with a plan for a lottery that was free to enter, had a daily jackpot and was funded by advertisements. Entrants simply type in their postcode and email address.
Mr Holbrook, 38, of Finsbury Park, initially gave away £10 a day on FreePostcodeLottery.com, which he ran in his spare time while working as an IT consultant in the City.
As interest grew and advertising revenue surged, he gradually raised the prize fund to more than £700 a day, with rollover prizes of up to £2,400.
The site now has 300,000 visitors a day and has given away more than £300,000 in prizes in the past six years.
The work has become a full-time job for Mr Holbrook and the eight employees he has had to take on, earning them more than £1 million a year.
The business succeeded despite being besieged by internet trolls, including a Scottish user who posted: “Its a f*****g scam, all the winners [are from] England, they live in bought houses in cul de sacs and they all have hanging basket[s].”
Now City-based Zeal Investments, one of the world’s largest online lottery operators, has bought a 10 per cent stake in the company for £1 million, valuing the total business at £10 million.
Mr Holbrook said his ambition was to be giving away £20,000 a day by 2020 and having a fifth of Britain’s population playing the game.
Despite his bumper pay day, Mr Holbrook said he wanted to “reassure players that nothing is changing, apart from maybe bigger daily jackpots. I am not going anywhere and FreePostcodeLottery.com is only going to give more chances for ordinary people to win for free.”
