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Free lottery pioneer seals £1m investment after becoming one of UK's most-visited sites

An entrepreneur who founded a free lottery website in his spare time has today sealed a £1m investment from ZEAL Investments, part of the ZEAL Network SE group, in a funding deal that values his company at £10m.

Chris Holbrook started FreePostcodeLottery.com six years ago, originally operating the website on a budget of just £10-a-day as a side project from his day job as a web developer.

His advertiser-funded daily draw now attracts more visitors than the National Lottery and Ticketmaster, and has given away more than £280k to winners.

Such has been Holbrook’s success that ZEAL, which operates lotteries in Germany and Spain, has agreed to invest £1m in the website for a 10% stake, as the site vies to become the foremost UK lottery website.

According to Holbrook, the investment will now be utilised to fuel the site’s 2020 Vision programme, which aims to give away £20,000 a day and support 20% of the UK population playing the game by 2020.

Following confirmation of the industry giant’s backing, Holbrook commented: “This deal is a massive step towards shaking up what is a slow-moving industry.

“It is clear that the global lottery market is in desperate need of some fresh and original ideas and we believe that the free-to-enter model of FreePostcodeLottery.com provides that.”

James Oakes, Director of ZI, added: “Partnering with the Free Postcode Lottery is a fantastic opportunity for both parties. Chris has done to lotteries what the freesheet did with newspaper publishing and he is a genuine pioneer disrupting the lottery status quo.

“We cannot wait to work together and to see the FPL reach its full potential”

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