Basketball will be added to the "Sports Lottery", which has been used only for soccer so far, and it will be on sale from the 26th.

Sales of sports lotteries began in 2001 with the aim of securing financial resources for improving the environment for sports.



The Japan Sports Promotion Center, which operates the lottery, held a press conference in Tokyo and announced a new lottery called "WINNER" that predicts the results of one game and the winning team for basketball B league and soccer J league games. announced that it will be on sale from the 26th.

Takuya Kimura, who was appointed as an ambassador, also appeared at the press conference and expressed his expectations, saying, "I think that sports fans will turn their eyes to new passions, so I hope the players will play with all their might to respond to their passion."



This is the first time that a sport other than soccer is subject to a sports lottery, and predictions for a single match are based on the score and win/loss of both teams, with 18 options for soccer, and 16 options for basketball based on the difference in goals and win/loss. .

“WINNER” will also introduce a mechanism where part of the sales will be returned directly to the club teams of each league.



According to the Japan Sports Promotion Center, since the start of the sports lottery, about 230 billion yen from sales has been allocated to the promotion of sports.

Expanding sports lottery sales last year hit a record high

The sports lottery operated by the Japan Sports Promotion Center began selling nationwide in 2001 with the aim of securing financial resources for improving the sports environment.



Until now, lotteries have only been available for soccer, and when the lottery was first launched, only "toto" predictions for the results of 13 designated J-League games were sold.



Since then, the number of types has gradually increased, and since 2006, 8 types of lotteries have been sold, such as the "BIG" lottery, which attracted attention for its large winnings, where the results were randomly selected by a computer.



Furthermore, since 2013, overseas soccer has been added to the target matches, and has followed an expansion path.



According to the Japan Sports Promotion Center, sales of sports lotteries were 64.3 billion yen in 2001, but reached 113.1 billion yen in the 3rd year of Reiwa last year, which is the highest ever.



Of the sales, the amount excluding refunds and expenses will be used for sports promotion subsidies and national treasury payments. Approximately 16 billion yen will be distributed as subsidies for activities of local sports clubs.