Camelot has announced changes to the National Lottery, doubling ticket prices in the process, in a move which the Health Lottery claims proves the case for more competition in the lottery market.

The changes, unveiled by Camelot yesterday, will see the National Lottery increase the prizes for matching three numbers from £10 to £25, increase the average Saturday jackpot to about £5m and the Wednesday jackpot to roughly £2.5m. It will also introduce a new raffle prize which will mean that it will guarantee that 50 players will win £20,000 in each draw. These changes will be accompanied by a doubling of the ticket price, from £1 to £2.

The National Lottery operator says that the changes, which should come into effect in the autumn, follows extensive consultation with players, but upstart rival, the Health Lottery, has branded the price hikes “very unfair” in light of the wider recession.

Health Lottery chief executive Dominic Mansour claimed that the changes proved the case for more competition in the lottery market, of which Camelot’s operations make up 99 per cent.

“Players don’t really have much choice in the matter of which lottery they want to play,” he said. “We think this amounts to an abuse of Camelot’s dominant market position.”

A Camelot spokesman replied that the company believes that the “net benefit to players and the good causes from the changes… will be significant”.

“There’s never a perfect time to increase a price and it’s certainly not a decision we’ve taken lightly. However, the changes we’re making to Lotto directly reflect what our players have, through over a year of extensive consumer research, told us they want from the game.

“It’s also important to remember that buying a National Lottery ticket is something players choose to do – it’s entirely up to them to decide whether they want to buy a ticket for any of our games.”

The Health Lottery started operation in October 2011 and last October started running a second weekly draw. It has defeated a number of legal challenges by Camelot, which had its High Court appeal for a review and rejection of the Gambling Commission’s decision to license the Health Lottery – an external lottery manager working for 51 society lotteries – denied in August.

Camelot had claimed that the Health Lottery had cannibalised its ticket sales, but in November revealed a record return to good causes in the six months ended 29 September of just over £952m.  

The changes announced by Camelot have attracted interest from the charity sector with Ben Kernighan, deputy chief executive of NCVO, saying his organisation will be “watching closely” to see whether the changes have an impact on the amount of money being distributed to good causes.