Our history
The history of Cambridge United lotteries goes back to the early 1960s when Dudley Arliss, along with an army of volunteers, started a range of money making schemes that were designed to generate revenue that was extra to the football club's budgeted income streams. With a daily weekday draw and a jackpot draw on a Saturday the draw quickly became one of the biggest football club lotteries in the country, and certainly within East Anglia. By the mid-1960s the winning numbers were being published in the Cambridge Evening News and tickets were being sold in local newsagents.
As time went by, the size of the cash jackpot grew to reach £1,000, and Dudley gave up work in the upholstery business to become full-time before taking on an assistant, Bill Cawdery, who gave up his job on the railways to work for the club. Together, Bill and Dudley’s lottery went from strength to strength with an army of agents delivering tickets to newsagents and other outlets all over East Anglia. By then the lottery had 26,000 members playing each week, with tickets sold through 200 agents.
By 1969 Cambridge United were trying hard for election into the Football League and weekly sales of the lottery had reached 45,000, bringing the club over £1,000 (£15,000 today) per week of unbudgeted extra income. It’s hard to believe that Football League membership would have been achieved without the lottery and, without it, who knows? The club might even still be in the lower reaches of non-league football or worse!
The lottery hadn’t been run for a number of years, and in 2007 Philip Law, the CUFC Chairman (until 5th September 2008) looked into the possibility of re-introducing a CUFC Lottery, based on the hugely successful and profitable Southport FC Lottery. However, at the time, no one at CUFC had the time nor resource to take further. So it fell to sub committee of the CFU board to take further, investigating and writing business cases, and thanks to CFU, the CUFC Lottery was launched in August 2012 as the CFU Play2Win (P2W) Lottery, with the CUFC Lottery reporting at the monthly CFU Board meetings, and at the CFU AGM.
At the time of writing (21/02/2026), the CUFC Lottery membership is 567 strong, providing annually around £28,000 of ‘distribution’ funding to support projects enhancing the fans' experience at the Abbey, along with local charitable and community projects. Every 100 members equates to an additional £5,200 of ‘distribution’ funds per annum.
CUFC Lottery, CAMLOT 000019 is registered with & licensed by Cambridge City Council, run under the rules laid down by the Gambling Act 2005 as a Small Society Lottery. Underpinning Small Society is Cambridge Fans United. Cambridge Fans United is a registered Industrial Provident Society No. 29118R.
Without CFU and their unpinning (& initial guarantor) support, there wouldn’t be a CUFC Lottery!
CUFC Lottery is an independent, self funding organisation, with its own Committee, Bank & PayPal accounts, run on behalf of Cambridge United Football Club.
With a vibrant lottery earning the club extra facilities and also improving the fans experience, who knows what the future could hold for the U's? Why not sign up today?