In the Lotto Medal Draw on Saturday 27 August there were an additional 67 life changing prizes up for grabs to celebrate each of the medals won by Team GB in Rio and to thank players for their ongoing support of our elite athletes. 

The syndicate, made up of six retired friends – Douglas Gibson (72), William Mackie (65), Jim Robertson (65), David Hannan (65), David Hastie (71) and Stewart McLaren (73) – has been running since The National Lottery’s inception in 1994. 

The group named themselves the ‘ScottieHibbies’ - playing homage to their old local The Scottie Pub and their love of Hibernian F.C, where they celebrated their win today (5 September). 

Syndicate leader, Douglas said, “I can’t believe it – I’m totally shell-shocked! We’ve been playing two lines a week, every week, for so long that it almost became a part of our ritual – I never in my wildest dreams thought we’d win, let alone a life changing £1M!” 

Speaking about how they discovered their win, he added, “It was my wife Sheena’s 70^th birthday on Sunday 28 August, so late morning she decided to check her emails for any birthday wishes when she discovered an email from the lottery. She let out an almighty scream when she opened it and realised how much we’d won. We both couldn’t believe it and Sheena just kept saying ‘Oh my gosh, this is the best birthday ever’ - that’s a memory I’ll never forget. 

“We phoned all the other syndicate members and they were in such shock. I don’t think they truly believed it until they seen the email for themselves. It was good timing though as we had Sheena’s 70^th birthday party that Sunday so got the chance to celebrate together with family and friends. Sheena was so excited she even printed and laminated the congratulations email from The National Lottery and was showing everyone at the party ‘her best birthday card ever’ – I don’t know how I’m going to top that in the years to come. 

“We’re all still on such a high; quite a few have already been out to buy new cars! I think I’ll wait until the money is in my bank before I buy anything substantial. Sheena did treat herself to a well-deserved shopping spree and we’ll be looking into a new car along with a luxury cruise. This certainly secures my season ticket for Hibs for many years to come as well!” 

The ScottieHibbies syndicate played online and their winning code from the Lotto Medal Draw on Saturday 27 August was BLUE 50289118. 

On top of the usual Lotto draw on Saturday 27 August, there was an additional 67 life changing prizes up for grabs to celebrate each of the medals won by Team GB in Rio and to thank players for their ongoing support of our elite athletes. An extra 27 prizes of £1 million were available to match the number of Gold medals won in Rio, 23 extra prizes of £100,000 to equal the Silver medal haul and 17 additional prizes of £50,000 to match those Bronze medals won by Team GB. 

The National Lottery plays a unique role in supporting the UK’s elite athletes, with no-one contributing more to elite sport in the UK than National Lottery players. British athletes have won 700 Olympic and Paralympic medals since National Lottery funding was first awarded to elite athletes in 1997.  Alongside elite sport, The National Lottery has invested over £5 billion in grassroots sport to date, supporting more than 150 different sports and creating opportunities for everyone to get fit. 

The National Lottery changes the lives of winners like the ‘ScottieHibbie’ syndicate as well as communities across the UK – players raise, on average, over £36m for National Lottery-funded projects every week. In the city of Edinburgh alone there have been 4,946 individual National Lottery grants made to date, funding projects across the arts, sports, heritage, health, education, environment, charity and voluntary sectors. 

In Douglas’ own back yard of South East Edinburgh, National Lottery funding has helped: 

For more information on National Lottery funding please visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk.