Jackpot for Austrian sports
Over 2 billion euros in sports funding from Austrian Lotteries funds to date, and at least 120 million euros annually from the Ministry of Sport's budget since 2023.
75 years ago, in December of 1948, the National Council passed the Sports Pools Act (“Sporttoto-Gesetz”) and with the introduction of pools betting (Toto) laid the foundations for sports sponsorship in Austria. Austrian Lotteries was founded in 1986 to introduce the “6 out of 45” lottery and take over the organisation of Toto. The plan worked, and thanks to dynamic business development over the years, Austrian Lotteries was able to provide over 2 billion euros for sports in Austria, thus becoming the most important financier of popular and performance sports in our country.
The currently last milestone in the development of sports sponsorship came in the form of the amendment of the Gaming Act in December of 2022: sports funding was increased by 50 percent to a minimum amount of 120 million euros per year.
Vice-Chancellor and Sports Minister Werner Kogler commented: “Austrian Lotteries has proven to be a very reliable partner for sports in recent decades. And the substantial increase in special federal sports funding to at least 120 million euros a year has given Austrian sports associations a lot of room for manoeuvre.”
The 60 Austrian professional associations, the popular sports associations ASKÖ, ASVÖ, Sportunion, the Association of Austrian Alpine Clubs as well as the federal sports organisation Sport Austria, the Austrian Olympic Committee, the Austrian Paralympic Committee, the Austrian Disabled Sports Association and Special Olympics Austria - representing 1.8 million club members in around 15,000 sports clubs – stand to benefit from this increase of 40 million euros.
Erwin van Lambaart, Director General of Austrian Lotteries: “For decades, the legally enshrined promotion of sports has guaranteed that Austria's athletes enjoy optimal training conditions, receive a solid education and are subsequently able to perform at their best in international competitions.”