Price Elasticity of Demand and the National Lottery

This is brave! Camelot have decided to double the price of a ticket for the National Lottery main prize draw, Lotto, from £1 to £2, starting this Saturday. And the reason for doing it? Because sales have been falling for years. So what does this tell us about their perception of the PED for Lotto tickets?

Although Camelot UK Managing Director Andy Duncan said the National Lottery as a whole had grown by 50% over the last 10 years, with games like Euromillions and scratch cards adding to the portfolio, sales for Lotto tickets have been falling for around 15 years. Ticket sales used to be at about 80 or 90 million a week, but are now about 45 or 50 million a week, with around 30 million bought every Saturday.

As you would expect, Camelot haven't made this change to the marketing mix without a lot of market research first. Andy Duncan says that they have spoken to 26,000 Lotto players to find out what they think would 're-energise' the game. They are increasing the value of some of the prizes as well, with the minimum prize for matching three numbers going up from £10 to £25, and the jackpot rising to an average of £5mn on Saturdays.

This article about the change gives a nice opportunity to practice application of Price Elasticity of Demand and the Marketing Mix. For example:

If weekly sales of tickets priced at £1 have been 45 million, and the price of tickets are doubled to £2, what is the minimum number of tickets they will need to sell in order to make the same revenue?

In that case, what assumption are they making about PED and the maximum change which is likely to happen to quantity demanded, as a result of the price rise?

What other elements of the Marketing Mix are being used in order to re-energise Lotto?