The die is cast after months of margin to get one of the numbers. La Bruja de Oro, Doña Manolita or the lucky gas station in Tenerife; any place is worth. At 9 am on December 22, Spanish time, the Christmas Lottery draw will begin. Two drums: one of them with 100,000 balls, of which some of them will be the lucky ones, and the second with 1,807 prizes. Same weight, same opportunities and a lot of luck to take something, even a stone.
As we say, all with a single requirement: to have bought at least some of the Christmas lottery tickets that They are on sale since July of this year in one of the administrations spread throughout the country. There are options in all of them, how could it be otherwise, but the reality is that many have probably suffered endless hours of waiting to get one of the numbers issued by one of the large branches.
In Madrid, Doña Manolita, occupies the first position in the capital; the administration of Benidorm or that of El Gordo in Manises would be other lucky ones. But, without a doubt, the most prominent is that of Sort, in Catalonia, founded by Xavier Gabriel Lliset in 1986: The Golden Witch or La Bruixa d´Or. A branch with history.
The meteoric career of this Lottery administration began when, in 1994 (8 years after its founding), the first Gordo de la Lotería del Niño fell. On January 6 of that same year, superstitions with witches and luck broke barriers. As is often the case with these issues, the reality is that when fortune looks to a management, the eyes of thousands of buyers also turn to the same side. And here the math comes into play: more sales, more reward opportunities.
In 1996, 1998 and the year 2000 the inevitable happened, again the most famous award of the year was going to Sort. From that date until now the race has been meteoric, with more than 30 awards distributed, and always hand in hand with an entrepreneur profile very different from what is usually counted in this new technological ecosystem.
The adventure sport that saved a region with the luck of The Golden Witch
Xavier Gabriel is, most likely, known for his role as owner of the Administration of Lotteries and Betting of the State that registers the most sales each year: La Bruja de Oro. Both nationally and internationally. In recent months, also due to his great political position in Catalonia against the independence movement. But the reality is that His profile as an entrepreneur began hand in hand with risk and adventure sports.
Long before the success of the awards in La Bruja de Oro, the economic benefits for the promotion of risk sports in the Pallars Sobirà region they already brought him two good news. The first of these was to put an economically depressed region on the map and the second to unleash his love of adventure sports. Xavier is the proud inventor of the Rio Catamaran, the Horopo, the Bus-Bob, and the Benji-Jumping, all in his adventure sports company founded just one year after his administration.
Receiving awards for entrepreneurship long before this figure was trending topic, Xavier always left in the background the sale of award-winning numbers. The businessman from La Bruja de Oro set out to conquer the Amazon, one of his biggest dreams. So much so that he was even able to do business with this adventure. After a trip to the exotic green region, he was able to sell several reports to production companies and even position himself as an important advertising figure for large brands eager to profit from exotic environments. The reality is that the debts, generated by the construction of a large hostel for clients, they forced Xavier to put the adventure aside. For the moment.
The Golden Witch was positioned as the main source of income for the family, but continued to search for new options. A restaurant, a hostel for tourists, foundations to help children with Down Syndrome, a book writer and the first Spaniard to be the first space tourist.
Internet, the guideline that made the difference
Oddly enough, the fact of having a lottery administration, one of the almost 4,000 in Spain, has something exciting if the owner knows how to manage it.
When the first big prizes arrived, and the attentions of all those willing to scratch some of the luck of the branch, Xavier had two options: stand still and wait for the ephemeral fame to pass (just when the prizes go to other regions) or take advantage of the pull. It opted for the latter, being the first lottery administration that added the option of buying numbers online. With this he achieved two very simple things: go beyond the local and sell more – which means having more reward options.
The minimum sale of 250,000 pesetas at the moment in tenths required by State Lotteries and Betting it was highly covered when luck came precisely to the Administration. The same award that launched La Bruja de Oro to fame in 1994 also launched the good work of its owners. 317 million pesetas of the moment, in concept of nine tenths awarded but that were never paid by their real owners (the administration being the one that advanced the payment) never reached their destination. Xavier and his wife decided to send them after the draw, even knowing it would make them rich. With this gesture, the largest marketing campaign for this branch began. One year later, in 1995, they added the Internet option to their sales options.
The years passed for The Golden Witch
The years passed and the lucky ball began to gain traction. 2003 was the flagship year for the branch. As they say, luck attracts luck. Just that year, the number 42,473, sold through the Internet in The Golden Witch to citizens in Germany, the Netherlands, the USA or Canada was the winner of the Christmas Lottery Jackpot. For the 2014 Lottery of the Child the servers of the most famous witch in the world crashed.
The reality is that now, Xavier’s administration controls almost 0.7% of lottery sales in Spain with a turnover (in 2015) of 61.1 million euros. Being in 2010 the year in which it has entered the most in its history, approximately 62.9 million. Sports sponsorships in football clubs or cars have been the subject of some of the lucky funds.
And after the Internet? Innovation kept coming to the small town: China. In a country where the lottery sale is not well seen by the Unique Party, the reality is that its population generates millions of income when it comes to games. In the first year of its opening alone, 2008, the Chinese-translated website generated more than 125,000 customers. As Xavier commented in an interview, “people are increasingly looking for luck further and in more places.” And if not, we will always have health.