YORK City Knights are confident their latest special arrangement with Leeds Rhinos will prove to be a win-win-win situation.

The Knights have joined lottery forces with Super League champions Leeds, whereby York’s Lancealotto initiative merges with the Rhinos’ Leedsline scheme.

And they reckon it will be of benefit to the Knights, to the Rhinos and, perhaps more importantly, the members of Lancealotto.

As it was, Lancealotto had one draw per week, with a first prize of £300, a second prize of £100, and third prize of £50.

The Leedsline, though, has a £500 draw every weekday, which works out at a prize fund of £130,000 over 12 months.

All Lancealotto members are now thrown into that hat instead, and, although there is less chance of winning each individual draw simply because there are considerably more members in the Leeds scheme, the actual odds of winning each week are very similar given that there are five times more draws – and there is a bigger prize.

In that sense, therefore, it is a win situation for the members.

The fact that the Knights get a percentage of the overall Leedsline/Lancealotto lottery profits, which is greater than the profits Lancealotto was making on its own, means it is a win situation for the club too – with early estimates saying it might double weekly revenue from the scheme.

And the fact the Rhinos have more members of their lottery scheme, and thus more money coming in, means they win also.

Additionally for York fans, there was to be a draw for Lancealotto members whereby one person wins two tickets in the executive suite at Headingley for a Rhinos game.

Benefits from this lottery agreement do not stop there for the Knights, as the two clubs have agreed to hold a pre-season friendly every year the partnership is in place – with the Knights keeping all the gate receipts.

For anyone worried, the annual £5,000 draw from Lancealotto will remain this year and will take place as planned at the Knights’ home game against Oldham on June 25 – which is been shown live on Sky Sports.

Knights general manager Ian Wilson said: “It is a fantastic deal for the Knights with the club gaining increased profit, increased revenue opportunities and a formal partnership with the world’s leading club, as well as giving members the chance of increased prize money.

“The lottery is still administrated by the Knights and payments will be the same as always. But the members now go into the Leeds draw, which is held every weekday. There are more members, but more opportunities to win.

“It probably doubles the profits we were previously making. We were happy with it, it was going okay, but we needed to try to do better out of it, and this opportunity to join with Leeds came along. We’ve got a good deal and there are other spin-offs to it as well. Leeds benefit as well – it’s a benefit for all parties.”