The Health Lottery – the new national lottery owned by Express proprietor Richard Desmond – will go head-to-head with the National Lottery in a draw to be held on ITV1 close to the prime X Factor slot, The Grocer can reveal.

Tickets will cost £1 and the draw will be screened on Saturday night on ITV1 and Channel 5.

Players will pick five balls from 50 and can win £50 for matching three balls, £500 for four, with a guaranteed top prize of £100,000 for five.

THL plans a publicity blitz in the next few weeks involving ads in every redtop newspaper and on terrestrial TV stations, as well as an “unprecedented” outdoor campaign. Desmond’s company Northern & Shell will spend more £20m on advertising and marketing the launch.

CEO Martin Hall projected £250m in ticket sales in the first year growing to £1bn brand within five years. Tickets can be sold by any retailer with a payment terminal such as PayPoint or Payzone, with mults also rolling it out.

THL reps will make 125,000 visits to retailers ­before the launch to demonstrate the draw and ­distribute PoS material.

“Retailers are saying ‘why wouldn’t we give this a go?’” said sales director Tony Holmes. “It requires no investment in stock and takes up no till space.”

Most of the £250m projected first-year sales would come from incremental category growth, with just 11% of players switching from Camelot’s National Lottery, Hall claimed.

Twenty pence from each ticket will go to 51 regional community interest companies, which in turn will commission charity People’s Health Trust to provide health services.

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