Of course, lottery funding does not come from general taxation and is not parcelled out in Whitehall. The reason it has been effective in sport is that resources were marshalled accurately.
Resources were marshalled accurately because they were not parcelled out in Whitehall.
Although it is done by party aparatchiks with a history of involvement in big QUANGOs (note, in case he reads this – I like Clive Booth just not the direction of his career since being my Vice-Chancellor!)