Finsbury Park’s Free Postcode Lottery this morning announced its new name – Pick My Postcode – after its hand was forced by the threat of legal action from People’s Postcode Lottery.

Run by Chris Holbrook in Morris Place, Free Postcode Lottery was the world’s first free-to-enter lottery company. It now has 1.8million subscribers.

But bigger rival People’s Postcode Lottery said it would sue for trademark infringement.

Of new name Pick My Postcode, Chris said in a drily-worded post: “If you’ve been following you’ll know that this may not be enough for People’s Postcode Lottery to call off the legal action.

“We believe their action against us is already unreasonable. Attacking us for calling ourselves Pick My Postcode would be ludicrous, although our lawyers are on standby.

“It’s been horrible, but we all love the new name and branding and hope that you do too.”