Everyone wants to win the lottery – and a lot of people do! Millions of pounds are won every year, but which UK lottery has the best odds of winning? Wondering what are the odds of winning the lottery? Here you’ll find a list of the lottery odds of all of your favourite lotteries.
More than a third of Americans believe winning the lottery is the only way they will ever retire comfortably. But the odds of winning either the Powerball or Mega Millions are roughly 1 in 292.2 million and 1 in 302.5 million, respectively.
What are the odds of winning EuroMillions?
EuroMillions is one of the UK’s favourite lotteries, but what are the actual odds of winning the jackpot? To win the Jackpot, EuroMillions requires you select five numbers from 1-50 and two Lucky Star numbers from 1-12. Because of this, the chances of a single ticket winning the jackpot in a EuroMillions draw is 1 in 139,838,160.
Luckily, EuroMillions gives you 12 additional opportunities to win prizes from matching the five main numbers and one Star Number (1 in 6,991,908 chance of winning) to only matching two numbers (1 in 22 chance of winning).
What are the odds of winning EuroMillions HotPicks?
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EuroMillions HotPicks is a relatively new lottery that launched in January 2018. Most people still don’t know how it’s different to regular EuroMillions when in reality, it couldn’t be simpler! When buying a EuroMillions HotPicks ticket, you choose how many numbers you would like to match (as few as one or as many as 5). Then you pick your numbers from 1-50 just like regular EuroMillions. When a EuroMillions draw takes place, the five main numbers draw are also used as the numbers for EuroMillions HotPicks.
Unlike normal EuroMillions, with EuroMillions HotPicks, you must match all the numbers you have chosen (if you opted for a pick 1 you only have to match 1, a pick 2 requires you to match 2 etc.). This means that you have quite good odds of winning a prize if you have opted for a Pick 1 (1 in 10) which will result in a £10 prize and a pick 5 gives you a 1 in 2,118,760 chance at the £1,000,000 prize!
What are the odds of winning Lotto?
In addition to EuroMillions, the other major lottery we get asked about a lot is Lotto. Drawn every Saturday and Wednesday the UK Lotto requires you to successfully pick six numbers from a pool of fifty-nine. You must match a minimum of two to win a prize and match all six (the five main numbers and the bonus ball) to win the major jackpot.
The odds of picking all six numbers correctly in a National Lottery draw are 1 in 45,057,474. These are better odds than the EuroMillions jackpot, but not as good as the EuroMillions HotPicks main prize. The odds of winning the most basic prize (matching two numbers which gets you a free Lotto Lucky Dip) are 1 in 10.3. When compared to the 1 in 22 chance of winning the bottom prize in EuroMillions, the odds seem quite strong!
What are the odds of winning Lotto HotPicks?
Similar to EuroMillions HotPicks, Lotto HotPicks is an extension of the regular National Lottery/UK Lotto game. Just like EuroMillions HotPicks, you first determine how many numbers you would like to pick (between pick 1 and pick 5), then choose your numbers.
To win, all of the numbers you have chosen must be drawn (1 if you chose a Pick 1 ticket, two if you chose a Pick 2 etc.). Because of this, the odds of winning are quite good, with a 1 in 10 chance of winning on a Pick 1 ticket (a £6 prize) and a 1 in 834,398 chance of winning on a Pick 5 ticket (a £350,000 prize).
What are the odds of winning Thunderball?
Thunderball is an increasingly popular lottery with people in the UK. It is similar to the US Powerball; you must match five main numbers plus the Thunderball to win the main prize. Unlike many of the other lotteries on this list, Thunderball does not jackpot. Instead, there is a guaranteed £500,000 prize for people who match all five numbers plus the Thunderball. Drawn five times per week, players must pick five numbers between 1-39 and one Thunderball between 1-14.
Due to the relatively low number of numbers to choose from the odds of winning Thunderball are better than many of the other lotteries. The minimum you must match to win a prize is just the Thunderball with a 1 in 13 chance of that happening. However, the main £500,000 prize has the surprisingly good odds of winning at 1 in 8,060,598.
As is the case with most UK lotteries, as the odds of winning improve, the value of the prize goes down. If you’re chasing record-breaking jackpots, or just want to retire comfortably and treat the family, it can help to know which UK lotteries have the best odds of winning.
So what’s your strategy? Will you go for the big prize in EuroMillions or play it safe with a pick 1 Lotto HotPick? Or maybe somewhere in between?
You might think the lottery with the best odds is the one to play.
It’s not.
Or you might think that the game with the best jackpot odds is the once to choose.
That’s wrong too.
So let’s dig in to why most advice on this is wrong. And how you can choose a better game, with the best chance of winning for you.
Which Lottery Has The Best Chance Of Winning?
The lottery with the best chance of winning is the game with the best overall odds.
But who cares how amazing the odds are if all you win is $1?
What Are The ‘Odds Of Winning Any Prize’?
The odds of winning any prize is your overall chances of a single entry winning something. But that something can be anything from the lowest tier prize (a free ticket or $1) right up to the jackpot.
Which is why these figures tend to range from 1-in-5 up to 1-in-100. Because lottery games have lots of lower tier prizes.
It’s a figure that has some use. But it’s a terrible way to choose which game to play. It doesn’t tell you anything about the size of the prize, or the chances of winning a decent sized prize.
Which Lottery Is The Easiest To Win?
The lottery that is easiest to win is the one with the fewest balls drawn. So a Pick 3 game is of course easier to win than a Pick 4 or Pick 5 game.
But of course the Pick 3 prizes are much smaller.
And this is the hidden half of this question.
Because, yes you really want the game with the best odds. But you also want the jackpot to be big enough to get you excited.
Nobody makes an income playing Pick 3, so it’s rarely ever the right game to choose.
Which Lottery Has The Best Jackpot Odds?
The lottery with the best jackpot odds is the one with the lowest odds of the Tier 1 prize. Obviously.
This is now getting us much closer to choosing the right game to play. 🙂
But look at the jackpot amounts very closely. Otherwise the answer comes back to those poor game choices of Pick 3 and 4 again. Yes, they do have better jackpot odds, but the ‘jackpots’ are tiny. You’d have to keep winning pick 3 regularly to build up a decent prize, and the chances of that happening are going to be worse than winning the jackpot of a better game just once!
Choosing The Right Lottery Games For You
So ‘which lottery is the best?’ – I get asked this question a lot.
Best Lottery Odds Illinois
And my tongue in cheek answer is… ‘the lottery that just paid you the jackpot.’ 🙂
But it is a serious question, because the odds of the game are the number one factor that determine if you win or lose.
Yes you really want the game with the best odds. But you also want the jackpot to be big enough to get you excited. And the key is how you balance the two.
Best Lottery Odds Texas
Sure, it’s nice to win the pick 3 jackpot – but if winning that money won’t change your life at all, then you’re not playing the right game.
What most people really want is ‘life changing’ big. To some people that may be as little as a few thousand pounds/dollars/Euros. To others it may be a lot more.
But you need to know this otherwise you can’t make the best decision as to what game to play!
Compare Lottery Games
To compare lottery games well you need to know the odds, and have an idea of ‘how big’ a win would need to be, to change your life.
Once you know ‘how much’ will do it for you, then for every lottery game available to you find a) the typical jackpot amount, and b) the odds of winning it (check your lottery companies official website for these details). Or to make this super easy, try my tool to help you compare lottery odds.
Now you can wisely pick the game that gives you the best chance of winning the life changing sum of money you’re aiming for.
Why play a game with jackpot odds of 1-in-292 million (the US Powerball!) if there is a game with odds of 1-in-5 million that would change your life if you actually did win it? That alone would increase your chances of winning the jackpot by an incredible 58 times (or 5,800% if you prefer percentages)! 😯
Picking the lottery game with the best odds for you is not the same thing as simply ‘which has best odds’. Just looking for the best odds misses the point completely, and leaves you playing the wrong games.
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