Uk National Lottery Chances Of Winning



Winning

Lottery

National Lottery Projects Since The National Lottery began in 1994 over 625,000 good causes have been supported with over £42 billion raised by players of The National Lottery (figures sourced from the Department for Culture, Media & Sport. – November 2020). Around £30 million raised weekly is an average based on April 2019 – March 2020. For example, the odds of winning the UK National Lottery’s signature Lotto jackpot are 1 in 45,057,474, but there’s a 1 in 10 chance that you will win one of the smaller prizes. You have a 1 in 2,118,760 of winning the Health Lottery jackpot, a 1 in 139,838,160 chance of winning the EuroMillions Jackpot, a 1 in 834,398 chance of winning.

Lotto HotPicks prizes range from £6 to the jackpot of £350,000. You get to decide which prize you want to go for when you purchase your entry, whether you want to play for the big money or capitalise on the lower odds offered by some of the other prize tiers. You can even win something for matching just one number.

You have to match all the numbers you pick to win the prizes stated. If you play a Pick 5 game, for example, you must match all five numbers to win the top prize – there are no other prizes for matching four or fewer numbers.

£2 Million

Pick 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 Odds

Lotto HotPicks prizes are the same in every draw. That means if you play a Pick 5 game and match all five numbers, you’re guaranteed to win £350,000 unless prize capping comes into play (see below for more details). The table below shows the Lotto HotPicks odds and prizes that are available for each game type:

Uk national lottery chances of winning powerball
GameHow to WinPrizeOdds of Winning
Pick 5Match 5 out of 5£350,0001 in 834,398
Pick 4Match 4 out of 4£13,0001 in 30,342
Pick 3Match 3 out of 3£8001 in 1,626
Pick 2Match 2 out of 2£601 in 115
Pick 1Match 1£61 in 10

Lottery Results Uk

In other lotteries you get overall odds of winning a prize because you could win one of several different prizes with every entry. This doesn't apply to Lotto HotPicks, however, because you only ever play for one prize at a time.

Prize Capping in Lotto HotPicks

Lotto HotPicks prizes are capped if the total payouts for a particular game - for example, Pick 5 - are worth more than the prize fund for that game.

Each game has a prize cap multiplier and to determine the maximum that is available to pay out in prize money, the National Lottery multiplies the total value of all the entries for a particular game by the prize cap multiplier. The table below shows each prize cap multiplier and the average percentage of revenue from ticket sales that is paid out as prize money in each game:

GameAverage % of sales paid out in prizesPrize cap multiplier
Pick 541.95%28.0
Pick 442.85%9.0
Pick 349.22%2.8
Pick 252.6%1.3
Pick 161.02%1.2

Why are Lotto and Lotto HotPicks odds different?

The odds of winning a HotPicks prize are longer, meaning it’s harder to win, because you don’t pick as many numbers.

Take the Match 3 prize, for example. In Lotto HotPicks you choose three numbers and those exact three numbers must appear in the winning line for you to win – the odds of that happening are 1 in 1,626. In Lotto, however, you choose six numbers and you can match any three of those to win the Match 3 prize – those odds are 1 in 97, meaning it’s significantly easier to win.

Uk National Lottery Chances Of Winning

The Uk National Lottery Results

Lottery

How To Win National Lottery Uk

It may be harder to win when you play HotPicks but you are equally rewarded, as the prizes are much higher than those in Lotto. To continue the example above, the Match 3 prize in Lotto HotPicks is £800, while the equivalent prize in Lotto is £30.

Uk National Lottery Chances Of Winning Lottery Results

If the value of a particular game’s payouts exceeds the prize cap, the capped amount will instead be shared equally between the winners. For example, if the prize fund for the Pick 5 game is capped at £1.2 million and there are four winners, each winner will receive £300,000 instead of the usual £350,000 prize.