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.

So which gives better odds – is it the UK Lotto or EuroMillions?

The EuroMillions odds have always been worse, but that’s not the whole story. They keep changing the structure of both games, which always affects the odds.

1. A study of 300 UK Lotto draws over the last two years and three months by online lottery platform jackpot.com revealed the luckiest number. The second luckiest numbers are 14, 29 and 49,which.
2. The reduced jackpot prize has actually improved the overall odds, which make it one of the best £1 scratchcards to play. Best odds or best jackpot? You may notice that some of the best odds are with the smaller jackpot games. If you want to win big, then maybe searching by scratchcard odds is the wrong way to approach National Lottery.
3. You’re seven times more likely to win on the Health Lottery than the National Lottery. However, the prizes are also significantly smaller with winnings capped at £100,000 per draw. European lotteries. The UK lottery actually has some of the best jackpot odds in Europe but is it worth playing other European lotteries too?
4. What Is the Best Value UK Lottery & Which Have The Best Odds & Highest Jackpots? The United Kingdom has a wide number of different lotteries in operation for citizens to involve themselves in. For hundreds of years lotteries have existed within the country, with the first legislation passed in 1934, which legalised small lotteries.

So let’s find out how this stands now.

IMPORTANT: Ticket Price Matters

Ticket price is always forgotten when people are working out game odds. But that’s wrong, because it’s CRITICAL to factor this in to know which is easier to win.

Back when the Lotto was still only £1 per line to play, it cost £2 to play EuroMillions (in the UK). That meant you could cover twice as many UK Lotto combinations for exactly the same money.

This makes a huge difference to your real chances of winning.

What Are The Odds Now?

Back in 2016 EuroMillions added an extra Lucky Star ball (going from 11 to 12 – read more in changes to EuroMillions). This made it harder to win.

The year before there were big changes to the UK Lotto, which increased the main balls from 49 up to 59. That dramatically affected the odds for all prizes.

But that’s not all. The UK Lotto used to be £1 per play, now it’s £2 (since 2013). The EuroMillions ticket price has also now increased, from £2 to £2.50 (since 2016). This changes the answer too.

So these are the current odds of winning the jackpot for both games:-

So Which Is Now Better?

If we just look at the odds alone, the EuroMillions odds make it 3.1 times harder to win.

But if we take into account that extra 50p per ticket, it means that the odds of winning EuroMillions vs National Lottery are now 3.8 times worse.

Or in other words, comparing Lotto vs EuroMillions it’s now 3.8 times easier to win the National Lottery (i.e. Lotto).

It used to be 8.3 times easier. So whilst things have shifted strongly towards EuroMillions again, Lotto is still easier to win.

Of course EuroMillions has always had a much larger jackpot, particularly with rollovers. This gap has also narrowed too. Because the jackpot odds are tougher there are more rollover draws for UK Lotto, resulting in bigger rollover jackpots.

The two games have become a lot more like each other. But those tougher odds for the big Euro game have long been the reason why a lot of people play in a EuroMillions syndicate of course. With enough people it more than makes up the difference.

Not The End Of Story

But that’s not quite the end of the story. Because there is also the UK Millionaire Maker (previously called the Millionaire Raffle), which is included in your EuroMillions ticket price.

We’re all about the big prizes, so we don’t greatly care that you can win £2.70 for matching 2 balls!

But we do care that you have an extra chance to win £1 Million every draw with Millionaire Maker. So EuroMillions scores a bonus point on this one.

So Which Game Should I Play Now?

I know a lot of people are disappointed that the UK Lotto is now harder to win. But the increase in the Match 5 + Bonus prize to £1 Million does take some of the sting away.

If you want a game with a better chance of winning the jackpot, the UK Lotto is still the better game. If you want bigger jackpots then EuroMillions still wins out – although the gap is now smaller.

Both games however are also good games to play in a syndicate (for a much better chance of winning), as the jackpot prizes are big enough to share between a decent sized group. So there’s never been a better time to start one yourself, or check out our reviews of online syndicates here.

These changes have made UK Lotto a lot more like EuroMillions, but both games are still a lot of fun to play. So don’t let our ‘negativity driven’ UK media spoil that fun by stopping you from playing!

Keep dreaming big.

Got more questions? Check out our EuroMillions Questions & Answers.

Which National Lottery Has The Best Odds Uk Election

When you’re entering the lottery, the end goal is always to win the jackpot. So you might find yourself wondering – which lottery has the best odds?

Thunderball

Any prize: 1 in 13

Jackpot odds: 1 in 8,060,598

Thunderball involves picking five main numbers from 1 to 39. You also need to pick one Thunderball from 1 to 14. You can choose your own numbers, or select a Lucky Dip for randomly selected numbers.

Matching the Thunderball means you win £3 while matching five main numbers and the Thunderball gives you the chance to win up to £500,000.

Thunderball is drawn four days a week, on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at approximately 8:15 pm. Tickets cost £1, and ticket sales close at 7:30 pm on the days of the draw.

Lotto

Any prize: 1 in 9.3

Jackpot odds: 1 in 45,057,474

Lotto involves choosing six numbers between 1 and 59. If you match two numbers, you will win a free Lotto Lucky Dip. You need to match five numbers and the Bonus ball to win the jackpot.

Lotto is drawn at approximately 8:30 pm on Wednesday and Saturday. Ticket sales close at 7:30 pm on the day of the draw. Lotto tickets cost £2.

Lotto HotPicks

Pick 5 Match 5 numbers: 1 in 843,398

Lotto HotPicks involves picking between 1 to 5 Hotpicks numbers. Picking and matching one number has better odds – 1 in 10 – however, the prize is much smaller. If you pick and match five numbers, you may win up to £350,000.

Lotto HotPicks draws take place with Lotto, every Wednesday and Saturday at 9 pm GMT. Sales close 90 minutes before the draw. Tickets cost £1, no matter how many numbers you choose.

EuroMillions

Any prize: 1 in 13

Jackpot odds: 1 in 139,838,160

EuroMillions involves picking five numbers between 1 and 50, as well as two Lucky Stars from 1 to 12. You can choose your own numbers, or choose a Lucky Dip for randomly selected numbers. Match all five numbers and the two Lucky Stars to win the jackpot; if you match two numbers you will win £2.70.

EuroMillions is drawn around 8 pm on Tuesday and Friday, with ticket sales closing at 7:30 pm.

Which National Lottery Has The Best Odds Uku

You can enter EuroMillions if you are from Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland or the UK. As a result of the number of countries which can enter, EuroMillions has a much higher odds.

EuroMillions HotPicks

Pick 5 Match 5 numbers: 1 in 2,118,760

EuroMillions HotPicks is a game based on the EuroMillions numbers. You can choose to match between one or five numbers – matching one number has 1 in 10 odds, but you will only win £10. If you match five numbers you will win up to £1,000,000. The Lucky Star numbers do not count, instead, the draw uses the five main EuroMillions numbers.

The Health Lottery

Any prize: 1 in 108

Jackpot odds: 1 in 2,000,000

Unlike the others, the Health Lottery is not a national lottery. Instead, it is 51 local society lotteries which represent one or more areas across Great Britain. This lottery raises money for health-related causes.

You have to choose five numbers between 1 and 50, which can be your own numbers or a Quick Pick. Each line played also enters you into the Mega Raffle for the next month. Matching one ball and the bonus ball will win you a free ticket into the next Mega Raffle. Matching five numbers will win either a minimum £25,000 or 10% of dales for that draw, whichever figure is greater.

Tickets cost £1. Draws occur five times a week – Tuesday through to Saturday. The Health Lottery is drawn around 9:55 pm. The Mega Raffle occurs on the 1st of every month.

People’s Postcode Lottery

Any prize: 1 in 160

Jackpot odds: unavailable

People’s Postcode Lottery is a subscription-based lottery. Rather than selecting lottery numbers, tickets are based on your postcode.

To play, you pay £10 per month and select the postcode you wish to play. You don’t need to choose the postcode where you live – you can play with any. The winners will be everyone with the postcode which is selected.

You have a chance to win prizes every day. There are three different prize tiers:

• £1,000 Daily Prize, awarded from Monday to Sunday
• £30,000 Street Prize, awarded on Saturday and Sunday
• £3,000,000 Postcode Millions Prize, awarded once per month

Odds are not announced for People’s Postcode Lottery, as it depends on how many people have entered, and organisers have declared the odds as sensitive information.

Which lottery has the best odds?

So if you’re only going to enter one lottery, which one has the best odds?

The Lotto HotPicks has the best odds at 1 in 834,398. If you don’t want to play a HotPicks game, Health Lottery is the next best, at 1 in 2,000,000.