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Which Is The Best Lottery Game To Play Uk

Everyone on the planet has fantasised about winning the lottery, and the UK has some of the best lotteries in the world. If, like 60% of UK adults you play UK lottery regularly, you only buy a ticket once in a blue moon or you prefer the pace of online bingo, it’s safe to say that the lottery gets the nation excited.

Since Pick 3 is one of the easiest lottery games to play, because of the number of selections required as well as the fact that it is played four different times daily, learning about the options available in this lotto game will help to illustrate how predicting the best lottery numbers to pick works. They include: 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. Other UK Lotto and Lottery Games. Moving away from Camelot-run lotteries and those played in foreign countries, there are a number of lotteries you can play in the UK alone that you might want to consider. The 49’s has already been mentioned and that’s run by the London-based company 49s Limited. They are also responsible for the Irish.

But, while it was once just the humble National Lottery, there are now lots of different draws to choose from and with jackpots ranging from £100,000 to over £100 million, which one do you go for?

The question 'how do I improve my chances of winning the lottery?' has been asked for decades. We’ve done the hard work for you and broken down the most popular lotteries to help you decide which one is the easiest for you to win. Spoiler alert: you might be better off playing bingo instead of the lottery.

So, what are the best UK lotto odds?

Euromillions

Which Is The Best Lottery Game To Play

When: Every Tuesday and Friday

Odds for jackpot: 1 in 139 million

Odds for any prize: 1 in 13

Ticket price: £2.50

Other chances to win: UK Millionaire Maker & European Millionaire Maker

Most people play the Euromillions because of the obscene amount of money that can be won. The top prize is capped at €190 million (£166 million) which makes it the biggest jackpot you can win in the UK.

Unfortunately, because it’s played throughout Europe, the chances of winning are pretty slim, 1 in 139,838,160 to be precise. This makes it the most difficult jackpot to win on the list, by a lot. However, all is not lost as you only need two matching numbers to win a prize, although that will only leave you an 80p profit from your £2.50 ticket.

You are also given two other chances to win some money, with the UK Millionaire Maker, which guarantees two millionaires and the European Millionaire Maker which guarantees multiple millionaires.

While this is probably the hardest lottery to win, it’s by far the biggest.

Lotto

When: Every Wednesday and Saturday

Odds for jackpot: 1 in 45 million

Odds for any prize: 1 in 54

Ticket price: £2

Other chances to win: Millionaire Raffle

With around 15 to 45 million tickets sold in each draw, Lotto is by far the most popular lottery played in the UK. You can buy lotto tickets online too, which makes entering as easy as playing at an online casino site. After its inception in November 1994, Lotto has made over 4,000 millionaires, with the largest jackpot at £50.4 million back in 2016.

But, with great popularity comes a smaller chance of winning. Even though the odds of winning are a fraction of the Euromillions, you’re still more likely to be hit by a part of a plane falling from the sky than winning the Lotto jackpot.

Game

Since increasing the numbers from 49 to 59 back in 2015, the odds of winning the jackpot increased. However, with the introduction of the Millionaire Raffle and a prize for matching two main numbers, your chance of winning something has increased.

If you want to hit the big jackpots, you’re better off going for the Lotto, but it’s also pretty unlikely you’ll win anything.

Thunderball

When: Every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday

Odds for jackpot: 1 in 8 million

Odds for any prize: 1 in 13

Ticket price: £1

Other chances to win: N/A

Many people opt to play the Thunderball because you’re more likely to win a prize than any other on this list. You only need a matching Thunderball to win and because the top prize is limited to £500,000 and it’s played four days a week, you’re less likely to be competing with everyone else in the UK.

The other good thing about playing the Thunderball is that you will never have to split the jackpot with other winners. The Thunderball is also the cheapest lottery to play with a line costing just £1.

Although you won’t be hitting the millions, you’re better off playing the Thunderball because you’re more likely to win and if you do, the money is yours to keep. If keeping your winnings is important to you, it's probably better to play at one of the many no wagering bingo sites.

The Health Lottery

When: Every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday

Odds for jackpot: 1 in 2 million

Odds for any prize: 1 in 108

Ticket price: £1

Other chances to win: Health Lottery Raffle

The Health Lottery is the only one on the list that isn’t a national lottery. It is, instead, 51 local society lotteries representing one or more local authority areas across Great Britain. The aim of this lottery is to raise money for health-related good causes across the country.

Best

Draws run five days a week and the top prize is calculated from 10% of all ticket sales up to £100,000. With a 1 in 2 million chance to win, it’s actually the best lottery to play if you want to win big. However, keep in mind that the jackpot varies and is dependant on the number of people playing that day.

You also have a chance of winning the Health Lottery Raffle and the Second Chance Draw which, if you qualify, gives you a chance to win an iPad.

People's Postcode Lottery

When: Draws every Saturday and Sunday, monthly jackpot

Odds for jackpot: Data unavailable

Odds for any prize: 1 in 160

Ticket price: £10 monthly subscription

Other chances to win: Daily prizes

Unlike the other lotteries in this list, the People's Postcode lottery doesn't generate you a random number or even let you choose your own numbers to play with. As you could probably tell from the name (or if you've seen the celebrity filled TV adverts), your postcode is instead entered into every draw.

When you register and pay your £10 monthly subscription you are entered into daily, weekly and monthly draws. Like The Health Lottery, People's Postcode Lottery supports good causes across the UK, with 32% of every ticket going to charity.

There are draws every single day ranging from £1,000 daily prizes, to £30,000 draws every Saturday and Sunday. Every ticket holder in the winning postcode wins the prize, so the number of people in your postcode playing does not make your prizes any smaller.

There's also a monthly jackpot of £3 Million that is shared between every entrant in a winning postcode area, however the maximum prize is only 10% of the monthly ticket proceeds (up to £400,000).

The results

Easiest lottery to win the jackpot: The Health Lottery (1 in 2 million)

Easiest lottery to win any prize: Euromillions & Thunderball (1 in 13)

Biggest jackpot: Euromillions (up to £100 million)

Smallest jackpot: The Health Lottery (up to £100,000)

So, now we know which National Lottery has the best odds, we also know to basically never play Lotto and reduce your expectations of winning big. Oh, and remember, the chances of winning big are still less than some of the most unlikely events ever.

Local lotteries and charity lotteries

There are lotteries in the UK that aren't entered and drawn nationally, most of these local lotteries are set up by charity organisations to raise money for local organisations/events like football clubs and youth centres, or for charities like hospices and local air ambulances.

Which Is The Best Lottery Game To Play Uk National Lottery

We have not included these charities in our study as there are just so many causes and the odds of winning are not easily available for each one. However, as these lotteries are generally only played by local people, the chances of winning are much higher than national lotteries played by millions every week. The prizes offered will also be smaller too, but knowing that you're supporting local causes is the greatest prize of all!

If you are interested in finding local lotteries that support important causes near you, you can visit Localgiving and search for your town/area.

Betting on the lottery worldwide

This article only touches on what lotteries that can be played in the UK are easiest to win, but did you know you can bet on worldwide lottery results too? By betting on world lotteries at a bookies, you can wager on the results of the Irish lotto, German lotto, Polish lotto, Spanish SuperEnalotto, or the American MegaMillions and PowerBall. You’re spoiled for choice!

Lottery betting not only gives you access to more lotteries from around the world that are normally unavailable to lottery players in the UK, but it also allows you to bet more money on less numbers, giving you the chance at higher winnings.

For example, by betting on PaddyPower that 3 numbers of your choice will be drawn in the Irish Lotto, your odds are 700/1. This means that if you bet the standard lotto price of £1.50 your 3 numbers come in, your return is £1,051.50.

Best Lottery Odds

This is bigger than the UK’s lotto £30 prize for matching 3 numbers, which in comparison is a pretty measly 20/1 return (including your stake). However, it's worth remembering that with the lottery your chance of matching 3 numbers is much higher as you choose 6 numbers to begin with.

Maybe if you’re a regular lottery player, then it might be worth seeing if it’s easy to win lotteries around the world without even taking part. We recommend Lottomart, which lets you easily bet on worldwide lotteries with a great mobile UI and bundles.

Choosing the best National Lottery game to play is not as simple as it sounds.

Because the right game for you is not necessarily the right game for someone else.

So let’s talk about odds first.

Which UK Lottery Has The Best Odds?

The UK lottery that is the easiest to win is the game that has the lowest odds.

But which odds should you be looking at?

The National Lottery publish figures for all the different prize levels. Plus a figure for winning “any prize”.

The most important figure though is the odds of winning the jackpot. Because that’s what we’re really aiming for. 🙂

Which Is The Best Lottery Game To Play Uk Lottery

It is interesting to know that the odds of winning ‘any Lotto prize’ are 1 in 9.3, but that could (and most likely is) just a £2 lucky dip. So never use the ‘any prize’ figure alone to decide which game to play.

What Are The Jackpot Odds

The National Lottery currently have 4 main games – Lotto, EuroMillions, Set For Life and Thunderball. Plus 2 Hotpicks versions – Lotto Hotpicks and EuroMillions Hotpicks.

These are the jackpot odds for the UK games according to the National Lottery:-

GameJackpot OddsTicket Price
Lotto1 in 45,057,474£2
EuroMillions1 in 139,838,160£2.5
Set For Life1 in 15,339,390£1.5
Thunderball1 in 8,060,598£1
Lotto Hotpicks – Pick 51 in 834,398£1
EuroMillions Hotpicks – Pick 51 in 2,118,760£1.50

You can see how dramatically the jackpot odds differ:-

  • EuroMillions is 3 times harder to win than Lotto.
  • And Lotto is 3 times harder to win than Set For Life.
  • And Set for Life is twice as hard to win as Thunderball.

So the main game with the best odds is Thunderball.

Why Ticket Price Is Important

You’ll also notice I’ve added the ticket price to this table too. Because that makes a huge difference to the real odds.

Lotto costs twice as much to play as Thunderball. So whilst the odds are 6 times tougher for Lotto, when you also adjust for ticket price that actually makes it about 12 times harder!

Thunderball is the cheapest main game anyway. So it still wins out when you adjust for ticket price.

Why Jackpot Size Is Important

There is however one more thing you need to consider. How big are those jackpots? Are they big enough? Or are they too big..?

How can a jackpot ever be too big? Well, if it means the game is 43 times harder to win (EuroMillions vs Thunderball) then that should matter to you.

Which Is The Best Lottery Game To Play Ukulele Chords

So before you decide which game to actually play, ask yourself how big a jackpot is truly big enough. Don’t just be blinded by insane rollovers. That’s the National Lottery marketing machine at work. 🙂

The jackpot for Thunderball is actually only £500,000. I say ‘only’, that’s a really nice prize. But it’s not big enough for everyone, so even though it’s the best UK lottery odds (of the main games) it’s not the right game for everyone.

And nobody can tell you what the right size jackpot is for you – that’s something you have to decide for yourself.

Ahh, Just One More Thing…

It would be great if there was one simple answer to this whole question.

What's The Best Lottery Game To Play Uk

But this strategic thinking is the difference between getting the best chance of winning (by applying lottery strategies that work) and just blindly buying lucky dips of whatever game looks big and shiny! 🙂

Now the UK National Lottery also provide those Hotpicks games, which run off the back of the two big main games Lotto and EuroMillions. And these allow you to choose your prize level – play Lotto Hotpicks Pick 5 and you’re only playing for a Match 5 prize. It’s a nice prize at £350,000. The odds look good at 1 in 834,398.

But remember with Hotpicks you cannot win any other prize level other than the one you choose. You play Pick 5 and only Match 4 you get nothing. That may not matter but it’s important to factor that in.

Hotpicks also allows you to go lower. You can even play Pick 1 Match 1 on Lotto Hotpicks. Which has to be the most pointless ticket it’s possible to buy on any lottery game. The odds are the best of any UK lottery game at an ‘amazing’ 1 in 10 chance of winning. But the prize is £6! That’s it. It still costs you £1 to play, but you cannot win anything else other than £6. Please don’t play this. 🙂

Which Is The Best Lottery Game To Play Uk National Lottery

Choosing The Right Game

Looking at the odds is important. But don’t just look at the odds, you need to take into account at least the ticket price and the size of the jackpot too. Yes, there are more factors to consider too, but this post is already getting long.

If you choose more carefully then you get the best odds for your budget. And that could make all the difference between just dreaming and living your dream.