Odds Of Winning The National Lottery Uk

Lotto offers players a fantastic 1 in 9.3 chance of winning any prize! The table below outlines the odds of winning each of the six available prize tiers, from Match 2 up to the jackpot: The How to Play page outlines the average prize amounts awarded in each tier. Odds of winning the National Lottery – 1 in 45,057,474 In 2019 the national lottery sold £7.2 billion worth of tickets and over £3 billion went back to players in prize funds. Ball number 40 has come up the most so plan accordingly! 55p in every pound goes to the prize fund and 24p to charitable causes.

1. Odds Of Winning The National Lottery Uk Lottery
2. What Are The Chances Of Winning The National Lottery Uk
3. Probability Of Winning The Uk National Lottery
4. Odds Of Winning The National Lottery Uk Winning

Ever wondered what the odds are of winning a prize in the UK National Lottery? Or how likely you are to win the jackpot? Well wonder no more – this article both answers these questions, and shows you how to do the calculations yourself.

Please note: This article relates to the old format of the UK National Lottery which involved picking six numbers from 1 to 49. This has since change to 1 to 59. We’ve left this here for posterity but will be writing an update version shortly.

What Are The Odds Of Winning The Jackpot?

To win the jackpot in the National Lottery (Lotto) you must match all six winning numbers to the numbers on your ticket. We can work out the chance of this happening as follows.

For the first winning number there are 49 balls that can be drawn, and each has an equal chance of being selected. On your lottery ticket you have selected 6 numbers – the first ball drawn just has to match any of your chosen numbers as the order does not matter. The chance of the first ball drawn matching any number on your ticket is therefore 49 divided by 6.

For the second winning number, there are now 48 balls to draw from and you have 5 remaining unmatched numbers on your ticket. The chance of the second ball to be drawn matching your ticket is therefore 48/5. For the third winning number you have 47 balls and 4 selections, and so on up to the sixth winning number when there are 44 remaining balls and only one unmatched spot on your ticket.

Multiplying all of these numbers together gives us:

Odds Of Winning The National Lottery Uk Lottery

49/6 x 48/5 x 47/4 x 46/3 x 45/2 x 44/1 = 13,983,816 (approximately 14 million)

So the chance of winning the UK National Lottery (Lotto) Jackpot is approximately 1 in 14 million.

What Are The Odds Of Winning A Specific Prize?

You do not have to win the jackpot to receive a prize – matching 3 numbers or more would result in a win. The following are the odds of winning a specific prize in the UK National Lottery:

Three Numbers:

This is the chance of matching exactly 3 numbers, as matching more would result in a higher prize. To calculate the odds we first work out the following:

• The chance of matching the first number drawn: 49/6 (49 possibilities, divided by 6 chances)
• The chance of matching the second number drawn: 48/5 (48 possibilities, divided by 5 chances)
• The chance of matching the third number drawn: 47/4 (47 possibilities, divided by 4 chances)
• The chance of not matching the fourth number drawn: 46/43 (46 possibilities, divided by the remaining 43 balls that do not match your selection)
• The chance of not matching the fifth number drawn: 45/42 (45 possibilities, divided by the remaining 42 balls that do not match your selection)
• The chance of not matching the sixth number drawn: 44/41 (44 possibilities, divided by the remaining 41 balls that do not match your selection)

If we multiply these together we get:

49/6 x 48/5 x 47/4 x 46/43 x 45/42 x 44/41 = 1133.119

There are actually 20 ways of matching exactly 3 balls as you could match the first second and third balls as in the example above, or you could match the fourth fifth and sixth balls, or any combination in between.

So the odds of matching exactly three numbers are:

1133.119/20 (chance of matching three balls divided by the number of possible combinations) = 56.65593

Therefore your odds of winning a prize for matching three numbers is approximately 1 in 56.7.

Four Numbers:

Calculating the odds of matching 4 numbers is similar to the way in which we calculated the odds of matching 3 numbers, except that this time we first take the odds of matching the first 4 numbers and the odds of not matching the remaining two numbers:

49/6 x 48/5 x 47/4 x 46/3 x 45/43 x 44/42 = 15,485.95

We now divide this by the number of possible combinations (15) to get:

15,485.95/15 = 1032.397

Making your odds of winning a prize for matching four numbers approximately 1 in 1032

Five Numbers:

The chances of matching exactly five numbers is slightly different, because at this point you need to take into account the bonus – if you were to match the bonus ball you would win a bigger win. To do this we simply multiply the chance of matching five numbers by the chance of not matching the final number or the bonus ball (43/42 – 43 remaining balls divided by the remaining 42 balls that do not match your selection):

49/6 x 48/5 x 47/4 x 46/3 x 45/2 x 44/43 x 43/42 = 332948

Divided by the number of possible combinations (6):

332948/6 = 55491.33

Making your odds of winning a prize for matching 5 numbers approximately 1 in 55,491.

Five Numbers + Bonus Ball:

To calculate the chance of matching five numbers plus the bonus ball, we can use the calculation for matching five numbers and change the bonus ball part. Now we are looking at the chance of matching five numbers multiplied by the chance of not matching the final number multiplied by the chance of matching the bonus ball (43/1 – 43 remaining balls and one remaining chance):

49/6 x 48/5 x 47/4 x 46/3 x 45/2 x 44/43 x 43/1 = 13,983,816

Divided by the number of possible combinations (6):

13,983,816/6 = 2,330,636

Making your odds of winning a prize for matching 5 numbers plus the bonus ball 1 in 2,330,636.

The Jackpot – 6 Numbers:

As shown above, this is 1 in 13,983,816

So What Are The Odds Of Winning Any Prize?

With these numbers we can also calculate the chances of winning any prize in the National Lottery – approximately 1 in 53.7.

You win Lotto prizes by matching your selected numbers to the winning numbers – there’s millions of pounds of prize money at stake in every draw. The odds of matching all six numbers to win the jackpot are 1 in 45,057,474, and overall the chances of winning a prize are better than 1 in 10. Find out more about the odds of winning Lotto.

Prize Categories

To win a prize, you must match at least two of the six main numbers. The prizes increase in value as you match more numbers, culminating in the ‘Match 6’ jackpot award. The following table shows all the Lotto odds, prizes and how to win.

The Lotto jackpot starts at £2 million on a Wednesday and £3.8 million on a Saturday. It is shared between all players who match six numbers in the same draw, or rolls over to the next draw if there are no winners. Take a look at the biggest Lotto winners of all time.

There are fixed prizes in all the tiers below the jackpot, ranging from a free Lucky Dip for matching two numbers to £1 million for matching five main numbers plus the Bonus Ball. The Bonus Ball is only relevant if you match five of the main balls.

The jackpot can only roll over for a maximum of five consecutive draws. A Must Be Won draw will then be held in the following draw, which guarantees that the jackpot money will be given away even if there are no Match 6 winners. If a rolldown occurs, lower prizes can be boosted significantly.

Prize Capping

If the number of jackpot winners in a certain draw means that the individual prize amounts fall below £1 million, the jackpot will be topped up so that each player receives £1 million. The amount of money that can be added to the jackpot in this way is capped at £7 million, so in very rare cases, it may be that jackpot winners receive less than £1 million each.

All other cash awards - from Match 3 to Match 5 + Bonus - can also be capped in very rare circumstances when winners cannot be paid the standard prize. The total capped prize fund equates to 35.82 percent of ticket sales, plus £35 million. If prizes do have to be capped, all winners below the jackpot will receive at least £2 or a Lucky Dip.

What Are The Chances Of Winning The National Lottery Uk

Reserve Prize Fund

Half of the money raised from ticket sales is put towards Lotto prizes. A small portion of that revenue – 8.78% - is kept in a reserve fund that can be used to bolster prize amounts when special promotions take place.

Improving Your Lotto Odds

Each line of Lotto numbers has an identical chance of winning. The only way to improve your odds is to get more entries. An affordable way to do this is to play in a syndicate so that you split the cost with others and boost your odds at the same time. Go to the Syndicates section for more information.

Probability Of Winning The Uk National Lottery

Taxes on Winnings

Odds Of Winning The National Lottery Uk Winning

UK lottery prizes are not subject to tax, but there are exceptions. The interest that accrues on a prize, for example, may have to be taxed as part of your normal income tax if it is sufficiently large. If you wish to give anyone a share of your winnings, you should also be aware that they may have to pay Inheritance Tax if you die within seven years. If you play from overseas, you may be liable for withholdings in your own country. You should check with a financial expert if you have queries about tax as it is a complex issue that does depend on individual circumstances.