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The UK National Lottery is drawn
twice per week on a Wednesday and a Saturday night - seven balls are drawn out
of a randomiser machine which contains 49 balls (numbered 1 to 49). In
order to win the UK National Lottery Jackpot, you need to match all six of the
first six balls to come out of the machine (the main balls). The seventh
ball is known as the Bonus Ball. There are smaller prizes available for
matching three or more of the main balls on their own and for matching five of
the main balls plus the Bonus Ball.
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The Jackpot - 6 Numbers (Typical prize: £2 million)
6 numbers are drawn at random from the set of integers between 1 and 49, which
means there are 49!/(6!*(49-6)!) combinations of numbers - this means that the jackpot chance is 1 in 13,983,816 or
approximately 1 in 14 million.
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5 Numbers + Bonus Number (Typical prize: £100,000)
You are still matching 6 numbers from the 1 to 49 set as above, but you can now
do it in 6 different ways (by dropping each of the main numbers in turn),
therefore the chance is 1 in 13,983,816/6, which works out as 1 in 2,330,636.
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5 Numbers (Typical prize: £1,500)
This is 42 times more likely than getting 5 numbers + the bonus number - the chance is
1 in 2,330,636/42, which evaluates to 1 in 55,491.33333.
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4 Numbers (Typical prize: £65)
Firstly, let's take the case of the first 4 of your numbers matching and the
last 2 not matching.
In this single case (where each set of chances relies on
the previous event occurring):
Chance that your 1st number matches a winning
lottery number is 1 in
49/6.
Chance that your 2nd number matches a winning lottery number is 1 in 48/5.
Chance that your 3rd number matches a winning lottery number is 1 in 47/4.
Chance that your 4th number matches a winning lottery number is 1 in 46/3.
Chance that your 5th number doesn't match a winning number is 1 in
45/(45-2) [because there are still 2 unmatched winning numbers].
Chance that your 6th number doesn't match a winning number is 1 in
44/(44-2) [yes, still 2 unmatched winning numbers].
Now you need to accumulate all those chances by multiplying them
together:
1 in (49/6)*(48/5)*(47/4)*(46/3)*(45/43)*(44/42) which is 1 in 15486.953.
Now
this is the chance for that single case occurring, but there are 15 combinations
of matching 4 from 6, so you divide the answer by 15 to get 1
in 15486.953/15 or 1 in 1032.4.
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3 Numbers (Constant prize: £10)
Follow exactly the same scheme as the 4 match above to get these figures:
1 in (49/6)*(48/5)*(47/4)*(46/43)*(45/42)*(44/41) (which is 1 in 1133.119) for a
single case.
There are 20 combinations of 3 from 6, so the
chance of a 3 match is 1 in 1133.119/20 or 1 in 56.7.
The chance of you winning any of the above prizes is
approximately 54 to 1 - it is reckoned an average of one million people per draw
will win a prize.
So how do I improve my
chances of winning?
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Because the UK national
lottery is a pure game of chance, there is only one way of increasing your
chances of winning - enter more times! However, at the cost of £1 per
ticket, you would have to look to spend £57 to have a high chance of winning
even £10 in one draw. It is for this reason that many people look to join
a syndicate at work or with their friends, so that for £1 you get several
entries into a draw and then just have to share out the winnings between
everyone (presuming you trust each other and everyone puts their money into the
syndicate each week).
However, there is another
way - joining an online lottery syndicate. We ourselves have joined Virtual World Direct, which
guarantees 44 entries into both the Wednesday and Saturday UK Lottery draws for
£5 a week (you join a syndicate of 49 other players). You can view details
of how we get on with Virtual World Direct
here. The method in which this syndicate has been set up drastically
increases your chances of winning a prize in each draw (bringing the odds of
winning any prize down to 1 in 13). Our own experiences have shown
that these odds of winning a prize are not imaginary.
The reason for these improved odds of winning the lottery is because you become
part of a syndicate which only picks 5 main numbers. The lottery system
then enters 44 lines in the lottery made up of these 5 main numbers plus 1 from
the remaining 44 numbers (so that all 49 numbers available are used by your
syndicate).
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As
a result, you are guaranteed to win 4 prizes just by matching 2 of your 5 main
numbers, as per the table below:
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Match Main Balls |
e Lottery Syndicate Prizes |
UK Lotto Prizes |
| 2 balls |
4 prizes:
4 x 3 ball wins |
No prizes |
| 3 balls |
44 prizes:
3 x 4 ball wins
41 x 3 ball wins |
1 prizes
1 x 3 ball win |
| 4 balls |
44 prizes:
2 x 5 ball wins
42 x 4 ball wins |
1 prize:
1 x 4 ball win |
| 4 balls plus bonus ball |
44 prizes:
2 x 5 + bonus ball wins
42 x 4 ball wins |
1 prize:
1 x 4 + bonus ball win |
| 5 balls |
44 prizes:
1 x 6 ball Jackpot win
1 x 5 + bonus ball win
42 x 5 ball wins |
1 prize:
1 x 5 ball win |
A
good example of the rewards available under this system was during an actual
draw, where an e-Lottery syndicate matched 4 main numbers plus the bonus ball
and won £139,340.00 (each member receiving £2,843.67).
If you were playing on your own and matched just 4 main numbers and the bonus
ball, then you would have won just £56.00. How does this work?? The
syndicate had multiple winning lines - as well as the 5 matching numbers, it was
guaranteed to have at least one more number - as a result, the syndicate
actually won two 5 ball plus bonus ball prizes (£68,494.00) plus 42 4
ball prizes of £56.00 - total £139,340.00 (44 wins in one draw)
 There is also a free chance of winning £1,000 in
each UK Lotto draw - you simply have to pick your numbers before each draw
and do not have to be a syndicate member to enter this free competition.
However, if you are a member of
Virtual World Direct
and anyone you personally introduce to the prize draw wins £1000, then you win
the same amount.
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