Euro Lottery
The Euro Lottery is one of the most popular lotto games in the world. Some of the biggest lottery jackpots in the world have been awarded to lucky Euro Lottery ticket holders. The prizes awarded in this lottery are so huge because of the large number of participating nations. The prize funds also grow every week as thousands of people from all over the world purchase their tickets online. The popularity of the Eurolottery has grown with the enormous rollover jackpots, which can offer prizes as high as €190,000,000!
A total of 9 European Nations sell Euro lottery tickets in retailers throughout their nation. These organisations are responsible for administering prizes and promoting the Euro Lotto game. A list of the nations follow, with links to the official website of the company organising the game there.
History
The Eurolottery began as an idea conceived by the FDJ (La Francaise De Jeux) of France who decided to create a lotto game involving multiple European nations. This game would boast higher prizes because it would be available to far more people, and thus take more money in ticket sales. The FDJ hoped to launch this Euro Lotto in 1994 to coincide with the launch of the pan-European currency the Euro. However due to organisational reasons the company took a further ten years to hold it’s first draw.
On Friday the 13th of February 2004, the Euro Lottery would hold it’s first draw live in Paris with a huge €15,000,000 Euro jackpot prize. Tickets were sold for this first draw by only the FDJ in France, Camelot in the UK and Loteria Y Apuestas Del Estado in Spain. These three nations continued to offer a jackpot of at least €15,000,000 each and every Friday until the games popularity grew. In October 2004 the rapid growth in EuroLotto popularity saw another six European nations join the game: Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Ireland and Portugal.
The game system has remained almost identical since the beginning, except that a second draw was added with the new nations on a Tuesday. Prize funds for the EuroLottery have only grown in size as more and more people play from all over the world online.
How To Play
The Euro Lottery game system is remarkably easy to get to grips with. It is designed to create multiple prize winning opportunities with varying odds depending on how high the Eurolottery prize is. Tickets can be purchased both in retailers within the Euro Lotto host nations as well as online from anywhere in the world. Below is an easy breakdown of how the Euro Lottery works.
- Players must be 18 years or older (16 in the UK)
- Players must select 5 main numbers from 1-50 and 2 Lucky Stars from 1-11
- Draws are held every Tuesday and Friday at 20:30 GMT
- Find the latest winning numbers on our EuroLottery results page within minutes of the draw, including a full prize breakdown of winners.
- Match as many numbers as you can to win different EuroLottery prizes
- Receive an email from your online ticket agent to alert you of a prize win,
- Jackpots start at €15,000,000 minimum
- Maximum rollover jackpot is €195,000,000
- Purchase the ticket from the comfort of your own home or office, just click and play!
- Purchase tickets from almost any country in the world outside of the Euro Lotto host nations
- Purchase tickets in advance for draws in the future, or arrange an automatic purchase of your tickets
- Easily play the same numbers again and again with one click!
- Gain access to even higher prize funds created by extra ticket sales online
Euro Lottery Rollover System
When the jackpot goes any draw without a winner it “rollsover” to the next draw. This rollover creates a bigger prize pool for the next draw. This means that there will be a much higher jackpot as well as higher prizes in every other category. When the Eurolotto rollover gets over €100,000,000 the ticket sales begin to sky rocket. This often creates queues at local retailers which can be avoided by playing the Euro Lottery online.
Prize Fund
The Euro Lotto prizes as parimutuel. This means that the amount of cash you win for matching numbers varies depending on how the prize fund is. The Eurolottery prize fund is created from money taken from ticket sales. This means that the more people buy tickets then the higher the prize fund. The higher the prize fund then the higher the cash prizes distributed to winners. Below is a breakdown of what number combinations can win Eurolotto prizes, as well as what percentage of the prize fund that ticket is entitled to.
| Main Numbers | Lucky Stars | Percentage Of Prize Fund |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 2 | 32% (minimum €15,000,000) |
| 5 | 1 | 4.8% |
| 5 | 0 | 1.6% |
| 4 | 2 | 0.8% |
| 4 | 1 | 0.7% |
| 4 | 0 | 0.7% |
| 3 | 2 | 0.5% |
| 2 | 2 | 2.3% |
| 3 | 1 | 2.2% |
| 3 | 0 | 3.7% |
| 1 | 2 | 6.5% |
| 2 | 1 | 17.6% |
| 2 | 0 | 18.0% |
Wondering why the share of the prize fund for matching two numbers is much bigger than the share for matching 6? This is because that percentage represents the amount of the prize fund that is assigned to all winning tickets in that category. This means that your percentage of the prize fund is shared amongst all winners in your category. Often times over 1.5 million people will hold a winning ticket that has only 2 numbers, meaning that the final prize they receive will be nowhere near the prize won by the few ticket holders who match 6 numbers.
For more information on approximate cash prizes check out our Euro Lottery prizes page.
The sharp eyed amongst you will have also noticed that the total percentages only add up to 91.4%. So what about the other 8.6%? The remaining percentage of the prize fund is added to the Euro Lotto booster fund. This booster fund exists to guarantee that there is always a minimum €15,000,000 jackpot every Tuesday and Friday.
Odds of winning
Naturally with many different prizes to win in the EuroLotto there are of course varying odds to win. Odds can only be calculated approximately but the odds of claiming a jackpot are approximately 1 in 117 million. These prizes however can be as high as €195,000,000. As stated earlier though the Eurolottery is designed to fairly allow players to win back some of the cash they spend on tickets. In fact the odds of winning at least double what you paid for your ticket are approximately 1 in 23. These cash prize winning odds are highly favourable.
Euro Lottery Online
As you know by now, Eurolottery tickets can be purchased online from almost any country in the world. This is done by using an online lottery ticket agent. This service works by letting somebody from a Euro Lottery host nation purchase your ticket on your behalf. This ticket is purchased with an extra fee at point of sale which covers the costs of the purchase and safe storage of your ticket.
Online tickets may be purchased using a variety of methods. However the most common is to create an account with the online ticket agent website and deposit money to it which is used to pay for tickets. Deposits and payments can be made using most credit/debit cards, online transaction companies such as Skrill/Moneybookers, and some companies even allow payment by direct bank transfer.
For every draw these online ticket agents purchase thousands of tickets for players all over the world, then when the results are live every ticket is checked. Winners are notified by email if their ticket has won a prize. Prizes can then be received
When you win a Eurolotto prize the cash is usually immediately sent to your account with the site on values under €1000. These prizes can be withdrawn from their directly to your bank account. With prizes over €1000 agent will contact you to arrange a direct transfer of the prize to your bank account. In the event of a jackpot win an online ticket agent may want to ensure you collect the prize winnings yourself by meeting you in person to hand over the jackpot winning ticket.
There are many benefits to playing the Euro Lottery online such as.
