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Lotto News 19 July 2021
Which Lotteries Give You The Best Chance Of Winning?
Learn Which Game Gives You The Best Lotto Odds
Table of Contents:
- WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF WINNING THE LOTTERY?
- WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF WINNING ANY LOTTERY PRIZE
- WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF BECOMING A MILLIONAIRE ON THE LOTTERY?
- WHICH LOTTERY HAS THE BEST JACKPOT ODDS
- THE BIGGEST LOTTERY JACKPOTS
- WHICH LOTTERY HAS THE WORST ODDS
- HOW TO CALCULATE LOTTERY ODDS
- CHOOSING A LOTTERY FOR YOU
- IRISH LOTTO ODDS
What are the odds of winning the lottery?
- The lottery with the best odds of winning a jackpot worth over €1 million is the Spanish Christmas Lottery El Gordo with odds of 1 in 100,000
- The lottery with the best odds of winning a jackpot worth over €10 million is the Swedish Lottery with odds of 1 in 6,724,520
- The Irish Lotto jackpot odds are 1 in 45,057,474
- The lottery with the best chance of winning a jackpot worth over €100 million is EuroMillions with odds of 1 in 139,838,160 (not available at Lottoland)
- The lottery with the best odds of winning a prize is the French Lotto with odds of 1 in 5.99
- The lottery with the worst odds of winning the jackpot is SuperEnaLotto with odds of 1 in 622,614,630
- The lottery with the worst odds of winning any prize is Brazilian Mega Sena with odds of 1 in 2,298
What are the odds of winning any lottery prize?
Although it's the huge jackpots that tend to make the headlines, it's worth remembering that there are some fantastic lower-tier prizes of considerable value to be won and the probability of winning one of these prizes is not as remote as you may think. Some of these lower-tier prizes can still be substantial amounts of money and don't take as much luck to win as the jackpots. Even if you only win your money back, at least it's better than nothing!
As shown in the table below, the chances of winning any prize on many international lotteries are relatively good. Some of the most popular lotteries in Europe offer very favourable odds such as the French Lotto at 1 in 5.99, the Spanish Lotto (La Primitiva - used for comparison purposes only) at 1 in 6.16 and the Spanish Christmas Gordo (El Gordo de Navidad) at 1 in 10. Whilst most people would not consider winning one of these smaller prizes "winning the lottery" as such, it can still be a nice little surprise.
| Odds of Winning Any Prize | |
|---|---|
| Lottery | Odds |
| French Lotto | 1 : 5.99 |
| Spanish Lotto | 1 : 6.16 |
| Christmas El Gordo | 1 : 10* |
| Austrian Lotto | 1 : 12 |
| EuroMillions | 1 : 13 |
| Mega Millions | 1 : 13 |
| SuperEnalotto (Italy) | 1 : 20** |
| Powerball (US) | 1 : 24.9 |
| EuroJackpot | 1 : 26 |
| Irish Lotto | 1 : 29 |
| South African Lotto | 1 : 36 |
| Quina (Brazil) | 1 : 36 |
| Swedish Lotto | 1 : 55 |
| Polish Lotto | 1 : 57 |
| German Lotto | 1 : 63 |
| MINI Lotto (Poland) | 1 : 124 |
| Mega-Sena (Brazil) | 1 : 2,298 |
*The Christmas El Gordo jackpot is split up into ten shares (décimos), each share is worth €400,000 which is then subject to 20% tax, therefore the first prize would be €360,000.
**When playing with the SuperStar option.
What are the odds of becoming a millionaire on the lottery?
What are the odds of winning a more significant prize on some of the other higher tiers? As can be seen in the table below the odds of winning these bigger prize tiers varies significantly between lotteries and can often provide a substantial payout without having to match all of the winning numbers.
For example, the odds of becoming a millionaire on Powerball are much better than on Mega Millions. Eurojackpot in general has better mid-sized odds than EuroMillions which has a larger maximum jackpot. And the Irish Lottery has better odds of winning than the UK National Lotto, often with comparable payouts.
| Odds of winning other prizes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Lottery | Prize | Odds | Match |
| Powerball (US) | $1 million | 1 : 11,688,053.52 | 5 |
| $50,000 | 1 : 913,129 | 4 + Powerball | |
| Mega Millions (US) | $ 1 million | 1 : 12,607,306 | 5 |
| $10,000 | 1 : 931,001 | 4 + Mega Ball | |
| $500 | 1 : 38,792 | 4 | |
| EuroMillions | €448,745.84 | 1 : 6,991,908 | 5 + 1 Lucky Star |
| €69,884.71 | 1 : 3,107,515 | 5 | |
| €3,895.05 | 1 : 621,503 | 4 + 2 | |
| EuroJackpot | €561,620 | 1 : 5,959,013 | 5 + 1 |
| €100,612 | 1 : 3,405,150 | 5 | |
| SuperEnalotto (Italy) | €599,163.79 | 1 : 103,769,103 | 5 +Jolly |
| €50,626.19 | 1 : 1,250,230 | 5 | |
Which Lottery Has the Best Jackpot Odds?
Everyone wants to hit the jackpot and win the big prize. However, jackpot sizes and the odds of winning vary widely and unsurprisingly, generally the bigger the top prize is the harder it is to win.
The lottery jackpot with the best odds is the Spanish Christmas Lottery (Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad) which is more of a giant national raffle than a lottery, with the top prize known as "El Gordo" or "the Fat One" set at €4 million. However, bets on this annual lottery are split up and sold in shares of ten known as décimos and one would need to purchase 10 shares of the same number to win the full jackpot, making it significantly more expensive than other entries on the list. The chances of winning the jackpot are unrivalled though at 1 in 100,00.
Of all the lotteries with draws on a weekly basis the Polish Mini Lotto has the best odds but with relatively small, fixed jackpots. The Austrian, Polish and Irish Lottos are all good options that balance price, jackpot size and chances of winning.
For bigger jackpots close to €100,000,000 or more, EuroJackpot has better odds but slightly smaller maximum prizes than EuroMillions. And for jackpots that have gone beyond the incredible sum of €1 billion the US Powerball lottery has slightly better odds of winning than Mega Millions.
| Probability of winning the lottery | |
|---|---|
| Lottery | Jackpot Odds |
| Christmas El Gordo | 1 : 100,000 |
| Mini Lotto (Poland) | 1 : 850,668 |
| Austrian Lotto | 1 : 8,145,060 |
| Irish Lotto | 1 : 10,737,573 |
| Polish Lotto | 1 : 13,983,816 |
| French Lotto | 1 : 19,068,840 |
| Quina (Brazil) | 1 : 24,040,016 |
| South African Lotto | 1 : 31,625,100 |
| MegaSena (Brazil) | 1 : 50,063,860 |
| EuroJackpot | 1 : 95,344,200 |
| EuroMillions | 1 : 139,838,160 |
| Spanish Lotto | 1 : 139,838,160 |
| Swedish Lotto | 1 : 139,838,160 |
| German Lotto | 1 : 139,838,160 |
| Powerball (US) | 1 : 292,201,338 |
| Mega Millions (US) | 1 : 302,573,350 |
| SuperEnalotto (Italy) | 1 : 622,614,630 |
The biggest lottery jackpots
It's the very first thing any lottery fan wants to know – how big is the jackpot?
Well, wonder no more. In the table below you'll find a full list of all available lotteries to bet on at Lottoland (excluding EuroMillions and the Spanish Lotto, which are used for comparison purposes only) with all their record jackpots.
| The Biggest Lottery Jackpots | |
|---|---|
| Lottery | Jackpots |
| Powerball (US) | $1.586 billion |
| Mega Millions (US) | $1.5377 billion |
| EuroMillions | €210 million |
| SuperEnalotto (Italy) | €209.1 million |
| EuroJackpot | €90 million |
| Mega-Sena (Brazil) | R$289 million |
| Quina (Brazil) | R$20 million |
| Spanish Lotto | €26.2 million |
| Swedish Lotto | kr237 million |
| Irish Lotto | €18.9 million |
| Austrian Lotto | €14.9 million |
| South African Lotto | R232 million |
| Polish Lotto | zł57.8 million |
| Christmas El Gordo | €4 million |
| MINI Lotto (Poland) | zł366,518 |
| French Lotto | €24 million |
Which Lottery Has the Worst Odds?
When it comes to winning any prize, the Brazilian Mega-Sena offers the worst odds of any major lottery at 1 in 2,298 as there are only three main prize tiers, although the odds of winning the jackpot are better than EuroMillions, PowerBall and MegaMillions.
With regards to winning a major jackpot, the SuperEnalotto of Italy ranks lowest amongst the world’s biggest lotteries with odds of 1 in 622,614,630. It must be said though, that this is a hugely popular lottery and there are great odds of winning any prize, as low as 1 in 16 if using the Super Star Option. The biggest SuperEnalotto record jackpot currently stands at €209.1 Million, just €900,000 shy of the EuroMillions record of €210 million.
How To Calculate Lottery Odds?
In order to calculate lottery odds, this formula can be used.
n = Total possible numbers in the pool
r = Numbers of balls to be chosen from the pool
! = Factorial
Let’s consider the Powerball as an example. To win the Powerball, 5 numbers must be chosen out of a possible 69 plus a single Powerball out of 26.
Therefore n = 69 and r = 5
This gives us the following outcome:
Therefore, there is a 1 in 11,238,513 chance of choosing five numbers correctly.
Another way to think of it is that there are 69 possible numbers in the pool for the first ball, meaning that when that ball is chosen, there will be 68 remaining as the same number cannot be drawn twice. This can be expressed as 69*68*67*66*65 = 1,348,621,560 possible combinations.
However, the order of the numbers is insignificant as the order doesn’t matter when it comes to winning, thus, we must divide the number of possible combinations with the number of possible orders in which 5 numbers can be drawn. Which can be computed as 5*4*3*2*1 = 120 possible orders for 5 numbers, which gives the following equation:
The outcome of the above is 11,238,513.
The final step is to take into consideration the single Powerball, which is drawn from a pool of 26 numbers. In order to calculate the jackpot, we must divide the previous figure with the probability of 1 in 26.
Therefore, the odds for the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292,201,338.
Choosing A Lottery For You
There are many factors to keep in mind when choosing the right lottery for you. The good news is that, at Lottoland, we go the extra mile to ensure our customers are as well informed about each lottery as possible. So be sure to check out our extensive FAQs (simply click on the Help & FAQ button on the top right) on each lottery page for vital information including prizes, odds, rules, detailed instructions on how to make your bets, plus tips on how to win.
IRISH LOTTO ODDS
As you're probably well aware, the Lotto went through a format change in 2015, resulting in higher jackpots but also higher jackpot odds. That being said, the Irish Lotto odds are still extremely favourable when compared with other European lotteries – take the relatively high jackpots into account and it's a great all-rounder lottery.
| Irish Lotto Odds | |
|---|---|
| Prize | Probability |
| Jackpot (6 Numbers) | 1 : 10,737,573 |
| Second Prize (5 Numbers + Bonus) | 1 : 1,789,596 |
| Third Prize (5 Numbers) | 1 : 44,740 |
| Fourth Prize (4 numbers + bonus) | 1 : 17,896 |
| Fifth Prize (4 Numbers) | 1 : 918 |
| Sixth Prize (3 numbers + bonus) | 1 : 688 |
| Seventh Prize (3 numbers) | 1 : 54 |
| Eighth Prize (2 numbers + bonus) | 1 : 72 |
| Any Prize | 1 : 29 |
Your chances of winning any prize on certain lotteries can be quite favourable, although the jackpot will always be a longshot, but never impossible. As we have shown, the probability of winning the lottery really depends on which lottery you are betting on and what the definition of “winning” is.
Last updated: July 2021
D
by
Daniel
The lottery is a universal game and luck knows no border! My adventurous spirit has led to me living in three continents, opening my eyes to the world. Lottoland gives you the chance to explore a world of lotteries at your fingertips. I wish to share some of the greatest lotto stories with you and hope to inspire you. As a history buff, I find it fascinating that the ancient Greeks were betting on the Olympics and that the first recorded lottery dates back to 15th century Milan. Virtutis Fortuna Comes.
