The EuroMillions lottery has only been around since 2004, but it’s earned a reputation for being one of the world’s biggest international lotteries. It’s offered in 13 European countries and thousand more buy their EuroMillions lottery tickets online every week.
But we’re willing to bet that there are some things you still don’t know about this exciting European lottery.
If you’re not familiar with the EuroMillions, this is how the game works. Players must choose five main numbers from 1-50 and two Lucky Star number from 1-12. To win the jackpot, you need to match all seven numbers. The jackpot starts at €15 000 000 and is capped at €190 000 000. Once it reaches this total, it rolls over for one more draw. If there’s no winner, the prize rolls down and is shared among the players in the next prize division.
The EuroMillions has a total of 13 prize divisions, more than the either the US Powerball or its rival European lottery, the EuroJackpot. Your odds of taking home a EuroMillions jackpot stand at one in 116 531 800 with overall winning odds of only one in 13. It combines the possibility of a massive jackpot with great odds which is why it has become so popular with players in such a short amount of time.
But did you know that more than 300 players have won a EuroMillions jackpot? While only two of them have succeeded in winning the maximum €190 000 000, many others have walked away with jackpots of nine figures. Of the top ten EuroMillions jackpots, four winners have come from the UK. The rest of the winners in that list are made up of players from Spain, France and Portugal. But France actually holds the title for the most EuroMillion jackpot winners with 79 winners.
There’s no need to move to Paris if you want to be a EuroMillions winner though. It’s far easier to buy EuroMillions online from an authorised online lottery ticket agent. The only thing you have to do is pick the winning lotto numbers. And to do that, you should know which numbers have appeared in the lottery results most frequently.
There are many people who track the winning EuroMillions lottery numbers and make this information available on the internet. But to save you from doing research, we can tell you that number 30 has appeared in seven out of 10 EuroMillions draws. But you need five main numbers to play with, so here are other numbers that are drawn most frequently: 9, 28, 42 and 46. Now perhaps you’ll understand why the experts keep telling people not to rely on birthdays and anniversaries to pick their lotto numbers. As there are only 31 days in the month, you risk ruling out nearly half of the numbers in the field.
You may also be interested to know which of the 12 Lucky Stars numbers have been drawn most often. After some serious number crunching it appears that 9 and 10 take the top spots. It might be a good idea to add either one of those to your set of numbers the next time you buy a ticket for the EuroMillions draw.
You could also look at the best time to play the EuroMillions. Keep a close eye on your calendar because it seems that three in 10 EuroMillions jackpots have been won on the thirteenth of the month. That should put paid to the superstition that 13 is an unlucky number. And in case you were wondering, autumn appears to be the luckiest season with four out of the top ten EuroMillions jackpots being won around this time of the year.
Perhaps the most surprising things you could learn about the EuroMillions is that, despite two winners winning €190 000 000 jackpots, the biggest EuroMillions winners are considered to be Chris and Colin Weir from Scotland. In 2011, they won a EuroMillions jackpot worth £161 000 000. It’s thanks to the favourable exchange rate at the time they have this title. The couple went on the set up a trust and have spent a large portion of their winning s supporting local charities and initiatives.
Earlier this year, the EuroMillions changed its format slightly. By adding increasing the number of Lucky Star Numbers from 11 to 12, the odds of winning the jackpot went up to one in 116 531 800. The hope is that the jackpots will get bigger, although they are still capped. But since the change was introduced at the end of September, the jackpot has been won six times with two lucky ticket holders sharing a €30 570 889 EuroMillions jackpot in a draw held on 25 November.
If that last bit of information is anything to go by, you might want to get your tickets for the next EuroMillions draw right away. With jackpots being won left, right and centre, there’s never been a better time to brush up on your knowledge of the EuroMillions.
