Lotto
Next estimated jackpot:
£7,400,000
Find out all you need to know about the National Lottery! On this page you can learn how to play the national lottery, your odds of winning and find out all the potential prizes you can win. Lotto is the longest running game in the UK, starting in 1994, and has created thousands of millionaires across the country.
Draws take place at 8:00 PM on Wednesdays and 7:45 PM on Saturdays.
Lotto Overview
Lotto is drawn on Wednesday and Saturday evenings and requires players to select six numbers from a pool of 59. In addition to the jackpot, which is won by matching all six main numbers, there are five additional prize tiers, so ticket holders can claim a reward by matching as few as two main numbers.
If it is not won in any given draw, the jackpot will roll over and increase in value for the next one. It can roll over for a maximum of five consecutive draws, and if that happens, a 'Must Be Won' draw is held, where the jackpot prize money is guaranteed to be given away. If no one matches all six numbers to win the jackpot in a Must Be Won draw, the money is shared between all the other prize winning tiers, increasing the prize amount for each winner by a significant amount.
The biggest ever UK Lotto jackpot win to date occurred in January 2016, when two winning tickets shared a £66,070,646 jackpot, with the payout to each ticket holder amounting to just over £33 million. Another colossal jackpot was given away just a few weeks later when a single player won £32.5 million in the draw on Saturday 13th February. Due to the rules of ‘Must Be Won’ draws coming in after this, it is likely we will never see this record broken, unless a special one-off draw were to take place with a significantly bigger jackpot than normal.
Lotto & EuroMillions Comparison
Draw Days
Starting Jackpot
Record Jackpot
Ticket Price
Next Jackpot
Lotto
Wednesday and Saturday
£2 Million
£66 Million
£2
£7,400,000
EuroMillions
Tuesday and Friday
£14 million
£195 million
£2.50
£158,000,000
You may also find these pages useful:
Statistics
Check out the latest Lotto statistics, updated in real-time after each drawing.
Number Generator
Generate your own Quick Pick results for a future draw, as many times as you like.
Lotto Prizes and Odds Table
Players must pick 6 balls from a pool of 59. Bonus Balls are drawn from the same pool, however are not chosen on your ticket.
| Prize Level | Prize | Odds of Winning | Winners in Last Draw | Avg. Winners Per Draw |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match 6 | Jackpot | 1 in 45,057,474 | 0 | 1.6 |
| Match 5 + Bonus | £1 million | 1 in 7,509,579 | 0 | 10 |
| Match 5 | £1,750 | 1 in 144,415 | 35 | 430.3 |
| Match 4 | £140 | 1 in 2,180 | 3,143 | 22,186 |
| Match 3 | £30 | 1 in 97 | 74,234 | 417,718.1 |
| Match 2 | Lucky Dip | 1 in 10 | 675,665 | 932,479.2 |
| The overall Lotto odds are approx. 1 in 9 | ||||
Special Lotto Draws
When no one wins the Lotto jackpot for five consecutive draws, Must Be Won draws are held. However, in the context of holidays or celebrations, the National Lottery organises special Must Be Won draws. These only happen a few times a year and they have big jackpots worth up to £20 million. For example, on Saturday 8th April 2023, a £20 million Must Be Won was held to celebrate the Easter Weekend. Similarly, on Saturday 6th May 2023, the National Lottery organised the ‘King of the Jackpots’ event with a top prize worth £20 million and celebrated Coronation Day.
So why are these draws special? In a Must Be Won draw, the jackpot prize money can still be claimed even if no one matches all six winning numbers. The top prize will have to be shared among those who match at least two numbers. This is usually known as a rolldown and, depending on how many numbers are matched, the prize will be split according to certain percentages.
In case you match two numbers, instead of just getting a free Lucky Dip ticket, you would also get £5.
Top 5 Biggest Lotto Jackpots
1
Jackpot: £66 million
Date: January 2016
Winners: 2x (Hawick)
On 9th January, two lucky players matched all six numbers plus the Bonus Ball and won £33 million each. While one of the ticket holders chose to remain anonymous, David and Carol Martin chose to come forward regarding their win. The first things Mr Martin bought were a pair of brogues worth £200, a Range Rover, and an automatic for his wife. The winning ticket bought by the couple was purchased from Morrisons.
2
Jackpot: £42 million
Date: January 1996
Winners: 3x
On 6th January, three ticket holders won the £42 million grand prize and each of them took home £14 million. All three winners decided to remain anonymous, so we will never know who the winners of the second biggest Lotto jackpot were unless they reveal themselves many years later!
3
Jackpot: £40.2 million
Date: January 1996
Winners: 4x (Scotland, Manchester)
About three weeks later after the second-largest jackpot was won, four ticket holders won the £40.2 jackpot, with each of them taking home more than £10 million. One of the winners was John McGuiness from Scotland who chose to celebrate the big win by flying on Concorde to New York. Another winner was Jackie Greene, who found out she matched the numbers at her local pub in Manchester. The other two winners are unknown.
4
Jackpot: £35.1 million
Date: April 2016
Winners: 1x
After having rolled over 12 times, the big jackpot was won by a single ticket holder. The winner claimed the prize only two days after the draw but, like many large winners in the UK, decided to remain anonymous.
5
Jackpot: £32.5 million
Date: February 2016
Winners: 1x (Peterborough)
Gerry and Lisa Cannings were the sole winners on the 13th February draw. The couple chose to come forward about their win one week later after the draw took place as they had a decorator working on their home. Gerry bought the ticket while he went out to buy fish and chips on the evening of the draw and bought five Lucky Dip tickets.
Lotto History
UK Lotto has undergone a number of changes over the years since it was launched as the National Lottery in November 1994. Draws were initially held every week on a Saturday, before a Wednesday draw was introduced on 5th February 1997. The name changed to Lotto in May 2002, and the game was updated.
The numbers available to choose from increased from 49 to 59, while a new prize tier was introduced to reward players for matching just two main numbers, and the Lotto Millionaire Raffle was launched. The new rules allowed the jackpot to climb higher than ever before, and a new record was set on 9th January when two players split £66 million.
Lotto's prize structure was overhauled in November 2018, and all cash prize amounts apart from the jackpot were increased. The prize in the 'Match 5 + Bonus Ball' category was bumped to £1 million. The rules around jackpot rollovers were also changed, and the jackpot cap of £22 million was scrapped in favour of a five draw rollover limit. The Lotto Millionaire Raffle was discontinued as part of the changes, and the money used to fund prizes in that game were diverted to the prize fund in the main draw.
Lotto Quick Stats
These are the hottest and coldest Lotto numbers right now that have been selected rarely and frequently recently. More statistics like these can be found using the button below.
Hot Results
- 37
- 52
- 58
- 39
- 27
Cold Results
- 30
- 18
- 21
- 6
- 24