Get Ready For The National Lottery’s Special Festive Draws
Last Updated: Thursday 20th December 2018, 09:57
The National Lottery is to hold exciting draws before and after Christmas this year, with a ‘Must Be Won’ Lotto draw taking place on Saturday 22nd December and 10 millionaires guaranteed in EuroMillions on New Year’s Day.
Lotto Jackpot Must Be Won
If you enter Saturday’s Lotto draw, you will have a better chance than usual of winning a share of the jackpot after it was announced that the top prize must be given away. That is because the money will roll down to other winners if nobody matches all six main numbers.
The jackpot would previously just go to players in the next highest tier - usually ‘Match 5 + Bonus’ if there were no winners in a Must Be Won draw. However, the National Lottery recently introduced new rules and the money will now be shared out between all players who match at least three main numbers.
If there are no ‘Match 6’ winners on Saturday, therefore, you could win a substantially larger prize than would normally be the case. The exact amounts will not be known until after the draw has taken place, as they will depend on how many winners are in each tier, but you could win around £100 for matching three numbers rather than the standard prize of £30.
The jackpot for Saturday’s draw will be worth a guaranteed £15 million to add even more excitement to proceedings, jumping up from the £5.3 million on Wednesday. The extra money comes from a reserve fund which receives a small percentage of money from ticket sales in all draws and is in place primarily to help pay for special promotions.
EuroMillions To Make 10 Millionaires
Even if you don’t get your hands on a share of Saturday’s Lotto jackpot, you can look forward to another opportunity to win £1 million on EuroMillions on Tuesday 1st January. You will be given a Millionaire Maker code for every line you play as usual, but there will be 10 winning codes drawn on the night rather than the usual two.
The odds of winning depend on how many tickets are sold, but the extra prizes mean you will be around five times more likely to win a Millionaire Maker prize than you would be in a regular draw. You need to match one of the winning codes exactly in order to be able to win.
The National Lottery has also announced that more special EuroMillions events will take place in 2019, including a spring extravaganza that will give away 40 prizes of £1 million.
Whether you want to try and win an incredible Lotto or EuroMillions prize, you can take part online or visit any authorised retailer. Best of luck!