All You Need to Know About the £20 Million Lotto Draw on 5th September
Last Updated: Monday 24th August 2020, 11:47
The National Lottery has revealed its next special Lotto event - a £20 million Must Be Won draw that will take place on Saturday 5th September. Here you can find out all you need to know about the special draw and how Must Be Won draws work.
The prize money is guaranteed to be won on the night
A Must Be Won draw is exactly what it sounds like: the money in the jackpot prize fund must be won on the night of the draw. That means the £20 million that is on offer to Lotto players on 5th September is guaranteed to be won on that date and will not roll over.
You can win the jackpot in the same way as any other draw - by matching all six Lotto numbers. If more than one ticket holder does this, the prize money will be shared equally between them.
However, it is possible that no one matches six numbers on the night of the Must Be Won draw. In that case, a rolldown will be triggered and the entire £20 million will be shared by all other cash prize winners; that’s everyone who matches three or more numbers.
It’s the second special Lotto event of the year
The draw on 5th September will be the eighth Must Be Won draw to take place in 2020 but just the second special one to offer a guaranteed jackpot. A previous event took place on Saturday 27th June and offered a £15 million jackpot, which was shared by two ticket holders who matched six numbers - a rolldown was not needed.
All of the other Must Be Won draws this year have occurred after five consecutive rollovers, most recently on 18th July. No one matched six numbers to win the £11 million jackpot so the prize money rolled down to the other tiers. Two players matched five numbers plus the Bonus Ball in that draw and each won an extra £172,000 on top of the £1 million prize as a result of the rolldown.
It could create the biggest jackpot winner since May 2018
If one ticket holder does match all six numbers in the 5th September draw, the £20 million jackpot they win will be the biggest Lotto prize to be awarded to a single player since 12th May 2018, when one ticket holder won just over £21 million.
Must Be Won draws in their current form hadn’t been introduced to Lotto back then, so the jackpot rolled over for nine consecutive draws before it was won. Bigger jackpots, such as the £25 million offered on 23rd November 2019, have been put up for grabs since then, but they have all rolled down or been split between multiple winners.
You can buy tickets just like any other Lotto draw
There are no special conditions that you must fulfil to play in Lotto Must Be Won draws; just buy your tickets as normal. You can choose your numbers online or at a National Lottery retailer. If you play in-store you have until 7.30pm on 5th September to get your entry for the special draw.
The winning numbers from September’s Must Be Won draw will be added to the Lotto Results page straight after they have been verified, and you can use the Lotto Results Checker to find out if you’ve won a share of the £20 million jackpot.
