Euromillions will be paid out this week
Last Updated: Wednesday 7th August 2013, 13:34
The Euromillions jackpot for Friday 17 November will be worth around €180 million (approximately £121 million) as it enters the twelfth week since the last time anyone won the top prize. Under Euromillions rules, the jackpot is not allowed to roll over twelve times, so if nobody wins the top prize this Friday by matching 5 main numbers plus 2 Lucky Star numbers, the €180 million will be distributed to those who match 5 main numbers and just 1 Lucky Star number.
Euromillions tickets have been selling like proverbial hot cakes (at a peak rate of more than 1 million tickets per hour) for the last few draws, so the fact that this Friday’s draw is sure to see €180 million distributed to at least one lucky player is likely to create a ticket-buying frenzy of unprecedented proportions. This makes it advisable to buy your tickets early in the week, as the last-minute rush for tickets is expected to cause chaos in the most popular lottery outlets.
If the jackpot is won by just one player, then that player will break the previous record held for the biggest individual win. In July 1995, Dolores McNamara won €115 million – a sum which is around €65 million less than the jackpot on offer this Friday.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that the Euromillions jackpot has hit the €180 million mark. The biggest jackpot on record was actually €183,573,077 in February of this year. However, on that occasion the jackpot was shared by three winners, so although each winner took home €61,191,025, they were still a long way behind Dolores’ €115 million fortune.
The odds of winning the Euromillions jackpot are 1 in 76,275,360, but as we said earlier, if no jackpot winner is found then the €180 million top tier prize fund will be shared between all second tier prize winners. The odds of matching 5 main numbers and just 1 Lucky Star number (which is what you need to do to qualify for the second tier prize) are a much better 1 in 5,448,240. This makes the coming Euromillions draw on Friday 17 November superb value for money – but you need to be in it to win it!
France and Portugal have had the most success as far as jackpot winners are concerned, and British players will be hoping that Lady Luck turns to smile in their direction for a change. Bon chance!
