Why it Pays to Pick Random Numbers on Lotto and EuroMillions
Last Updated: Wednesday 11th November 2020, 11:59
As lottery fans in the UK eagerly await this week’s big-money draws, many players may decide to stick to a sequence which feels lucky or helps them remember their numbers. However, one trick to boosting your chances of landing a big prize is to try and select a line which is being played by as few other participants as possible.
While every single combination of numbers has an identical chance of winning the jackpot, it is not the wisest strategy to pick a Lotto line of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, for example, as you are likely to have to share the jackpot with hundreds, if not thousands, of other players if those numbers do come up. In the Lotto draw on 23rd March 2016, a staggering 4,082 players matched five main numbers and received £15 each, largely because five of the numbers were multiples of seven.
If you choose a random selection and your numbers are drawn, you are far less likely to have to share your prize with lots of other players. Another way to increase your chances of landing a bigger share of any prize is to pick numbers above 31, as using important dates is such a common method of selection that it makes sense to go higher.
There are various ways to try and pick a random set of numbers. One suggestion, put forward this week by Marcus du Sautoy, author of The Great Unknown, is to ‘clump your numbers together because people very rarely do’. He told Business Insider that players often like to spread their numbers out when they are aiming for a random selection, but it is actually a better tactic to have at least two of the numbers very close together if you want to avoid having the same line as others.
You can use the National Lottery Number Generators to create lines for Lotto, EuroMillions, Thunderball and Health Lottery, and then look forward to trying to win one of this week’s great prizes. The EuroMillions jackpot is up to a fantastic £69 million ahead of tonight’s draw, while a top prize of £16.4 million will be available in tomorrow’s Lotto. Good luck!
