What is a Syndicate?
A lottery syndicate is formed when a group of people join forces to play a lottery together. Everyone contributes to the cost of tickets and winnings are split between all the members of the group. Look through this syndicate guide to learn more about how it works when you team up with others.
How Lottery Syndicates Work
Lottery syndicates can be made up of friends, family members, work colleagues, neighbours or any other group of people. Once you have decided which game you want to play and which draws you will be entering, you should all sign a syndicate agreement that would settle any disputes that might arise further down the line. Go to the Create Syndicate page for details that you could include in a lottery syndicate form.
It is up to you to decide on the specific terms and conditions for your group, but syndicates generally work in the following way:
- Work out how many tickets you will be buying for the next draw, week or month
- Everyone in the group pays an equal share, giving their money to the syndicate manager on an agreed date
- Purchase the tickets. This is normally the responsibility of the syndicate manager
- Check the results and collect any prizes the syndicate has won
- Distribute the winnings evenly between all the members of the group
The main appeal of playing in a syndicate is that it gives you a better chance of winning a prize without costing any more to play. If you have ten players in your group, for example, and you enter ten lines in each draw, your chances of winning are ten times better than if you submitted a single entry on your own. If you wanted to match those odds on your own, you would have to spend ten times as much money.
If your syndicate wins a prize, the money will be shared amongst all the players who contributed to the price of the ticket, so you won’t get to keep the full amount to yourself. However, you would be able to celebrate the success together.
Around one in five top lottery prizes in the UK are won by syndicates, and there are numerous stories of players who have scooped huge rewards as a result of coming together to buy tickets. Check out the Syndicate Winners page to read about some of the lucky groups who have split multimillion-pound prizes.
Online Syndicates
You can also join online syndicates to maximise your chances of winning. You don’t need to round up other players to form a group, and there is no organisational work as it is all arranged for you by the online service. You also have the security of knowing that your numbers are stored digitally, so you don’t have to check them yourself.
You just have to decide how many shares you want to purchase. The more you buy, the bigger your portion of any prize won by the syndicate. You will be automatically alerted and paid if you win. Go to the Join Syndicate page for more information.
Set For Life Syndicates
You can play Set For Life as a syndicate but as the game works slightly differently to other lotteries you need to be clear about what you would do if your group won.
The top two prizes are paid out in instalments rather than one-off payments. This is what is known as an annuity lottery. The jackpot is £10,000 per month for 30 years, while the second prize is £10,000 a month for a year.
The National Lottery can only pay out a prize to one person, so you need to agree on what your syndicate would do if the group won one of the top prizes. This should be addressed as part of your syndicate agreement.
It is entirely up to you how you would split a prize of £10,000 a month. It may be that the syndicate manager sets up regular payments to each of the other members. It just needs to be decided at the outset to avoid any uncertainty or disputes further down the line.
If a Set For Life winner dies before they have received all their payments, the remainder of the prize is normally paid as a lump sum to their estate. Discuss and agree as a syndicate what you would like to happen in that scenario.
