EuroMillions
EuroMillions is one of the most popular lotteries in the world. It’s been originally conceived in 2004 by the lottery commissions of the UK, France and Spain. Nowadays, however, nine European countries officially participate in the EuroMillions lottery and players from all over the world join in to buy tickets.
The lottery draws take place every Tuesday and Friday in France. The minimum jackpot value is a staggering €17 million (or Rs. 120 crore). However, it’s also important to note that the jackpot is capped at €190 million (or Rs. 1510 crore). When that jackpot size is reached, the lower winning tiers will be stocked up and also yield higher prizes.
How to play EuroMillions
EuroMillions works with two sets of numbers to choose from. The main ticket allows you to select five numbers from 1 to 50. In order to aim for the jackpot, however, you also need two more Lucky Stars numbers from 1 to 12.
On a ticket, you can play up to 7 lines. That means you can have 7 different sets of 5+2 numbers on one ticket. That’s usually the case when you play online. At retailers, you can only select 5 lines, however. Depending on the online lottery page you are playing at, you may also be limited to 5 lines per ticket. You can, of course, purchase multiple tickets.
When playing the EuroMillions lottery, you also select the draws you want to participate in. If, for instance, you purchase a ticket on Monday, you can select to play the draws on Tuesday and Friday, or just one of those instead of both.
Each line of numbers officially costs £2.50 (or the currency equivalent).
Prize Tiers
The EuroMillions lottery has 13 prize tiers in total. Let’s take a look at them:
Prize Tier | Odds of Winning | Average Prize |
Match 5 + 2 Lucky Stars | 1 in 139,838,160 | €51,885,110.69 |
Match 5 + 1 Lucky Star | 1 in 6,991,908 | €456,620.33 |
Match 5 | 1 in 3,107,515 | €74,118.02 |
Match 4 + 2 Lucky Stars | 1 in 621,503 | €4,200.06 |
Match 4 + 1 Lucky Star | 1 in 31,075 | €195.22 |
Match 4 | 1 in 13,811 | €86.75 |
Match 3 + 2 Lucky Stars | 1 in 14,125 | €81.11 |
Match 3 + 1 Lucky Star | 1 in 706 | €14.60 |
Match 3 | 1 in 314 | €12.16 |
Match 2 + 2 Lucky Stars | 1 in 985 | €19.87 |
Match 2 + 1 Lucky Star | 1 in 49 | €8.02 |
Match 2 | 1 in 22 | €4.18 |
Match 1 + 2 Lucky Stars | 1 in 188 | €10.61 |
Biggest jackpots to date
Well, since the highest the jackpot can grow is €190 million, let’s just have a look at the different times it actually came to that:
Draw Date | Jackpot | Winners |
Friday, 10th August 2012 | €190,000,000 | 1 |
Friday, 24th October 2014 | €190,000,000 | 1 |
Friday, 6th October 2017 | €190,000,000 | 1 |
Tuesday, 8th October 2019 | €190,000,000 | 1 |
As you can see, the maximum jackpot has only been reached four times in the existence of the EuroMillions jackpot. You can find many more such statistics on the EuroMillions website, encompassing the last 16 years. Very interesting to read if you’re curious about such things.
Often, the jackpot does come close the maximum amount and almost always, there’s only a single winner once the jackpot reaches €150 million or higher. That’s remarkable and you can expect that to happen roughly once or twice every year.
Another interesting statistic reveals that there have apparently never been more than 2 jackpot winners at once when the jackpot reached €100 million or above. Smaller jackpots of perhaps €15 millions have been shared by as many as 5 winners, however.
Where to play EuroMillions
The good news is you can play EuroMillions on all the international lottery websites we have introduced here for you.
- TheLotter
- Lottoland Asia
- Lotto247
- PlayHugeLottos
- LottoKings
The question is, how you want to play and what else you might be interested in.
At TheLotter, for instance, you’ll be playing the actual lottery because this is a lottery agent that will purchase a real ticket for you, upload a scan of it to your account and let you claim the jackpot in person if you win.
But perhaps you prefer to bet on the lottery instead, which will feel very similar to actually playing the lottery. But you won’t receive a ticket as there is none and your wins are paid out by the lotto betting site (or their insurer). The downside here could be that the win is paid out as an annuity, which you have no influence on.
That aside, let’s look what else could impact your choice of lottery site.
- Bonuses and promotions
- Trustworthiness and transparency
- Other games (scratch cards, keno, instant win games, casino games)
- Choice of lotteries (can you play just 17 international lotteries or more than 50 here)
Of course, our reviews cover all that and more. If we can make a recommendation, we’d pick TheLotter if you want to play via a lottery agent and PlayHugeLottos if that doesn’t much matter to you and you want plenty of other lotteries and games from a well-established lottery site.