Quick answer: The Lotto jackpot odds are 1 in 22,528,738 per £2 ticket, because each line now plays two rounds (1 in 45,057,474 per round). EuroMillions is 1 in 139,838,160, Set For Life 1 in 15,339,390 and Thunderball 1 in 8,060,598. Your chance of winning any Lotto prize is far better, at 1 in 4.9.
Key takeaways
- Since New Lotto started in June 2026, every £2 line is entered into two rounds, which shortens the old 1 in 45 million jackpot odds to about 1 in 22.5 million per ticket.
- Of the National Lottery's main draw games, Thunderball has the shortest top-prize odds (1 in 8,060,598 for £500,000) and Lotto has the shortest odds of winning any prize (1 in 4.9).
- Jackpot odds and "any prize" odds measure very different things, so only ever compare like with like.
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What are the odds of winning the lottery in the UK?
Your chance of winning a UK lottery top prize ranges from about 1 in 1.35 million on the Health Lottery's All or Nothing to 1 in 292,201,338 on Powerball. The Lotto jackpot is 1 in 22,528,738 per ticket. Winning any prize is much more likely: from about 1 in 4.5 to about 1 in 13.
Figures are each operator's own, checked on 24 September 2026, for one line in one draw (People's Postcode Lottery publishes its odds per ticket per month).
| Game | Price | Draws | Top prize | Top-prize odds | Any-prize odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lotto | £2 | Wed, Sat (two rounds each) | Jackpot, starts at £2m, shared between winners | 1 in 22,528,738 | 1 in 4.9 (20.4%) |
| EuroMillions (with UK Millionaire Maker) | £2.50 | Tue, Fri | Jackpot, capped at €250m | 1 in 139,838,160 | 1 in 13 (7.7%) |
| Powerball | £4 | Tue, Thu, Sun (early hours, UK time) | Jackpot, starts at £10m, paid over 30 years | 1 in 292,201,338 | about 1 in 13.2 (7.6%)* |
| Set For Life | £1.50 | Mon, Thu | £10,000 a month for 30 years | 1 in 15,339,390 | 1 in 12.4 (8.1%) |
| Thunderball | £1 | Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat | £500,000 | 1 in 8,060,598 | 1 in 13 (7.7%) |
| Health Lottery: The Big Win | £1 | Every day | £25,000, shared if more than one winner | about 1 in 2.1 million | 1 in 9.7 (10.3%)** |
| Health Lottery: All or Nothing | £1 (online only) | Tue, Fri | £25,000 for matching all 12 numbers or none, shared if more than one winner | about 1 in 1.35 million | 1 in 4.5 (22%) |
| People's Postcode Lottery | £12.50 a month | 20 draws a month, winners announced daily | Postcode Millions, Millionaire Street or £250,000 | better than 1 in 250,000 a month | better than 1 in 4 a month (over 25%) |
* Our calculation from the tier odds in the Powerball game procedures. ** Includes free-ticket prizes for matching 2 numbers, or 1 number plus the Bonus Ball.
One caution on the any-prize column: some wins are worth less than the ticket, such as Lotto's £1 Match 2 prize on a £2 line. The National Lottery also runs Lotto HotPicks and EuroMillions HotPicks, add-ons where you choose how many numbers to match for one fixed prize; their odds are in our lottery odds ranking.
What are the odds for each Lotto prize?
Each £2 Lotto line has a 1 in 22,528,738 chance of the jackpot and a 1 in 3,754,790 chance of the fixed £1 million prize for matching five numbers plus the Bonus Ball. You win something when you match two or more main numbers in either round, which happens about once in every 4.9 tickets.
Since 10 June 2026, each Lotto draw has two rounds, each with its own set of 59 balls, and your line is checked against both. The jackpot is shared across both rounds; every other prize is fixed and paid per round.
| Match (in one round) | Prize | Odds per £2 ticket |
|---|---|---|
| 6 main numbers | Jackpot share (at least £1m per winning line, subject to capping) | 1 in 22,528,738 |
| 5 + Bonus Ball | £1,000,000 | 1 in 3,754,790 |
| 5 | £1,000 | 1 in 72,208 |
| 4 | £50 | 1 in 1,091 |
| 3 | £10 | 1 in 48.4 |
| 2 | £1 | 1 in 5.4 |
| Any prize | 1 in 4.9 |
Before the change, the same line had a 1 in 45,057,474 jackpot chance and a 1 in 9.3 chance of any prize, according to Allwyn. The jackpot can roll over five times; the sixth draw in a row is a Must Be Won draw.
What are the odds of winning the EuroMillions?
The odds of winning the EuroMillions jackpot are 1 in 139,838,160 per £2.50 line, the longest of the main UK games except Powerball. The odds of winning any EuroMillions prize are 1 in 13. Every UK line also enters UK Millionaire Maker, which normally has one £1 million prize per draw.
You pick five numbers from 1 to 50 and two Lucky Stars from 1 to 12. Prizes below the jackpot vary with sales and the number of winners, so only the odds are fixed.
| Match | Odds |
|---|---|
| 5 + 2 Lucky Stars (jackpot) | 1 in 139,838,160 |
| 5 + 1 Lucky Star | 1 in 6,991,908 |
| 5 | 1 in 3,107,515 |
| 4 + 2 Lucky Stars | 1 in 621,503 |
| 4 + 1 Lucky Star | 1 in 31,076 |
| 3 + 2 Lucky Stars | 1 in 14,126 |
| 4 | 1 in 13,812 |
| 2 + 2 Lucky Stars | 1 in 986 |
| 3 + 1 Lucky Star | 1 in 707 |
| 3 | 1 in 314 |
| 1 + 2 Lucky Stars | 1 in 188 |
| 2 + 1 Lucky Star | 1 in 50 |
| 2 | 1 in 22 |
| Any prize | 1 in 13 |
UK Millionaire Maker is a raffle, so your odds are one in however many entries there are: Allwyn estimates about 1 in 4.27 million on a normal Tuesday and 1 in 6.04 million on a normal Friday. Of your £2.50, 76p pays for Millionaire Maker.
How likely are people to win the lottery?
Very unlikely to win a jackpot, but fairly likely to win something small. A Lotto ticket has about a 20% chance (1 in 4.9) of winning a prize, yet about nine in ten of those wins are the £1 Match 2 prize (our calculation from the odds table). The jackpot stays at 1 in 22,528,738 per ticket.
People do win: Allwyn says the National Lottery has created more than 8,000 millionaires since 1994. That is because millions of lines are sold, not because any single line has a good chance.
How big is 1 in 45 million, really?
1 in 45,057,474 is the chance of matching all six numbers in a single Lotto round, and it was the jackpot odds per line before June 2026. That sits between the chance of tossing a coin and getting 25 heads in a row and getting 26. With two rounds, a New Lotto ticket is about 1 in 22.5 million.
Here are some comparisons we have worked out from the official odds:
- Counting: if you counted one number a second, day and night, it would take about 521 days to reach 45,057,474.
- Coin tosses: 25 heads in a row is 1 in 33,554,432 and 26 heads is 1 in 67,108,864.
- People: the UK has about 69.5 million people (ONS, provisional mid-2025). Winning one Lotto round is like being picked at random from two thirds of the UK; the EuroMillions jackpot, from a crowd twice the size of the UK.
- Time: playing one Lotto line in every draw (104 draws a year), you would wait around 216,600 years on average for a jackpot at 1 in 22,528,738 per ticket. Playing every draw for 50 years (5,200 tickets) gives you roughly a 1 in 4,300 chance.
- Money: covering every possible line for one draw would take 45,057,474 lines, which would cost over £90 million at £2 each.
What are the odds of winning the Postcode Lottery?
People's Postcode Lottery says a ticket's chance of winning a prize is better than 1 in 4 each month, and better than 1 in 250,000 for one of its biggest prizes. These are monthly figures for a £12.50 subscription covering 20 draws, so they cannot be compared directly with the per-draw odds of National Lottery games.
Your postcode is your ticket, and prizes are paid to every playing ticket in a winning postcode. PPL says 84% of players won a prize in 2025. For the full breakdown, see our guide to Postcode Lottery odds.
Is Lucky Dip more likely to win?
No. A Lucky Dip line and a line you choose yourself have exactly the same odds: 1 in 22,528,738 for the Lotto jackpot per ticket. Every combination of six numbers from 59 is equally likely in each round. Lucky Dip only changes who picks the numbers, not your chance of winning.
If you read that lots of winners used Lucky Dip, that reflects how popular it is, not better odds. Number choice can only affect how many people might share a jackpot with you. We cover this and other myths in how to win the lottery in the UK.
How do prize competitions and instant wins show their odds?
Prize competitions and instant win games usually have a fixed number of tickets and a fixed prize list set before the game opens, so the odds of each prize can be shown as "1 in X" before you play. Lottery odds come from how many number combinations exist, not from how many tickets are sold.
You will usually see a separate "1 in X" for each prize tier, and games close at a set time or when the tickets run out, rather than rolling over. When you compare a competition with a lottery, compare top prize with top prize and any prize with any prize, and check the entry price. We put real numbers side by side in prize competition odds vs lottery odds, and you can see the full prize list on every one of our instant win games.
Which UK lottery has the best odds?
It depends which prize you mean. For top-prize odds, the Health Lottery's £25,000 games lead, and Thunderball is the best of the main National Lottery games at 1 in 8,060,598 for £500,000. For any prize, Lotto leads the main National Lottery draws at 1 in 4.9 per ticket.
See the full ranking, with value for money, in which lottery has the best odds, or go straight to Thunderball odds and Set For Life odds.
Frequently asked questions
What are the 6 most common winning lottery numbers in the UK?
No numbers are more likely to come up than others. In every Lotto round, each of the 59 balls has the same chance of being drawn. Lists of "most common" numbers simply count past draws, which vary at random and tell you nothing about the next one. We explain why in our lottery myths guide.
Has anyone ever won the £10,000 a month for 30 years?
Yes. The National Lottery publishes stories of Set For Life top-prize winners, including a family syndicate from Cardiff sharing £10,000 every month for 30 years. The odds of winning that prize are 1 in 15,339,390 per £1.50 line. Our Set For Life odds guide covers every prize tier.
How do Premium Bonds odds compare?
Premium Bonds are savings, not lottery tickets. NS&I says each £1 Bond has odds of 21,000 to 1 of winning a prize in each monthly draw at the time of writing, and you can cash your Bonds in. The trade-off is that you earn no interest. Read more in our Premium Bonds odds guide.
What are the odds on scratch cards?
Every scratchcard game has its own odds, set by how many cards are made and which prizes they hold, so there is no single figure to quote. Check the odds for the specific game before you buy. We compare them in our guide to scratch card odds, including how online scratch cards differ.
Does playing every week improve your odds?
Not per draw. Each draw is a fresh event, so a line you have played for years has the same chance this week as a brand new one. Playing more draws does add more chances over time, but it also adds more cost, and on average about half of Lotto sales come back as prizes.
What are the odds of winning Thunderball?
The odds of winning Thunderball's £500,000 top prize are 1 in 8,060,598 per £1 line, and the odds of winning any prize are 1 in 13. Matching just the Thunderball number wins £3. Our Thunderball odds guide lists all nine prize tiers.
Sources
- Lotto Online Game Procedures, The National Lottery, accessed 24 September 2026
- New Lotto, The National Lottery, accessed 24 September 2026
- Double Your Luck: New Lotto Gives Players Two Chances to Win, Allwyn, accessed 24 September 2026
- EuroMillions and UK Millionaire Maker Online Game Procedures, The National Lottery, accessed 24 September 2026
- Powerball Online Game Procedures, The National Lottery, accessed 24 September 2026
- Powerball lands in the UK with a record £300 million jackpot, Allwyn, accessed 24 September 2026
- Set For Life Online Game Procedures, The National Lottery, accessed 24 September 2026
- Thunderball Online Game Procedures, The National Lottery, accessed 24 September 2026
- Set For Life winners: Cardiff family syndicate, The National Lottery, accessed 24 September 2026
- The Big Win, The Health Lottery, accessed 24 September 2026
- All Or Nothing, The Health Lottery, accessed 24 September 2026
- Frequently Asked Questions, The Health Lottery, accessed 24 September 2026
- Lottery Odds FAQ, People's Postcode Lottery, accessed 24 September 2026
- How Postcode Lottery Works, People's Postcode Lottery, accessed 24 September 2026
- Premium Bonds, NS&I, accessed 24 September 2026
- United Kingdom population mid-year estimate, Office for National Statistics, accessed 24 September 2026
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