Helen James
Despite the plethora of gambling options nowadays, lotteries still play first fiddle in the UK. According to the Camelot Group, The National Lottery’s operator, sales for the 2022/23 fiscal year climbed by £99.6 million to £8,190.3 million, the second-highest annual sales total since the lottery’s inception in 1994.
Such figures are hardly surprising given the millions won from a ticket costing between £1 and £2.50, depending on the particular game. The most recent millionaire is a Brit who won £1,000,000 by hitting Lotto UK’s Match 5 + Bonus on the 25th August 2023. Just two days earlier, another player won £5,106,856 through Match 6.
As tempting as these amounts may sound, your chances of winning the lottery are tiny, and relying solely on luck may not be the best plan. Lotteries operate on a random basis, so superstitions and intricate conspiracies have no place in the pursuit of a higher chance of winning. Our team at SuperCasinoSites decided to go with something considerably more reliable, statistics, and provide you with the luckiest numbers in lottery games following the most recent rule changes for each.
Methodology
This report analyses the numbers drawn as of the 29th August 2023 in the four most popular lotto games in the UK:
- UK Lotto: 823 draws since the 10th October 2015
- EuroMillions: 722 draws since the 27th September 2016
- Thunderball: 2,374 draws since the 12th May 2010
- SetForLife: 465 draws since the 18th March 2019
Data was retrieved from The National Lottery and Lottery.co.uk
UK Lotto. Jackpot Winning Odds: 1 in 45,057,474
Lotto is considered the most popular lottery game in the country, with draws every Wednesday and Saturday, having base jackpots of £2 million and £3.8 million, respectively. As per the current rules, punters need to select six numbers out of a pool of 59. If the Lotto jackpot has not been won for five consecutive draws, a Must Be Won draw occurs that may reach £11 million on Wednesdays and £12 million on Saturdays.
The luckiest number in UK Lotto, as of the 29th August 2023, is 52. It has been drawn as one of the main numbers for the jackpot 105 times since the 10th October 2015. The second most common number is 39 with 102 draws, closely followed by 58 with 101 draws. At the other extreme, we find 48, which has been drawn only 68 times so far. The luckiest Bonus Ball is 38 with a total of 24 draws, while the least common is 35, having been picked only 6 times.
EuroMillions. Jackpot Winning Odds: 1 in 139,838,160
EuroMillions is an international lottery game with tickets available in nine countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Draws are held on Tuesday and Friday evenings, with a guaranteed minimum jackpot of €17 million that can roll over to an astonishing €240 million, if not won in the previous draw.
There is also the UK Millionaire Maker, a EuroMillions supplementary game that is only available in the United Kingdom. It operates similarly to a raffle, with each draw ensuring that at least one player pockets £1 million.
The most common EuroMillions numbers between the 27th September 2016 and the 29th August 2023 were 21 with 88 draws, 17 with 87 draws, and 23 with 85 draws. 42 is also among the most frequently drawn numbers, having been drawn 84 times, followed by 20 and 27, both having had 83 draws. The unluckiest selections were 40, 18, and 22, which were winning numbers just 57, 55, and 52 times, respectively. The most commonly drawn lucky star balls were 3, 2, and 6, with 148, 138, and 134 appearances, respectively. And with 97 draws, the least frequent lucky star was 5.
Thunderball. Jackpot Winning Odds: 1 in 8,060,598
Thunderball, despite having a relatively modest jackpot of £500,000, is a lottery game that compensates the jackpot with a low ticket price of £1 and a high frequency of draws – four times a week, each Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. The best thing is that no matter how many players match the five main numbers and the Thunderball, each will win half a million pounds, as the jackpot is not shared.
In terms of how many times it has appeared as a main ball number, 30 has a considerable lead over the others. Between the 12th May 2010 and the 29th August 2023, 30 was drawn 340 times, followed by number 18 which landed 324 times, and number 31 with 323. The least lucky numbers, the ones drawn the fewest times, were 12 with 276 appearances, and 35 and 14, each with 279 appearances. As for the Thunderball numbers (two in each draw), the most common numbers were 13 with 191 draws, and 3 with 190 draws. The least common Thunderballs were 9 with 148 appearances, and 2 with 155 appearances.
Set for Life. Jackpot Winning Odds: 1 in 15,339,390
Just like in EuroMillions and Thunderball, players in Set for Life select five numbers, but this time from a pool of 47. A Life Ball from 1- 10 is then chosen, and if all six numbers match, a £10,000 jackpot is won, which players will receive every month for the next 30 years! Alternatively, if you guess the five main numbers but not the Life Ball, you will get twelve £10,000 installments over the next year.
Within the 465 draws between the 18th March 2019 and the 29th August 2023, 21 is the number that appeared the most, being drawn 65 times. The second most common number was 40 with 63 draws, followed by 42 with 61 draws. The least frequent Set for Life main number is 1, having been drawn only 37 times. You are almost as unlikely to win by selecting 14 and 41 though, because each of them only appeared in 38 draws within the study period. The luckiest Life Balls, 7 and 6, were drawn 58 and 57 times, while the unluckiest, 4 and 8, appeared 37 and 38 times respectively.
