UK Lotto

UK Lotto offers a jackpot of at least £2 million in every draw, and it can be worth much more. Must Be Won draws also take place regularly, when the top prize is guaranteed to be paid out and winners in every breakdown category can receive a share of the jackpot money.

You can win prizes for matching two or more numbers out of six in Lotto, which is played in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Draws take place on Wednesday and Saturday evenings.

The most recent Lotto results are automatically shown here after every draw. Find out the winning numbers, including the Bonus Ball, and see whether you have won a prize.

UK Lotto Prizes

Lotto offers fixed prize amounts in most of its prize categories, so you know exactly how much you will receive if you win. For example, you win £30 if you match three numbers on Lotto.

The exception is the jackpot, which has a starting value that varies depending on which draw day it falls on. It starts at £2 million on a Wednesday and £3.8 million on a Saturday. If two or more players match all six main numbers to win the jackpot, then the top prize is shared equally between the winners, but if there are no jackpot winners then the prize money rolls over and increases for the next draw.

The jackpot has previously been known to climb as high as £66 million, but the Must Be Won feature now ensures that there is never more than five draws between a multimillion-pound payout.

The table below shows a Lotto prize breakdown, including the amounts you can win, the numbers you must match for each of them, and the odds of winning:

Winning Combination	Odds of Winning	Prize
6 Numbers	1 in 45,057,474	Jackpot
5 Numbers + Bonus Ball	1 in 7,509,579	£1 million
5 Numbers	1 in 144,415	£1,750
4 Numbers	1 in 2,180	£140
3 Numbers	1 in 97	£30
2 Numbers	1 in 10.3	Free Lotto Lucky Dip
Overall odds of winning a Lotto prize are 1 in 9.3.

The Bonus Ball is drawn from the 53 numbers that are left in the machine after the main six have been selected. It can boost the value of your prize if you’ve matched five out of six numbers, but otherwise it does not help you. For example, there is no prize for matching one main number and the Bonus Ball. This does not count as matching two numbers.

How to Play

You can play Lotto in just a few quick steps. You can buy a ticket at any licensed retailer in the UK or you can play online. Here’s what you need to do:

• Choose six numbers between 1 and 59. Pick your own numbers or opt for a Lucky Dip to receive six at random.
• Select as many lines as you like. You can pick up to seven sets of numbers on each playslip.
• Decide whether to play the Wednesday draw, the Saturday draw, or both. You can play up to four consecutive weeks.
• Purchase your entries before the cut-off time of 7.30pm on a draw day. It costs £2 per line to play Lotto.

Once you have paid for your ticket(s), wait for the draw to find out if you are a winner. See the How to Claim page to find out more about claiming UK National Lottery prizes.

Rollovers, Rolldowns and Must Be Won Draws

The jackpot can only roll over for a maximum of five consecutive draws before it must be given away. When it gets to this point, a 'Must Be Won' draw is held, in which the jackpot money is guaranteed to be awarded, even if no one matches all six numbers. If there are no winners in the Match 6 tier in a Must Be Won draw, a ‘jackpot rolldown’ occurs, and the money is distributed between all other prize winners.

When a rolldown takes place, everyone who has matched two numbers receives a £5 prize in addition to their free Lucky Dip. A certain percentage of the jackpot prize is also distributed to each prize tier from Match 3 to Match 5 + Bonus, to be shared among all winners in each tier. The table below shows what percentage of the money is allocated to each tier. You can also see how much bigger the prizes were the last time the jackpot rolled down.

Winning Combination	Original Prize	Additional Rolldown Prize	Prize in last Must Be Won draw
5 Numbers + Bonus Ball	£1 million	3% of Jackpot (shared between winners)	£1,262,917
5 Numbers	£1,750	5% of Jackpot (shared between winners)	£7,836
4 Numbers	£140	7% of Jackpot (shared between winners)	£264
3 Numbers	£30	85% of Jackpot (shared between winners)	£92
2 Numbers	Free Lotto Lucky Dip	£5	Free Lucky Dip + £5

Other National Lottery Games

EuroMillions is one of the UK’s favourite lottery games, but it is not the only major lottery on offer in the country. The games below are also enjoyed by many players every week.

Lotto HotPicks

HotPicks uses the same winning numbers as the main Lotto draw but is treated as a separate game. It costs £1 per line and to play you must first decide how many numbers you want to try and match. For example, you can play a ‘Pick 1’ game, where you pick and try to match just one number, right up to a ‘Pick 5’ game, where you must pick and match five numbers. You do not win anything for matching fewer numbers than you choose, so for example if you play a Pick 5 game, you do not win anything for matching four or fewer numbers. The top prize is worth £350,000 and is won by picking and matching five numbers.

Thunderball

Thunderball is another UK National Lottery game, which takes place every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, offering prizes of up to £500,000. Players must select five main numbers between 1 and 39 and one Thunderball number from 1 to 14. Anyone matching all five numbers plus the Thunderball wins the £500,000 top prize. In addition, there are eight other prize levels on offer, and you can be a winner by matching just the Thunderball. Find out more on the Thunderball page.

Set For Life

Set For Life is the first annuity lottery ever to be played in the UK, with draws held every Monday and Thursday. It costs just £1.50 per line, and you can play by selecting five main numbers from 1 to 47 and a Life Ball between 1 and 10.

The top two prizes are paid in the form of an annuity, in which winners receive the prize money gradually over a certain time period. The top prize pays £10,000 every month for 30 years, for a total of £3.6 million; match five numbers and the Life Ball to win it. The second prize pays £10,000 per month for one year, for a total of £120,000; just match five main numbers to claim the prize. The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 15,339,390 and the overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 12.4. View the latest Set For Life results.

Occasionally, the National Lottery will hold special Set For Life draws called Super Chance Draws. During a Super Chance Draw, you can win £10,000 a month for 30 years by matching just the five main balls – increasing your odds of winning the top prize to 1 in 1,533,939. Super Chance Draws will be announced several weeks ahead of their draw date, and you can enter them in the same way as a regular Set For Life draw.