The Austrian, Belgian, French, Luxembourgish, Portuguese, Spanish and Swiss national lotteries sell EuroMillions system tickets. Essentially, a ticket is generated that includes more numbers than the standard five main numbers and two Lucky Stars. Typically, you can’t select more than ten main numbers or ten Lucky Stars, and the more you buy, the more costly the ticket will be.
While UK and Irish EuroMillions tickets don’t offer this option, this doesn’t mean that it’s not allowed in these countries; you just have to do the work yourself. For example, you might typically play EuroMillions with the following line:
15, 29, 30, 41, 42 + Lucky Stars 4 and 11
Now, perhaps you’d like to add another main number - let’s say 16 - to improve your odds of matching at least two numbers in order to win a prize without having to shell out too much for tickets. You don’t just tack them onto a second line of EuroMillions numbers and hope for the best. Instead, you create several new combinations, in which the number 16 will substitute for other numbers on different lines. Here is what you would buy:
Line 1: 15, 29, 30, 41, 42 + Lucky Stars 4 and 11 (original line)
Line 2: 16, 29, 30, 41, 42 + Lucky Stars 4 and 11
Line 3: 15, 16, 30, 41, 42 + Lucky Stars 4 and 11
Line 4: 15, 29, 16, 41, 42 + Lucky Stars 4 and 11
Line 5: 15, 29, 30, 16, 42 + Lucky Stars 4 and 11
Line 6: 15, 29, 30, 41, 16 + Lucky Stars 4 and 11
You are now playing six lines on EuroMillions, increasing your chances of matching some or even all of the seven numbers drawn. If the winning line in the draw of your choosing was 15, 16, 30, 47 and 50 with Lucky Stars 4 and 10, you’d stand to match the following:
Line 1: Match 2 + 1 Star
Line 2: Match 2 + 1 Star
Line 3: Match 3 + 1 Star
Line 4: Match 2 + 1 Star
Line 5: Match 2 + 1 Star
Line 6: Match 2 + 1 Star
At £2 per line, this method gets a bit expensive. However, with the average Match 2 + 1 Star prize sitting at £5.73 and the average Match 3 + 1 Star prize worth £10.47, you’d stand to make £39.12 off your hypothetical winnings, far outstripping your initial stake of £12. You could earn even more if the prize value in these tiers is higher than average.
Had you just spent £2 on one line, you would have matched two numbers and one Lucky Star on just one line alone, earning you far less cash.
System entries are a great option for syndicates, where the cost of picking up more entries is distributed among members of the group. The more mathematically-minded people in your syndicate could even create combinations that add more main numbers or cover more Lucky Stars.
Of course, nothing in life is guaranteed, not even a big EuroMillions win, but system entries can be a great way of increasing your odds of winning a prize. You can try it out for yourself by buying tickets online or from authorised retailers up until 7.30pm GMT (8.30pm CET) tonight, when sales close in advance of the draw in Paris. Good luck!