Team GB have already gained more than 55 medals, with 22 of them gold, and are pushing to finish second in the medal table, with UK Sport’s performance director Simon Timson saying it is ‘success by design, not by chance’. It is the job of Timson’s team to decide how to distribute lottery money, and there has been £347 million made available in the current Olympic and Paralympic cycle.
A minimum of 28p from every £1 spent on EuroMillions, plus other National Lottery games such as Lotto and Thunderball, goes towards the Good Causes Fund. Sport is one of the four key areas to receive support, along with heritage, arts and health, education, environment and charitable causes, and cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy says ‘the National Lottery has transformed the way sport is funded in the UK’.
Athletes in other participating EuroMillions countries have also benefited from money spent on the game. France, seventh in the Rio 2016 medals table going into the final three days, has been boosted by a longstanding partnership between their National Lottery and the National Olympic Committee and French Sports (CNOSF), while the Olympic Sports Association in Spain (ADO) has been supported by the Spanish lottery since 1993.
Anyone buying a ticket for EuroMillions can therefore feel proud that they are playing a part in how their country has performed in Brazil. It could be that you land a huge prize as well, and there is a gigantic £47 million (€55 million) jackpot on offer in tonight’s draw. It could just be that Team GB’s success is followed up by a winner of the top prize, helping the UK to climb above Portugal and into third place in the table of EuroMillions Winners.
You can enter EuroMillions by visiting any authorised retailer in one of the participating countries or playing online, and if you win you can start to imagine the sort of things you might be able to enjoy before the next Olympics come round in 2020. Best of luck!