THE EUROMILLIONS LOTTERY (EUROMILLIONS)

History Of Euromillions:

EuroMillions tickets first went on sale on 7 February 2004 with the debut EuroMillions draw taking place on Friday 13 February 2004 in Paris. The EuroMillions lottery has grown considerably from the original three organising countries of the UK, France and Spain. Lottery organisers from Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Switzerland have also joined in the fun and excitement of EuroMillions. The format has changed slightly over the years with the addition of an extra draw each week and extra balls being added to the star number ball set in 2011.

Euromillions has produced some amazing lottery winners! You can read about some of them in our News archive including Colin and Chris Weir, Cassey Carrington and Dave and Angela Dawes.

How To Play Euromillions:

Lottery players select numbers from two different ball sets:

- 5 main numbers are chosen from a pool of 50 possible numbers (1 – 50)
- 2 “star” numbers are chosen from a pool of 11 possible numbers (1 – 11)

A EuroMillions line thus contains a total of 7 numbers.

To win the jackpot a player must match all 7 numbers to the 7 numbers drawn. Organizers use two machines to provide the winning numbers for each draw. “Stresa” which is used to provide the 5 main numbers and “Paquerette” which is used to provide the 2 lucky star numbers.

Any person 18 or over may take part in the EuroMillions draw on PlayHugeLottos.com. The game is currently available to players in Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with syndicated entrants playing via portals such as this one.

EuroMillions Rollovers And Superdraws

The EuroMillions jackpot cap was revised in 2012 with the maximum jackpot amount possible being set at €190 million. If a jackpot reaches €190 million and rolls over it will not increase. If the jackpot is still not won on the 2nd rollover draw, the jackpot prize will ‘roll down’ and be shared by the next prize tier.

EuroMillion Superdraws are special events when the Jackpot is set to €100 million (or  sometimes €130 million), regardless of the current prize funds.

The most recent Superdraw (at the time of writing) was 4 October 2011. Prior to that there have been Superdraws on average about twice a year for jackpots of either €100 million or €130 million.
Under the old rules, if the jackpot was not won then the money was distributed between the winners of the next lower level. (As happened on 28 September 2007)

Under the new rules (as of 7 November 2009), if no one wins the Superdraw jackpot it is now rolled over to the next week. (As happened with the 5 February 2010 which rolled over to 12 February 2010 when the €129 million prize was split by two winners).

When to play Euromillions:

Originally there was only one draw per week held on a Friday night. In 2011 another draw was added to the format. EuroMillions draws are now held every Friday and Tuesday night at in Paris and can be watched on BBC One at 11:35pm.

EuroMillions Prize structure (standard draw with no rollover):

Click here to play the EuroMillions Lottery.