Two Festive Lotto Draws To Give Away £15 Million Jackpots
Fresh from a Must Be Won draw on Wednesday 13th December, Lotto will hold two more events of the same kind before the end of the year. Both will offer a jackpot of £15 million.
Must Be Won draws usually take place after there have been five consecutive rollovers. Current rules dictate that the jackpot has to be paid out in the following draw, whether someone matches all the numbers or not. Ticket sales usually push the top prize up to between £11 million and £13 million by the time it has to be won.
However, National Lottery organisers also schedule special Must Be Won draws at certain times of the year, bumping up the jackpot to a set amount regardless of what has just happened. That is the case for these two big Christmas draws.
When Are the Must Be Won Draws?
The first festive Must Be Won draw will take place on Saturday 23rd December, with the second one going ahead a week later on Saturday 30th December.
It could be that the jackpot is won by a single player in one or both draws, or that it has to roll down. Either way, £30 million is guaranteed to be given away, on top of the regular prizes that are won.
If there is a rolldown, it means that the jackpot money has to be split between everyone else who wins a prize. All Match 2 winners receive £5 in addition to their usual Lucky Dip, while the rest of the £15 million is broken up and a percentage is allocated to each of the other four prize tiers.
The benefit of a Must Be Won draw is that it gives you the chance to win a far bigger prize than normal, even though the odds are exactly the same. If you match three main numbers, for example, you could win more than £100 instead of the standard £30. The exact prize amounts always vary based on the number of winners.
A Year of Big Winners
Lotto has produced a number of big winners in 2023, including the ticket holder who matched all the numbers to pocket £20 million in a Must Be Won draw on 1st July.
It is still the UK’s flagship game, having been launched back in 1994 as the National Lottery. Lotto has undergone many changes over the past 30 years, and more could be on the way in 2024 when incoming operator Allwyn set to become the new licence holder.
Draws take place every Wednesday and Saturday night, and you can buy tickets from authorised retailers or take part online.
Published: Thursday 14th December 2023Lottery News News Archive