1,000th EuroMillions Draw This Friday!

1. Lottery.co.uk
2. News
3. 1,000th EuroMillions Draw This Friday!

Believe it or not, the EuroMillions draw that is scheduled to take place this Friday 21 April will be the 1,000th since the pan-European lottery began back in February 2004. In some ways, it doesn’t seem all that long ago since EuroMillions arrived on the scene, but the game genuinely shook things up for lottery players in the UK when it was launched, and it has continued breaking new ground ever since.

The first thing that made EuroMillions different from other lottery games that were available in the UK at the time of its launch was the fact that it wasn’t restricted to players in this country. From the outset, the game was also open to lottery players in Spain and France, and more nations joined over time, to the point where players from nine European countries can now play.

Having more than one country involved in the game meant that the money raised from ticket sales was always much higher than in any UK-only lottery, so EuroMillions could offer much bigger jackpots, and it gave players the chance to win an eight-figure fortune for little more than some pocket change. At the same time, the game made it relatively easy to win one of the other prizes on offer, with every ticket giving its owner a 1 in 13 chance of winning a prize of some sort.

There have been 365 jackpot winners since the game began, which equates to more than one winner for every three draws that have taken place. Lottery players in France have fared best of all, with 85 wins, whilst the other two founding countries, Spain and the UK, have notched up 82 and 65 wins, respectively. 

The most common main numbers that have appeared since 2004 are 50, 44, 23, 04 and 19, and the most common Lucky Star numbers are 08 and 09. The most common pair of numbers that has been drawn over the years is 11 and 29, which has been drawn 20 times, and the most common consecutive pair has been 23 and 24, which has been drawn 15 times.

As far as sums of money won is concerned, the biggest jackpots landed have been worth €190 million each. That sum has been won twice – once in August 2012 by Adrian and Gillian Bayford here in the UK, and once in October 2014 by a player in Portugal. The biggest prize won in pounds sterling was worth £161.6 million, and that sum was landed by UK couple Colin and Christine Weir in July 2011. The Weirs were helped by a favourable exchange rate that made their €185 million prize worth more in the UK than the Bayfords' €190 million haul, which converted to £148.6 million.  

Of course, it isn’t just the lottery players who have benefited from EuroMillions, because 28 percent of monies raised through all National Lottery ticket sales in the UK is used to fund a variety of Good Causes. More than £36 billion has been raised for Good Causes by UK lottery players since 1994, and EuroMillions participation has contributed significantly to that sum, so the game has done as much to make us proud as it has to entertain us.

Congratulations to the many millions of players who have won prizes of any kind over the last 13 years. If you would like to join their ranks, the 1,000th draw this Friday 21 April will offer a jackpot worth around £30 million, and two UK players are guaranteed to win £1 million each thanks to Millionaire Maker. You can choose your numbers online now. Good luck to those of you who get involved and be sure to let us know if you win big!