EuroMillions Jackpot Soars Past £120 Million

Updated: Wednesday 6th February 2019

Friday’s EuroMillions jackpot will be worth an estimated £123 million, giving players from all nine participating countries the chance to land one of the game’s largest ever prizes. Someone from the UK could even become the country’s third-biggest lottery winner of all time.

The Story Behind The Big Jackpot

The jackpot was increased to a guaranteed €120 million (£105 million) for a Superdraw on Friday 1st February, but there were no winning tickets so the top prize rolled over to Tuesday night. Again, nobody was quite able to land the £113 million jackpot, and now there will be even more money to play for in the next draw.

Superdraws only take place a few times a year to help create jackpots that are even larger than normal. Sometimes there is a winner on the night or in the next draw, but when this does not happen it means that the jackpot can start to grow more quickly as excitement increases.

The jackpot has already gone past the £115 million mark that was set by Frances and Patrick Connolly at the start of this year. The Connollys, from Northern Ireland, hit the headlines when they came forward and revealed they wanted to share their money with around 50 loved ones, saying they never thought ‘in their wildest dreams’ that they would win.

The Jackpot Could Keep Growing

The jackpot will keep growing until it is won or until it reaches its cap of €190 million (around £167 million based on the current exchange rate), at which point it will remain locked at this level for a maximum of five more draws.

When this happens, the excess money which would have gone to the jackpot is added to the ‘Match 5 + 1’ prize fund, leading to multimillion-pound awards in the second tier. The jackpot has reached €190 million on three separate occasions in EuroMillions history.

How To Win EuroMillions

You need to match all five main numbers and both Lucky Stars to win the EuroMillions jackpot. The odds are the same for every single line entered into a draw, and do not change when the top prize is larger or more tickets are sold.

There are also 12 other ways to win besides the jackpot, so you can pick up prizes just for matching a couple of the main numbers. The more numbers you match, the greater the reward, and the UK player in the Match 5 + 1 category on Tuesday pocketed £442,658.

There are various options for how to select your numbers. You can opt for a Lucky Dip if you want a random set of numbers, you can choose your own numbers or base them on statistics. You can play online or at a retailer, on your own or in a syndicate. You need to take part to have a chance, though, so why not see if you could become the next big winner?

Published: Wednesday 6th February 2019

Lottery News News Archive