Match 2 Winners Set to Benefit From Changes to Lotto Must Be Won Draws

Updated: Thursday 10th September 2020

The National Lottery is set to change how prize payouts work in Lotto Must Be Won draws. Match 2 winners will soon see a share of any jackpots that roll down, in addition the free Lucky Dip ticket they currently get.

Lotto Must Be Won Changes

Currently, if a rolldown occurs in a Lotto Must Be Won draw, you don’t get a share of the rolled down jackpot if you match two numbers - you still just get a free Lucky Dip for a future Lotto draw.

However, that looks set to change. From Saturday 7th November, all Match 2 winners will receive a £5 cash prize when a rolldown occurs in a Must Be Won draw, on top of the free Lucky Dip. It will be the first time that the National Lottery has offered a cash prize for matching two numbers in Lotto.

Commercial Director at Camelot, Neil Brocklehurst, said: “The changes we made a couple of years ago are continuing to prove really popular – particularly the ‘Must Be Won’ draws. But we’re always looking at ways to make our games even better, and one thing that Match 2 winners were regularly telling us was that they wanted a share of the jackpot too.”

A Must Be Won draw occurs when the Lotto jackpot rolls over for five consecutive draws. In the sixth draw, the jackpot prize money is guaranteed to be given away. If someone matches six numbers, they win the jackpot as normal, but if no one manages that, the prize money is shared between players in the Match 3 to Match 5 + Bonus Ball prize tiers. Each tier receives a certain percentage of the jackpot prize money, and that is split between all winners in that tier.

In each of the last five rolldowns, an average of £12 million in prize money has been shared in this way. Camelot has stated that there are between 950,000 and 1.3 million Match 2 winners in a Must Be Won draw, meaning that around £5 million of that rolldown fund (roughly 40%) will be needed to pay out the additional Match 2 prizes.

20 Guaranteed Millionaires Completes ‘Big September’ Lineup

At the same time as the changes to Lotto Must Be Won draws were announced, Camelot revealed that 20 UK millionaires will be guaranteed in EuroMillions on Friday 18th September. Details of the draw are to be confirmed but it will likely be another special edition of the Millionaire Maker raffle.

That will be the second special raffle in the space of a month, after 10 millionaires were made on 7th August, and completes an exciting month, which Camelot has dubbed ‘Big September.’

The month will start with a special Must Be Won Lotto draw, which will give away a guaranteed £20 million. The changes to Must Be Won draws will not be in effect at the time of that draw, so Match 2 winners will not receive the extra £5 prize money.

That will be followed by the guaranteed 20 millionaires in EuroMillions on 18th September, and the month will be finished by a EuroMillions Superdraw that’s set to offer a huge £115 million jackpot. What’s more, the EuroMillions jackpot already stands at £126 million, so there could be one nine-figure jackpot winner in the coming weeks and another one shortly after thanks to the Superdraw.

The excitement looks set to continue through the rest of the year too, as Camelot also mentioned that there will be a special Must Be Won draw in November to mark the changes to Lotto, before some festive special events at the end of the year.

Published: Wednesday 26th August 2020

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