£17.2 Million Lotto Jackpot Split by Two Players
Last Updated: Monday 22nd January 2018, 10:57
Two Lotto players are starting a new week as multimillionaires, after they shared a £17.2 million jackpot on Saturday 20th January. The top prize had rolled six times since Gloucester taxi driver Amo Riselli clinched a £24.5 million win on Wednesday 27th December.
First Lotto Match 6 Winners Since November
Although the dad-of-five was the last player to win the jackpot, he didn’t match all six main numbers in the draw. As the jackpot had breached its cap, the top prize had to be won and, as no one matched the full winning line and Amo was the only Match 5+1 winner, he received the full bounty.
The last time anyone matched all six main balls was Saturday 18th November 2017, when a single ticket scooped £18.1 million.
Most Lotto Winners for More than a Year
As well as creating two new jackpot winners, there were a further 218,926 winners of cash prizes in Saturday’s draw, the most since Saturday 19th November 2016. This could be due to the winning numbers, 2, 10, 19, 28, 29 and 31 all being within the popular ‘date range’.
A common method for picking Lotto numbers is to use significant dates, which limits number selections to 31 and below, and means that more players win awards when all of the balls fit into the range. However, this can reduce prize values, as they are calculated by dividing the ticket money allocated to each tier by the number of winners within it. It also means that, if you use this system and a number is drawn between 32 and 59, you instantly know you cannot win the jackpot.
Additional Lotto Winners
On Saturday, there were a further 1.4 million Match 2 winners, who picked up a free Lotto Lucky Dip for their efforts, 20 Lotto Raffle winners of £20,000 and a Lotto Millionaire Raffle player who picked up a mighty £1 million. You can find a full breakdown, with all 21 Lotto Raffle winning codes, at the Lotto Results page.
Wednesday’s Lotto Jackpot
Wednesday’s Lotto jackpot is worth £1.8 million and you can buy Lotto tickets at authorised retailers across the UK. One way to improve your odds of winning is to join an online syndicate, where you have multiple lines played on your behalf for as little as the cost of one share in the group. Take a look at the Lottery Tickets page for more.