Why You Should Join A Syndicate For This Week’s EuroMillions and Lotto Draws
Last Updated: Wednesday 11th November 2020, 11:55
With tonight’s EuroMillions jackpot worth an estimated £21 million followed by tomorrow’s Lotto draw for £14.5 million, have you considered the benefits of joining a lottery syndicate? Find out how a syndicate can boost your chances of winning a prize in these lotteries.
What is a Lottery Syndicate?
A lottery syndicate is a group of people who enter a draw together online or offline. An offline group might be made up of your friends, family, or work colleagues, whereas online groups are often with fellow online players who you may not know. Syndicates offer a cost-effective way of playing multiple lines in lotteries including EuroMillions and Lotto.
Why Do Syndicates Offer Better Odds?
If you buy a single ticket for a lottery draw, you have one chance of landing a prize, and you have to buy additional lines to increase your odds of winning. Joining a syndicate is a good alternative as you can own a share of lots of different tickets, offering better odds as well as keeping the cost down.
For example, if your syndicate group of 50 people wins £5 million in a Lotto draw, each share is worth £100,000. So, if you bought one share, you would receive £100,000, but you would get £400,000 if you bought four shares. You can buy as many shares as you want in an online syndicate, and the more you buy, the bigger your potential prize.
A syndicate group can start from just two people and can contain as many people as you want. All you need to remember is that bigger groups increase your chances of claiming a prize, but any winnings will have to be shared between more players.
Online and Offline Syndicates
There are two types of syndicate available. The biggest benefit of entering online lottery syndicates is their convenience - you don’t have to leave the house or venture down to the local shops to buy a ticket. After deciding which lottery to play, just follow the on-site instructions to buy your shares with fellow online players.
Prizes from online syndicates are always divided equally between each player, depending on how many shares you’ve bought. The lottery concierge service you use to buy your shares from will always store copies of your tickets in your account as proof of purchase.
Another big advantage of entering syndicates online is that prizes are automatically paid out to each syndicate member. It’s a quick and easy process compared to offline syndicates, where members need to contact each other and work out how much each person is owed. Playing offline requires more effort and organisation, given you need to ask people to come into your syndicate group before physically going out to buy the tickets from an authorised ticket retailer.
Furthermore, a winning lottery ticket can only be collected offline by one person in the UK, so if you’re part of an offline winning syndicate, it makes sense to designate one person to take charge of the overall group. This person should also create a syndicate agreement, like a formal document, for all participating players. Find out more about what their roles and responsibilities might be on our Create a Lottery Syndicate page.
Winning As Part of Syndicate
It isn’t uncommon for syndicates to win big lottery prizes, with approximately one in five top prizes won by syndicates in the UK. A group of 11 Driffield-based Tesco workers landed an £18.2 million Lotto jackpot in July 2005 after one of their 13 lines matches the six main numbers. Nine players received £1.4 million each, whilst two players with two shares pocketed £2.8 million each.
A family of five also had reason to celebrate in July 2016. Sonia Davies had just had a successful operation on a tumour and, along with partner Keith, her daughters Courtney and Stephanie, and Stephanie’s boyfriend Steve, they then scooped a £61.1 million EuroMillions jackpot as a five-person syndicate.
Join A Syndicate Today
Join a EuroMillions or Lotto syndicate today if you want to be in with a chance of following in the footsteps of the Tesco workers or Davies family. If you do become a winner, make sure you claim your prize as there’s a Lotto prize worth £9.5 million still unclaimed from April. Good luck to you and your syndicate group!