Lottery odds calculator: your odds on any UK draw, or your own matrix

How to use the calculator

Pick one of the 6 UK draws in the list, or choose "Your own matrix" to describe any other game. Then set the number of lines you buy for each draw and the number of draws you play. The panel updates as you type. With the page loaded fresh, it shows the simplest case: a single Lotto line, bought once, for £2.00.

The big figure is the chance of winning at least one jackpot across everything you entered. Below it are the chance of at least one prize of any size, the number of prizes you would collect on average, the total cost and, for reference, the jackpot odds of one line in one draw. The table underneath lists every prize tier, our exact figure beside the operator's published one, and for Lotto the odds for a single round as well.

For your own matrix, enter how many numbers you choose and how big the pool is, then any extra balls that come from a second machine, such as stars or a bonus number drawn separately. Because a made-up game has no prize table, you also say what the smallest winning match is, for example three main numbers. Rows that do not count as a prize are shown in a paler colour.

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How the calculator works out the odds

Every figure starts from one count: the number of different lines the draw could produce. Choosing 6 numbers from 59 can be done in 45,057,474 ways, which is written C(59, 6). The order does not matter, so 3, 17, 22, 40, 51, 58 is one line however the balls come out. Each of those lines is equally likely, and that is all the calculator needs.

To match exactly m numbers, the draw must take m of your numbers and the rest from the numbers you did not choose. Multiply the ways of doing both and divide by the total. For games with a second pool, such as EuroMillions stars or the Thunderball, the same sum is done for that pool and the two chances are multiplied, because the machines are separate.

Lotto and The Health Lottery are different: their Bonus Ball comes out of the same machine, from the numbers left after the main draw. A line that matched five of six Lotto numbers holds one unmatched number, and the Bonus Ball is one of the 53 balls still in the drum, so it is yours with a chance of 1 in 53. The calculator handles that case separately.

Since 7 June 2026, Lotto has two rounds in each draw, and every line is entered into both. One round has the 45,057,474 possible lines above. The chance of winning a tier in either round is one minus the chance of missing it twice, which is why the per-draw jackpot odds are almost exactly half: 1 in 22,528,737 against 1 in 45,057,474 for one round.

Exact odds and published odds

The operator prints odds rounded to a convenient figure, and in most cases rounded up. The calculator keeps the unrounded value, so small differences are expected. Lotto Match 4 works out at 1 in 1,090.17 per draw; the official table says 1 in 1,091. Thunderball's "any prize" figure is published as 1 in 13, while the exact value is 1 in 12.38: the official figure is rounded up to a whole number, where ordinary rounding would give 12.

Powerball is the one draw in the list without a published any-prize figure, because the game rules do not state one. Counting every tier, including the UK-only Match 2 prize, the calculator gives 1 in 13.18. The Health Lottery publishes its top tier as about 1 in 2.1 million, which is C(50, 5) = 2,118,760 exactly. Every other tier in every draw agrees with the official figure once rounding is allowed for; the how we calculate the odds page lists the sources.

Worked examples

Ten Lotto lines in every draw for a year is 104 draws and £2,080.00 of tickets. The chance of at least one jackpot over that year is 1 in 21,663, or 0.0046%. Over the same year those 1,040 lines would win about 225 prizes on average, most of them the £1 Match 2 prize.

One EuroMillions line in both weekly draws for ten years comes to 1,040 draws and £2,600.00. The chance of the jackpot in that decade is 1 in 134,460. Playing Thunderball once in each of its four weekly draws for a year costs £208.00 and gives a 1 in 38,753 chance of its £500,000 top prize, with about 17 smaller prizes on average.

For a made-up game, try 6 from 49 with no extra balls: there are 13,983,816 possible lines, so the jackpot is 1 in 13,983,816. Add one extra ball from a pool of 10 and the jackpot becomes ten times harder, because every main line now splits into ten.

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What the calculator cannot tell you

It gives chances, not prize money. Many prizes are shared between winners or are a share of sales, so what a win pays depends on how many other people match the same numbers. The comparison of every UK draw, with what each one pays back and how, is on the UK lottery odds page, and the full tier tables are on the Lotto odds, EuroMillions odds, Thunderball odds and Set For Life odds pages.

No input makes a line more likely to win. Numbers that came up last week, birthdays and Lucky Dips all have the same chance; only the number of lines changes the maths, and the cost rises with it. If the figures here make you think about how much you spend on draws, our safer gambling page has free, confidential help.

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