Lottery Odds

A lottery’s odds tell you how likely it is that you will win a prize when you buy a ticket. Find out how the chances of winning are calculated and see the odds for some of the world’s biggest games on this page.

You have to match all the winning numbers drawn to win a lottery jackpot, so the odds depend on how many numbers you have to choose and how many numbers there were to choose from.

To win the top prize in Italy’s SuperEnalotto, for example, you have to match six numbers from a choice of 1 to 90. There are 622,614,630 possible combinations of six numbers between 1 and 90, so the jackpot odds are 1 in 622,614,630.

There are other ways to win prizes besides matching all the numbers. For example, you also win a prize in SuperEnalotto if you match two, three, four or five numbers, or even five numbers plus the Jolly. The odds are always worked out in the same way and represent the ratio of winning chances in that particular tier.

The overall odds of winning a prize on a lottery refer to how likely it is that your numbers will win any award. As such, the overall odds will depend on how many prize tiers are available as well as what you need to do to win in each one.

Biggest Lottery Game Odds

Euromillions Odds Match 5 + 2: Odds - 1 in 139,838,160 Match 5 + 1: Odds - 1 in 6,991,908 Match 5: Odds - 1 in 3,107,515 Overall odds of having a winning lottery ticket - 1 in 13	Powerball Odds Match 5 + Powerball: Odds - 1 in 292,201,338 Match 5: Odds - 1 in 11,688,053.52 Match 4 + Powerball: Odds - 1 in 1 in 913,129.18 Overall odds of having a winning lottery ticket - 1 in 24.87
Mega Millions Odds Match 5 + Mega Ball: Odds: 1 in 302,575,350 Match 5: Odds: 1 in 12,607,306 Match 4 + Mega Ball: 1 in 931,001 Overall odds of having a winning lottery ticket: 1 in 14.7	SuperEnalotto Odds Match 6: Odds - 1 in 622,614,630 Match 5 + Jolly Number: Odds - 1 in 103,769,105 Match 5: Odds - 1 in 1,250,230 Overall odds of having a winning lottery ticket - 1 in 318

The only way to boost the odds of winning a prize is to play more lines. If you purchase two tickets instead of one, for instance, you are doubling your chances of winning. Another way to play multiple lines is to join a syndicate, so that you can own a share of more entries while sharing the cost with other players.