One lucky player won £24,501,283 from the special Lotto draw on Wednesday, despite failing to get all six winning numbers. The winner actually matched five numbers and the bonus ball.
There was no ticket to match all six winning numbers in the Wednesday draw, and due to the fact that the jackpot had to be won, it rolled down to five numbers and the additional ball.
The lucky winner of the £24.5 million is yet to claim the jackpot. Here it is also interesting to note that when they step out, they will actually bank the largest sum won on Lotto this year.
As revealed by The National Lottery, as many as 66 Lotto tickets matched five numbers in the Wednesday draw. Their holders will cash £1,128 each. There were 4,807 ticket holders to match four numbers. They will bank £99. A total of 102,060 will be awarded £25 for matching three numbers, and another 912,973 matched two main numbers to be granted a free lucky dip entry.
Wednesday’s winning numbers were 18, 36, 48, 57, 58, 59 with a bonus ball 50. The Lotto jackpot is expected to reach £3.2 million for Saturday’s draw.
The National Lottery: 2017 in Review
As revealed by The National Lottery, the total amount of £796 million was paid out to fortunate lottery players in 2017. The lottery operator has thus awarded over £65 billion in winnings since the launch of its first game.
There were 782 lucky winners to bank National Lottery winnings of more than £50,000 over the course of 2017. A total of seven EuroMillions jackpots were won this year by UK players coming from different parts of the nation.
For instance, one such lucky player won the amount of £87 million back in June. In August, a winner claimed a jackpot of £51.7 million after matching the winning numbers in the popular lottery game.
As for the National Lottery’s Lotto game, the still-unclaimed £24,501,283 was the largest to be landed this year. However, there were still several big winners throughout the year.
Back in November, a lucky player matched all six figures to win £18,188,218. In September, the winning numbers were also matched by a fortunate lottery player, who had £16,976,182 to claim. Lotto jackpots were hit in August and July, as well, as it can be seen from the National Lottery’s website.
Upcoming Changes
Camelot, the operator of The National Lottery, announced earlier this year that changes will be introduced to the Lotto game in 2018 based on players’ feedback. According to media reports, said changes may include ticket price cuts and decrease in the number of balls.
A new strategy is being developed by Camelot’s new permanent Chief Executive Nigel Railton and a number of options “for a better winning experience” are being tested, as the lottery operator itself has revealed.
Changes were introduced to the Lotto draw back in 2015, but faced heavy criticism as these included an increase in the number of balls to 59 from 49. As a result, the chance to win the jackpot dropped to one in 45 million from one in 14 million. These and more changes were blamed for the massive 8.8% decrease in sales for the 2016/17 financial year to £6.9 billion. Camelot is hoping that by developing a new strategy for its Lotto draw, it will manage to boost sales.
- Author
Daniel Williams
