The Best European Online Lotteries
The United States may be famous for their sky-high jackpots, but the constant improvement of European-based lottery games has become serious competition. Nowadays, there are multiple lotteries available for European citizens which often offer better ticket prices and extremely optimistic odds, unlike their American counterparts.
The EuroMillions lottery was first established in February, 2004 between three countries – the UK, France and Spain. However, word spread and by the 8th of September the same year, six more countries had joined in – Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Ireland and Luxembourg.
The first drawing consisted of choosing five main numbers from 1 to 50 and two Lucky Stars. These Lucky Stars were first chosen from a pool of numbers ranging from 1 to 9. Later they were increased to 11 and ultimately to 12 up until present.
With a €190 million jackpot cap and occasional Superdraws starting from a guaranteed €130 million up to the same cap, Europeans eagerly await the drawings which take place every Tuesday and Friday.
EuroJackpot
A more recent addition to the European lottery family, EuroJackpot has started its first draw in March, 23, 2012. Unlike the previous game, this lottery includes a total of 17 countries – Croatia, Iceland, Slovakia, Estonia, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Denmark, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Hungary.
This lottery is played more or less the same way as EuroMillions. Players first choose five main numbers from a 1-50 range and two Euro numbers from 1 to 10. Matching all seven numbers brings you the jackpot which starts off with €10 million and is capped at €90 million.
El Gordo de Navidad
The Spanish lottery officially known as Loteria de Navidad is much more than sheer entertainment and wish to get lucky. This is in fact one of the events of the year as it is held on 22nd of December and has become a part of their Christmas tradition. You’ll be surprised to know that it’s customary to bring people an El Gordo ticket as a present.
This lottery’s draws are unique as they go on for hours with thousands of balls in two separate machines known as ‘bombos’. The balls that are being drawn either mark a specific prize or a combination of numbers. What’s even more interesting is the fact that children from the San Ildefonso School in Madrid select the balls and sing the results.
Due to the unique game play, this lotto also has its one-of-a-kind tickets known as ‘billete’ which cover all prize tiers or a tenth of a ticket – ‘decimo’.
El Niño
Right after El Gordo and New Year’s Eve, Spain has another famous lottery. This one also resembles a raffle and takes longer than the usual time when it comes to the draws.
Here, tickets are sold as tenths (‘decimos’), each bearing a number sequence from 00000 to 99999. The draw consists of two machines, one to determine the number of the ticket and the other to determine the prize awarded to its owner. With extremely high odds, players aren’t bothered by the relatively low jackpot amount of €200,000 per decimo.
