How to play and win the lottery online
With the current COVID pandemic more players are embracing online gambling and playing National Lottery games and international lotteries online. Playing lotto online is very easy and convenient and within a few minutes you will have your lucky lotto ticket.
Participating in online lotto has many advantages. Therefore, we have put together some guidance on how to play and what strategy you might want to follow to be the next big lotto winner.
How to play lotto online
- Register or log into your online account with your preferred online partner. If you do not have an online lottery account yet, have a look at our reviewed, trusted lotto betting sites.
- Choose the lottery you want to play, such as Daily Lotto, Powerball or UK49’s.
- Pick your lotto numbers
- Select how many draws you want to enter
- Pay for your tickets
- Check your online lotto account for the lotto results and claim your win
How to pick your lottery numbers
While lotto is a game of luck and the lottery numbers are drawn totally at random there are some tips and lottery strategies that you can keep in mind when picking your numbers. A few people have won the lottery multiple times, so some strategies might bring you luck and increase your chance of winning.
Here are our Top 10 tips to play and win the lottery online:
Tip 1: Hot, Cold and Overdue numbers
Even so lottery numbers are drawn at random some numbers appear more than others. Hot numbers are the lottery numbers that are drawn more frequently while cold numbers are the ones that are drawn the least. Overdue numbers are numbers that have not shown up in recent weeks. By analysing past lottery results you could create your best set of winning numbers. While some players match hot, cold and overdue numbers to create their lotto number combination others prefer to choose overdue numbers only. Also consider researching lotto results and statistics for the most drawn common pairs or triplets and consecutive pairs or triplets. As a general rule it is best to avoid more than 2 consecutive numbers, for example the sequence 1, 2, 3 is one to prevent.
Tip 2: Avoid the birthday bias
Many players pick their lottery numbers based on birthdays, special occasions, or events such as their wedding day. While these might be very special numbers for you it comes with the disadvantage that higher numbers will be overlooked as they do not appear on the calendar.
Tip 3: Make your ticket unique
Every number has the same likelihood of being drawn and every line has the same chance of hitting the jackpot. Nevertheless, playing lotto with uncommon numbers, seemingly unlucky numbers such as 13 and using a unique number combination will result in you not needing to share a potential jackpot win. Try to be creative with your selection!
Tip 4: Let a computer system choose numbers for you
We all dream of winning the lotto jackpot and hence picking our lottery numbers adds a certain level of pressure. Take the stress and also the birthday bias away by leaving the outcome of your lottery game to chance. You can do this by letting the computer pick for you. All national lottery games have the ‘Quick Pick’ option, an integrated system functionality that will pick the numbers randomly for you. Alternatively, you can also use an external Lotto Number Generator which will create your own random set of numbers.
Tip 5: Increase your chance of winning with more lotto tickets
The more lottery tickets you have for a certain lotto draw the higher your odds of winning will be. While more tickets come with increased chances to win you should consider the prize of buying tickets and if the additional investment is worth it.
Tip 6: Play regularly
There is nothing worse than forgetting to play your regular lottery and then finding out that your numbers would have won big. With the national lotteries you have the chance to multi buy and enter your numbers for a set amount of draws.
Tip 7: Join a syndicate
Lotto syndicates are an easy way of boosting your chance. You can create your own syndicate by involving family, friends or colleagues or simply join an online syndicate. By playing as a group and pooling entries with other players the same amount of money will buy you more tickets. But in case of a win you will need to share.
Tip 8: Choose games with better odds
Before entering a lottery draw and buying your lotto tickets take some time to familiarise yourself with the lottery and its probabilities. Make sure that you know how your chosen lottery game is played, its rules, odds and other terms beforehand. While we all want to win a massive lottery jackpot the chances vary greatly between the different national lotteries available in SA and also worldwide. So do a little bit of research and compare the odds and potential payoffs. For example, within the games offered by the South African National Lottery you will see quite a difference in winning probability. The odds are 1:38 for Lotto, 1:18 for Powerball and 1:7.6 for Daily Lotto. Compared to the odds of EAZiWin games starting at 1:4 these instant games could be actually quite attractive.
Tip 9: Choose unpopular games or less popular lotteries
The higher a lottery jackpot climbs the more people participate in the hope of being the lucky jackpot winner. While the fear of losing out is a normal human instinct please consider also the less popular lotteries. With less people entering these you can improve your chances of winning. The jackpot sizes might be smaller but winning is more realistic and in addition you might win more over time than by competing for a big jackpot of a highly popular lottery. Also look out for more unpopular games which might be played at unusual times.
Tip 10: Check your lottery results
Sounds trivial but this is possibly the winning tip. Always remember to check your results. Over the years a few players have made the news by either never claiming their win or missing the deadline to claim a win. When you play lotto online it has the benefit that the system will notify you whenever you have won, and you can claim your winnings directly in your online lotto account.
Where to check your lottery results
You can find all lottery results across various websites but if you play online you can check these straight away in your online lotto account and even get notifications. When playing online you will never miss a win!
Now it is your turn to play and win the lottery online!
Keep in mind that all lotteries are a game of luck and while the number selection strategies might help you, they are not guaranteeing a win. However, it is possible to bag a big jackpot win and many South Africans got fortunate while playing the lottery online. We wish you best of luck while you play and win the lottery online!