Record jackpot! Euromillions reaches its highest amount in history with 240 million euros

It seems that Euromillions did not want to say goodbye to 2023 without leaving us a big surprise to remember. And the fact is that, after there were no winners in last Tuesday's draw, the prize accumulated again for the draw this Friday, December 8, reaching its highest figure in history: a first prize of 240 million euros!

This is not only a record amount for the lottery, but also the reaching of a new limit. We recall that, since July 2022, when the current record jackpot of 230 million euros was drawn, the Euromillions limit was extended by another 10 million euros, reaching the current limit of 240 million euros. So we can say that finally the European lottery has reached its limit. After this prize is drawn, the limit will grow another 10 million for the last time to 250 million euros, which is its maximum limit according to the rules in force since 2020.

Therefore, before the end of 2023 there will be at least one winner of the biggest Euromillions jackpot to date. Why? Because the Euromillions rules state that, once the jackpot limit has been reached, it must be drawn in the next 5 draws, known as the "Must be Won" rule.

Thus, if tomorrow's draw were to remain vacant again without a winner, the first prize would remain static for another 5 draws. All the money collected for the first prize, would go to swell the figures of the lower prize categories, reaching much larger figures than normal in these categories. And if, by the fifth draw, there was still no winner, the first prize would finally be distributed among the winners of the next prize bracket with correct numbers. In this way, it is guaranteed that there will be a winner in a maximum of 5 additional drawings.

This Friday's draw will take place at 21:00h (Paris time) like all Euromillions draws. We remind you that you can buy bets to participate in this historical draw up to one hour before the draw, in any of its modalities: single, multiple, pool or group bets.
Let's make a brief review of the Euromillions rules to have everything ready to be part of this great draw:

Euromillions Rules

The Euromillions draw consists of matching 5 numbers drawn at random from a first drum with a total of 50 numbers from 1 to 50, plus two other numbers called lucky stars, which are also chosen at random from another drum with 12 numbers from 1 to 12. Whoever matches the winning combination formed by these 5 numbers and the 2 stars will win the first prize, also known as jackpot..

Euromillions Prizes

Although the first prize is won only by matching the 5 numbers and the 2 stars, there are also more prizes for those who match fewer numbers. In total, there are 13 categories of prizes in Euromillions, ranging from the big jackpot by matching all the numbers, to a last prize that allows to recover the value of the bet for those who match at least 2 numbers.

Odds of winning

The odds of winning the first prize in Euromillions with a single bet are minimal, since in total there are 139,838,160 possible number combinations. However, the odds are much more accessible in the case of the lower prizes since the fewer numbers you need to match, the greater the range of possibilities.

In the following table all the Euromillions prizes are broken down with their probabilities of success:

How to play Euromillions

There are several ways to participate in the draw. The most basic way is to complete at least one single bet with 5 numbers and 2 stars. Each Euromillions ticket allows you to complete up to 5 single bets at a time. The price of the ticket is calculated according to the total amount of completed bets.

As we said, the odds of winning Euromillions playing single bets are really tiny. For this reason, some players prefer to opt for the multi-betting system. Multiple bets allow you to create a single bet with several combinations at the same time, since they allow you to select more numbers. You can create multiple bets starting from 6 numbers: the more numbers you add, the higher the odds of matching any of them.

Of course, although multiple bets improve the chances of winning, they can also be very expensive if we add many numbers, since the final price of the ticket is calculated according to the total amount of combinations that can be played among all those numbers. A good alternative is to play with Lottofy's super formulas, a mathematical system that reduces the total amount of combinations in play while maintaining quite high success rates. If you want to know more about multiple bets and Lottofy's super formulas, we recommend you to read this article about multiple betting strategies.

Finally, there are the Euromillions groups and pools. These are collective gaming alternatives, where several players share bets in order to play with more numbers at the same time but sharing the costs among all of them. In the pools or groups, all players contribute a certain amount of money, called "participation", and with all the participations as many bets as possible are bought. All the prizes obtained from these bets are divided among all the members of the group.

The funds, on the other hand, are a type of collective bet exclusive to Lottofy. Here, each player buys his own bets, but decides to share them in a common prize pool. Thus, all bets included in the pool agree to share 50% of their prizes with the pool, which is shared among all participants. Even if it means giving up half of a possible prize, it also provides the opportunity to access a part of the prizes of other possible winners.

If you have doubts about whether or not you should play in groups or pools, we recommend you to read this other article about the advantages and disadvantages of playing the lottery alone or in a group.