Everyone wants to know the best way to win the lottery and for good reason. If you hit a lottery jackpot you could be ready for life. You may no longer have to work or you may be able to take that trip you’ve always wanted, or buy something special that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. This is part of the draw to play the lottery. But how can you improve your odds?

Get a group

The best strategy you can put together is to get a group together to play the lottery. When playing solo you have a certain amount of money that you can afford to spend on tickets for each draw. And whatever number of tickets that amount buys you, that’s the number of chances you have. So if you can afford five tickets, you have five chances to win.

If you work with a group of 10 people who all have a chance to buy five tickets, you’ve just raised your chances to 50. If your group is 20, you now have 100 chances. You’ll win a smaller share of the prize the more people you join your party, but isn’t that a part of something better than all of nothing?

When playing online , look for group tickets, often called union tickets. This is more tickets with preset number combinations. You can buy a share of those tickets, along with other players.

Play consistently

If you are looking to win, you need to be consistent in your gameplay. It is one of the best things you can do. Don’t buy a ticket for a week and then skip a couple of weeks. You cannot win if you are not actually playing. You may also want to focus more on the games you are playing and make sure you play the same games every week rather than jumping from game to game.

Remember, your goal is to get the best jackpot and you may or may not care what the jackpot is. Just make sure you play the game every time it draws or you might miss the chance. Even if you don’t play fixed numbers every week, missing out on a drawing where someone wins can feel like you’ve missed your chance.

Mix hot and cold numbers

Hot numbers are the ones that seem to draw frequently, more frequently than you think. Cold numbers are the ones that draw less frequently. On the other hand, late numbers are the ones that haven’t been drawn for a long time and should be out soon. By choosing any combination of these numbers you have a better chance of winning.

Choosing only hot numbers or only expired numbers is not a good strategy and makes it statistically unlikely that you will win the jackpot. But choosing between all the numbers together gives you a better chance.

The best thing you can do to increase your chances of winning is to get yourself at least one ticket for each draw and to ensure that you continue to purchase those tickets regularly. You don’t want to miss a jackpot because you forgot to grab a ticket this week.