The first thing you have to accept is that your chances in the lottery are small. The actual odds for any lottery vary, they depend on the size of the numbers pool and how many numbers you must pick. In order to increase the jackpot size, there is a tendency towards larger numbers pools and more numbers that you have to pick correctly. Usually, you need to have five or six main numbers correctly, plus one or two extra numbers. And it is mostly due to those two extra numbers that the odds for a jackpot are so small. That leads to the last tip on our list, which you definitely should take a look at.
Here is a list of the most important tips for the lottery
Tip #1: Consistency
Because of the small odds, do not expect to win right away. Set a monthly budget that you can afford to spend on lottery tickets, and keep playing week after week. There is a good reason why people tend to play the same numbers every week. There is a certain probability that if you play a set of numbers for a long enough time, they will win eventually!
Tip #2: Pick your lotteries according to the jackpot sizes
This is quite important. Spending the same amount of money on a larger jackpot is a more efficient use of your funds. Math dictates that if the price for a ticket is constant, and the odds are constant too, then you are better off playing for a bigger jackpot. It’s only logical since the potential reward is higher. This is the main reason for the next tip.
Tip #3: Play online instead of focusing on your local lotto
Playing your local lottery week after week may be convenient, but it is actually not the best idea. You would be playing “your” lottery, no matter what the size of the jackpot is. Not a good idea if you want to spend your money wisely. Our website and service give you more and better choices. The great advantage of our website is that you can participate in lotteries from other countries, such as Euromillions, Powerball, or Mega Millions.
More lotteries to choose from means that you can always pick the one with the currently highest jackpot! You can still use the same numbers if you want, although depending on the rules you may have to add or eliminate a number and/or choose different extra numbers.
Tip #4: Don’t use too many smaller numbers
A high percentage of people use birth dates to pick their numbers. In consequence, whenever all drawn numbers are lower than 32, there are more winning tickets. That means that the payout for each prize tier is smaller. Imagine you manage to win a first or second-tier prize, only to find out that you have to share it with dozens or even hundreds of other players! Bear in mind that, technically, the combination of every number is equally probable to be drawn. We suggest that for your regular lucky numbers, choose a rather “improbable” combination of numbers, like 4 numbers between 35 and 45 plus one or two other random numbers.
Tip #5: Cover ALL the extra numbers
If a lottery has a structure with one extra number, there is something you can do to vastly improve your chances for the jackpot. It’s actually quite simple – use the same main numbers, and buy one ticket for each possible additional number! For example, if the lottery requires you to choose 5 numbers out of 59 plus one number between 1 and 10, use the same numbers for the first five, and buy one ticket with the extra number 1, another one with the extra number 2, and so on.
That way, you are guaranteed to win the jackpot if you get the first five numbers correctly. At the same time, you win ten times the amount with every win of a low tier prize.
Tip #6: Look at the second-tier prize as well
Most lottery fans look at the jackpot first, and they tend to forget that winning a second-tier prize will be more than enough to change their lives forever. Most lotteries are structured in a way that you win the second tier whenever you have the five or six main numbers correctly. And as we already said in the introduction, it is the extra numbers that make it so difficult to crack the jackpot. That said, you should consider the size of the prize that you get if you have the main winning numbers only, and choose your lottery according to the second-tier prize. Again, playing online on our site gives you better choices for employing this strategy as well.