How many numbers are in the UK National Lottery?
In the main Lotto game you pick 6 numbers from 1 to 59, and a separate Bonus Ballis drawn for the second prize. It hasn’t always been 59: the pool jumped from 49 in 2015, and that single change more than tripled the jackpot odds.
Six numbers — from 59, or the old 49
Pick 6, or hit Lucky Dip. Flip to the pre-2015 format to watch the odds shift.
Six picks, plus the Bonus Ball
You choose six main numbers. In the draw, six are pulled to set the jackpot — then a seventh, the Bonus Ball, is drawn from the same machine. You never pick the Bonus Ball yourself; it only matters if you’ve matched five mains, bumping you up to the “Match 5 + Bonus” tier worth a fixed £1 million.
Matching all six mains wins the jackpot, at odds of 1 in 45,057,474 — that’s 59-choose-6. Curious how that figure is built, or how it compares to Powerball? Our lottery combinations calculator works it out for any format.
From 1994 to today
The National Lottery was created under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993 by John Major’s government, with Camelot Group winning the first licence. The inaugural draw aired on BBC1 on 19 November 1994, hosted by Noel Edmonds; seven jackpot winners split about £5.9 million that night. For its first two decades the game was a straight 6-from-49.
In October 2015 Camelot expanded the pool to 59 balls — a controversial move that made the jackpot harder to win but produced bigger, more frequent rollover headlines. After nearly thirty years, Camelot handed the licence to Allwyn in February 2024, under the regulation of the Gambling Commission. A slice of every ticket still goes to “good causes,” which have received tens of billions of pounds since launch.
A piece of trivia that survives to this day: the draw machines have names. The earliest carried Arthurian titles — Guinevere ran the very first draw, alongside the likes of Lancelot and Merlin — with later machines switching to gemstone names. Several identical machines are rotated at random so no single one runs often enough to develop a bias.
The six prize tiers
Match just two numbers and you already win — though that prize is a free Lucky Dip into the next draw rather than cash. The overall chance of winning any prize is roughly 1 in 9.
| Match | Prize | Odds |
|---|---|---|
| Match 6 | Jackpot | 1 in 45,057,474 |
| Match 5 + Bonus | £1,000,000 | 1 in 7,509,579 |
| Match 5 | £1,750 | 1 in 144,415 |
| Match 4 | £140 | 1 in 2,180 |
| Match 3 | £30 | 1 in 96.7 |
| Match 2 | Free Lucky Dip | 1 in 10.3 |
Match 3, 4 and 5 prizes vary slightly each draw because some tiers share a prize fund; the figures above are typical published amounts.
The biggest Lotto wins
The record Lotto jackpot is £66 million, drawn on 9 January 2016 after fourteen weeks with no winner triggered a “Must Be Won” rolldown. It was split two ways: David and Carol Martin of Hawick in the Scottish Borders claimed one half (~£33 million), and an anonymous ticket-holder from Worcester took the other.
Earlier, in 1995, business partners Mark Gardiner and Paul Maddison won £22.5 million on a single ticket — then the largest individual Lotto prize. Bigger sums still are won through EuroMillions, the European game also sold under the National Lottery, where UK players have taken nine-figure jackpots; but those are a separate game with a different number format.
Common questions
Sources
- The National Lottery / Allwyn — current 6/59 Lotto format, Bonus Ball rules and prize tiers.
- National Lottery etc. Act 1993; first draw 19 November 1994 (Camelot, host Noel Edmonds); 6/49 → 6/59 change October 2015.
- UK Gambling Commission — Camelot-to-Allwyn licence transfer, February 2024.
- BBC News — record £66 million “Must Be Won” jackpot (9 January 2016), split between the Martins of Hawick and an anonymous Worcester ticket-holder.
Related
Six numbers from fifty-nine — a count that quietly grew by ten balls in 2015 and turned a one-in-fourteen-million dream into one in forty-five.
The National Lottery is for players aged 18 and over. If gambling stops being fun, free, confidential support is available through GamCare and the National Gambling Helpline.