EuroJackpot guide – rules, draws and myths

How does EuroJackpot work?

On each line you pick 5 numbers from 50 and 2 Euro numbers from 12. The draw also picks 5 numbers and 2 Euro numbers. There are 12 prize tiers: the lowest (tier 12) is 2 numbers plus 1 Euro number, the highest – the jackpot in tier 1 – is all 5 numbers plus both Euro numbers. You must be 18 or older to play.

How much does one line cost?

In Germany one line costs €2 per draw, plus a processing fee per slip that is set by your state lottery company. Depending on the state, a slip holds 8 to 15 lines. Zahloo does not sell lottery tickets – you play at a retailer or through your lottery company's official online service.

Which countries take part?

19 countries: Germany, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

When are the draws – and when do sales close?

Draws take place every Tuesday and Friday evening in Helsinki, Finland, supervised by the police and a notary. The sales deadline is set by each lottery company: it falls in the early evening of the draw day and can differ between regions and between retail and online play. Please check the exact time with the licensed provider you play with.

How big can the jackpot get?

Tier 1 holds at least €10 million and at most €120 million in every draw. If nobody wins the jackpot, it grows until the next draw – but never above €120 million. Anything above that goes to tier 2 (5 numbers + 1 Euro number), which is also capped at €120 million. There is no forced payout of the jackpot.

How are prizes shared?

In three steps:

1. As a rule, 50% of all stakes are paid out as prizes.
2. This prize money is split between the tiers by fixed percentages – for example 36% to tier 1 (jackpot) and 20.3% to tier 12 (2 numbers + 1 Euro number). 9% goes into a booster fund, which among other things guarantees the €10 million minimum jackpot.
3. Within a tier, the amount is shared equally between everyone who won in that tier in that draw.

So the percentages decide how much money a tier receives in total; how much you get also depends on how many other people won in the same tier. A win in a higher tier does not also pay the lower tiers.

How are the odds calculated?

There are 2,118,760 possible combinations for the 5 numbers and 66 for the 2 Euro numbers – 139,838,160 in total. For each prize tier you count how many of them have exactly the required matches.

Example, tier 9 (3 numbers + 1 Euro number): 10 ways to match 3 of the 5 winning numbers × 990 ways to pick the other 2 numbers from the 45 that were not drawn × 2 ways to match one of the two Euro numbers × 10 ways to pick the other Euro number from the 10 that were not drawn = 198,000 combinations. 139,838,160 ÷ 198,000 ≈ 706 – so the chance of tier 9 is 1 in 706.

The chance of winning any prize is about 1 in 32. All 12 tiers are on the odds page.

Statistics, probability, prediction – what is the difference?

Probability is fixed by mathematics: in every draw each number from 1 to 50 has a 10% chance of being drawn (5 of 50), each Euro number about 16.7% (2 of 12) – whatever happened before.

Statistics describe what actually happened in past draws, such as how often a number came up. That some numbers appeared more often than others is normal randomness.

A prediction cannot be derived from that, because draws do not depend on each other. A number that has not come up for a long time is not "due", and a frequent number is not "hot".

So what does smart number choice do?

Many people play birthdays (1–31), sequences or patterns. Avoiding such combinations means you share a win with fewer people. Your chance of winning stays the same.

What is Zahloo?

Zahloo is an independent statistics and number tool: statistics of every draw since 2012, a ticket generator, saved tickets with automatic result checks and a strategy lab. Zahloo is not a lottery operator and does not sell tickets.