I’m a mathematician… my four tips to boost chances of scooping £50m EuroMillions
FROM a country mansion to a shopping spree in Selfridges, what have you fantasised about splashing your Euromillions cash on?
Winning the £50million EuroMillions prize tonight would make your fantasy a reality – and Sun readers can boost their chances of scooping the ENTIRE jackpot thanks to a maths lottery expert.
Dr David Hodge is a lecturer in statistics and data analytics at the University of Glasgow.
He’s also been a Royal Statistical Stats Ambassador since 2018, and is a well-known probability expert.
He has revealed how to increase the chances of walking away with all the money in the Euromillions game tonight.
With millions of us buying a ticket each week, you’ll need all the help you can get battling it out against other hopeful players for the huge £50million jackpot prize that’s up for grabs.
There have been huge jackpots available recently – a record-breaking £208million prize – later upgraded to £213m – was won by a lucky Irish family syndicate last month.
To enter you pick five numbers from 1-50 and two lucky stars from 1-12, or you can choose a lucky dip – which is when the numbers are randomly selected for you.
If someone scoops the jackpot tonight, they would become instantly richer than the likes of Tom Holland, Stormzy or Jude Bellingham.
Here, David exclusively shares his golden tips for picking the winning numbers.
Of course, the only real way of increasing your chances of winning is to buy more tickets.
Make sure you gamble responsibly and only gamble with money you can afford to lose. Set a money limit before playing.
If you need advice, visit gamcare.org.uk or GambleAware.org.
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Pick ‘boring’ numbers
Statistically, each number has an equal chance of being drawn, so there is no such thing as a “lucky” number.
David said the trick is to pick numbers that players are least likely to pick to increase your chances of keeping the entire prize – and not sharing it among other winners.
He tells Sun money: “Any prize could be theoretically shared, so you will want to be the only one who wins if you do win.
“So that means you need your numbers not to be other people’s numbers. That means avoiding number patterns.”
David advises players to pick “boring” numbers.
Those are numbers that do not stand out in any way.
It’s more likely that people will pick the top five most frequently drawn numbers, for example, which are: 21, 23, 42, 29 and 17.
That’s because people are likely to think they are “lucky” and have a higher chance of being drawn.
Boring numbers are those which have been drawn an average number of times.
Picking 37, which has been drawn a mediocre 92 times, could be a good option.
So could 24 (92 times) and 13, (93 times), as well as 32, which has been drawn 91 times.
“Pick the ones that look boring and that people won’t be interested in,” David adds.
Should you buy more tickets?
YOU’VE got to be in it to win it.
Every time you buy a ticket the odds of winning increase.
But WARNING – only spend what you can afford. At the end of the day, it’s down to luck.
This is why some people prefer to be part of a syndicate, where multiple tickets are bought.
While this means you’ll have to share the pot, the odds become more favourable each ticket you buy.
Never choose “overdue” numbers
The same principle applies to “overdue” numbers.
These are the numbers which have been drawn the least in EuroMillions games.
David said players may be more tempted to pick these numbers on their ticket, hoping they will come up in tonight’s game.
“People might look for numbers that haven’t come up very often, because they think they’re due to come up soon,” said David.
“This is nonsense, because past numbers have no effect on what’s going to happen in the future.”
The top five numbers drawn the least are: 40, 18, 43, 4 and 1.
Picking ‘weird’ combinations is a mistake
Thinking of picking 1,2,3,4,5 because you reckon no one else will?
You might think weird number combinations like these will increase your likelihood of not having to share the pot of prize winnings among other players.
But you’re wrong, according to David.
“That sequence – 1,2,3,4,5 – is actually more popular than you might think,” he said.
“If you think something is a weird combination, it’s likely that other people will think it’s weird too, and will likely pick that combination too.
“That’s because your brain holds onto anything that fits some kind of pattern.”
So if you’re picking combinations of numbers like 2,4,6,8,10, or 5,10,15,20,25, the chances are that other people are picking the exact same numbers too.
‘I won £1 million on Euromillions – I’ve spent it on holidays to Dubai and Mauritius’
RUTH Breen was on her lunch break when she found out she won £1 million on the Euromillions.
Ruth won in 2014, and spent the cash on luxury trips to destinations like Dubai, St Lucia and Mauritius.
Speaking last year about her win, Ruth said: “
“An awful lot has changed in the past 10 years but then again, not so much.
“The win came at the most perfect time ever. It allowed me to reduce my working hours, giving me a much better work-life balance.”
Ruth now works part-time as a nurse, and spends more time with her daughter doing “fun mum things”.
Her first purchase following her mega win was a pair of Jimmy Choos.
Ruth said: “I nearly cried when I was paying for them in Selfridges because I couldn’t believe I was actually able to purchase this and I had the money to do it.
“It was a little bit overwhelming.”
Ruth still lives in the house she bought just before her win and says most of the new mothers she works with are unaware they are being looked after by a millionaire.
Why a lucky dip really could be lucky
The key is to avoid number patterns on your Euromillions ticket.
That’s because it’s more likely that players will be picking the same combination as you.
Again, if you are lucky enough to win, that means a larger number of players to share the pot with.
The best way of avoiding patterns, according to David, is to pick a lucky dip.
He says: “Humans are notoriously bad at picking random numbers.
“So it’s likely that your attempt at picking five truly random numbers will probably fail.
“The best thing to do is get a computer to pick random numbers – which is what a Lucky Dip does.”
A lucky dip also removes the likelihood of becoming “wedded” to your numbers.
“The key is not to be biased towards any number,” David said.
Who’s on the rich list?
BETWEEN them all, the top 10 richest lottery winners have bagged a combined £1.8billion.
But who are the lucky winners? Here’s the top 10 richest players who bagged the jackpot:
- An anonymous Irish family syndicate scooped £213m in June 2026
- One anonymous UK winner bagged £195,707,000 in July 2022
- Brits Joe & Jess Thwaite won £184,262,899.10 in May 2022
- One anonymous winner won £177,033,699.20 in November 2024
- One anonymous winner won £171,815,297.80 in September 2022
- One anonymous winner won £170,221,000 in October 2019
- Colin & Chris Weir won £161,653,000 in July 2011
- Gillian & Adrian Bayford won £148,656,000 in August 2012
- An anonymous winner won £123,458,008 in June 2019
- An anonymous winner won £122,550,350.80 in April 2021
This content is sourced from www.thesun.co.uk and is shared for informational purposes only.
