Sticking to numbers from 1 to 31 because they cover birthdays doesn't change your odds of matching the draw, since every six-number combination out of 59 is equally likely. What it does change is your odds of sharing the jackpot if you win, because those low numbers get picked far more often than 32 through 59, so a jackpot split among birthday-pickers gets divided more ways.
The game at a glance
6 of 59
Wed · Sat
United Kingdom
1 in 22,528,738 (per £2 line, both rounds)
The same for every possible combination, including this one.
All divisions →
Bonus Ball
UK Lotto draws a seventh ball, the Bonus Ball, right after the six main numbers, but you never pick it yourself. It only decides whether a match-five ticket lands in the higher or lower of the two match-5 prize tiers. Each of the two rounds drawn on a night has its own Bonus Ball.
18+
Must be 18+ to play UK Lotto.
UK Lotto, in brief
UK Lotto is the National Lottery's flagship draw, held every Wednesday and Saturday night. A ticket asks a player to pick six numbers from 1 to 59, and the same slip carries a printed raffle code that plays no part in the number draw at all.
Since 10 June 2026 every draw night runs two rounds. Each round has its own machine and its own ball set, and each pulls six main numbers plus a Bonus Ball from the same range of 1 to 59. Your line goes into both rounds automatically, for the same £2. Inside a single round any six-number combination sits at 1 in 45,057,474, so playing both takes a line to 1 in 22,528,738 a night, and the chance of winning anything from 1 in 9.3 to 1 in 4.9.
The extra chances were paid for out of the bottom of the prize ladder rather than the ticket price, which has not moved. Match 5, Match 4 and Match 3 were all cut in the same rework. Match 2 went the other way and now pays a small cash prize instead of a free Lucky Dip. The one rung left alone was Match 5 plus the Bonus Ball, still a fixed £1,000,000.
Alongside the main draw, every ticket's raffle code enters the Millionaire Maker, a separate mechanism that guarantees at least one code becomes a millionaire (and several more win five-figure prizes) each draw night, regardless of what happens with the six main numbers.
Prize tiers
Match 6Jackpot
The jackpot, which rolls over and grows until someone wins it
Match 5 + Bonus Ball
A fixed £1,000,000, the one rung the June 2026 rework left untouched
Match 5
A mid-tier fixed prize, cut in the June 2026 rework
Match 4
A modest fixed prize, also cut in June 2026
Match 3
A small fixed prize, not far above the price of a line
Match 2
A £1 cash prize, which replaced the old free Lucky Dip in June 2026
Where UK Lotto came from
The 1994 launch
The National Lottery launched UK Lotto on 19 November 1994 as its first and, for years, only draw. The original format asked players to match 6 numbers from a pool of 49, a matrix borrowed from lottery designs already common elsewhere in Europe.
The 2015 move to 59 numbers
That 6/49 format held for two decades before Camelot widened it. In October 2015 the main pool expanded to 59 numbers, which stretched the jackpot odds considerably and was intended to let the top prize roll over and grow more often rather than being split among dozens of winners most weeks. The same overhaul introduced the Millionaire Maker raffle, giving every ticket a shot at a guaranteed prize even on nights when nobody hits the jackpot.
Draw days
Draw days have shifted over time too. Saturday was the only draw night at launch, then a midweek Wednesday draw was added in 1997. The schedule has stayed at twice a week since.
Two rounds a night, from June 2026
Allwyn announced the biggest change since 2015 on 14 April 2026, put the new tickets on sale on 7 June, and ran the first restructured draw on 10 June 2026. The matrix did not move. It is still six numbers from 59 with a Bonus Ball, and a line still costs £2. What changed is that the one line is entered into two separate rounds on the same night, drawn by two machines from two ball sets and scored independently, so a single line can win in one round, the other, or both. Per-line jackpot odds went to 1 in 22,528,738 and the chance of any prize to 1 in 4.9. Allwyn funded it by cutting the Match 5, Match 4 and Match 3 prizes, and projected the number of Lotto millionaires a year rising from roughly 140 to around 345.
Picking numbers, honestly
There's no such thing as a number being overdue. Every round is independent of every round before it, including the other one drawn ten minutes earlier on the same night, so a number that hasn't appeared in months has exactly the same chance as one that came up last week.
The Millionaire Maker is a genuinely separate mechanism from the numbered draw. It runs off the alphanumeric code printed on the ticket rather than the six balls, which is why it can mint a millionaire on a night when the jackpot itself rolls over untouched.
UK Lotto — frequently asked
Two. Since June 2026 Match 2 pays £1 in cash rather than the free Lucky Dip it used to. Three or more pays a larger fixed prize, and all six wins the jackpot. Your line is checked against both rounds separately, so it can pay twice on one night.
Two separate draws on the same night, each with its own machine and ball set, each pulling six main numbers and a Bonus Ball from 1 to 59. One £2 line enters both. They're scored independently, so a line can win in Round 1, in Round 2, or in both — Allwyn's first weekend produced a player who took £1m on one round and £1 on the other.
It's a seventh ball drawn after the six main numbers, one per round, used only to split the match-5 prize into two tiers. Matching five numbers plus the Bonus Ball wins the higher tier. Matching five without it wins the lower one.
A raffle-style prize built into every UK Lotto ticket. Each ticket carries a printed code, and a set number of those codes win a guaranteed million-pound (or smaller five-figure) prize each draw, independent of the six-number result.
No. It launched in November 1994 as 6 from 49 and stayed that way for over 20 years. The pool widened to 59 numbers in October 2015, the same overhaul that added the Millionaire Maker. It has not moved since. The June 2026 change added a second round rather than more balls.
No. Inside a round every possible combination of six numbers from 59 has an identical 1 in 45,057,474 chance, and since a line plays both rounds that comes to 1 in 22,528,738 on the night. Choosing high numbers or an unusual spread can lower your odds of splitting a jackpot with other winners, but it doesn't raise your odds of winning it.