Can I place bets instead of buying a lottery ticket?

garnett

garnett

garnett

Soldato
Joined
25 Mar 2008
Posts
9,186
I know nothing about betting but every now and then I might buy a lottery ticket, and it's always rankled because the odds are so bad.

I was thinking that you could "build your own" lottery ticket by placing a £1/2 bet on a single very unlikely outcome or (more traditionally) an accumulator, with a payout similar to a lottery win, but it's a faff, and (I believe that) betting companies have caps on what they will pay out, so there'd be no point accumulating odds above a certain threshold.

Ideally I'd just bet on the outcome (or a partial outcome - say the first 5 numbers drawn) of the regular lottery, but I think betting on the outcome of the UK lottery, while resident in the UK is not allowed.

Does anyone know whether any betting app offers something like this already?
 
Correctly guess the number in European roulette 4 times with £1.

You would need a site which has a 43k or more max.

You need the discipline to bet 43k on a single number after guessing 3 times…
 
just bet on stocks you rarely ever lose your initial stake and it's not a total waste of money.

It's like gambling and saving at the same time..

How much money have people wasted on lottery tickets over the last 10 years? must be a few thousand for the people playing every week/multiple times a week
 
Last edited:
stuman said:
Correctly guess the number in European roulette 4 times with £1.

You would need a site which has a 43k or more max.

You need the discipline to bet 43k on a single number after guessing 3 times…
Click to expand...

Yes - that's the sort of thing I'm thinking of in principle. My maths around betting is sketchy, but looking at the Euromillions, a £2.50 ticket gets you the chance of 1 in 140 million to win a prize of say £65 million.

Placing a £2.50 bet on guessing the correct roulette number 5 times in a row, is a 1 in 60 million chance, and the prize would be £131 million.

So better than twice as good odds for a prize twice the size...

The bet looks over 4 times the "value".

Diddums said:
Here you go:

Lottery online • Lotto Betting • Lottoland UK

Like Lotto? Then you'll love Lottoland! Bet on international lotteries to find better odds and bigger jackpots!
www.lottoland.co.uk www.lottoland.co.uk

A few other sites do it. You just pick the numbers and bet that they'll be chosen.
Click to expand...

Thanks - that's an interesting website - but the stake cost, odds and prize money look identical to the existing lotteries - so no more attractive - unless I'm missing something?

arknor said:
just bet on stocks you rarely ever lose your initial stake and it's not a total waste of money.

It's like gambling and saving at the same time..

How much money have people wasted on lottery tickets over the last 10 years? must be a few thousand for the people playing every week/multiple times a week
Click to expand...

I reckon I buy 10 tickets a year. It's pure escapism.
 
I used to do the William Hill football slip £1 accumulator, won it twice so more than came out up. One team from each section, win/lose/draw. I was spending my weekends in the pub at the time, so not financial advice :cry:Scottish teams always let me down
 
Last edited:
Your theory might be 'value' but that doesn't make it good value in terms of a punt. There's still a house edge built into each spin and is going to be -EV long term, plus you would need a ridiculous starting balance to entertain that idea!
 
garnett said:
Yes - that's the sort of thing I'm thinking of in principle. My maths around betting is sketchy, but looking at the Euromillions, a £2.50 ticket gets you the chance of 1 in 140 million to win a prize of say £65 million.

Placing a £2.50 bet on guessing the correct roulette number 5 times in a row, is a 1 in 60 million chance, and the prize would be £131 million.

So better than twice as good odds for a prize twice the size...

The bet looks over 4 times the "value".
Click to expand...

Is a lot of that not at least partially explained away by all the runners up prizes you could get with the lottery, those have to be funded so they are funded by the worse odds / lower prize of the Jackpot.

Edit: Because data is my thing :) Runner up prizes give you another £8.5m in the prize pot on average (from the euromillions site, average prize size for each result * by average # of winners of that prize)

My vice personally is the online car competition sites, much lower prize value than the lottery but muuuch lower odds, albeit still a decent profit baked in for the sites (and the fact a chunk of the lottery is used for good causes where these sites are private profits, and large amounts if you look at companies house). I've won a couple of cars which does influence my views admittedly. Although to your point, the casino roulette game is better odds all in all really (I think most casinos work on relatively low margins but backed up by volume)

NB this post is not financial advice / not a suggestion to you etc, merely reflecting on my own habits :)
 
Last edited:
garnett said:
I reckon I buy 10 tickets a year. It's pure escapism.
Click to expand...

You're better off sticking to that and stop wasting your time. The odds of winning on lotteries are ridiculously small, and you're better off doing something else with the money. You are highly highly unlikely to manage to "beat the system", you are thinking about the wrong things to actually make any money.
 
arknor said:
How much money have people wasted on lottery tickets over the last 10 years? must be a few thousand for the people playing every week/multiple times a week
Click to expand...

30 years ago it started - I know someone who plays 2 lines since day 1 - now it's twice a week etc.

Not sure when the twice a week started but never won more than £30/£40 I think.

Must have spent £10-15k...
 
GhostWKD said:
Is a lot of that not at least partially explained away by all the runners up prizes you could get with the lottery, those have to be funded so they are funded by the worse odds / lower prize of the Jackpot.

Edit: Because data is my thing :) Runner up prizes give you another £8.5m in the prize pot on average (from the euromillions site, average prize size for each result * by average # of winners of that prize)

My vice personally is the online car competition sites, much lower prize value than the lottery but muuuch lower odds, albeit still a decent profit baked in for the sites (and the fact a chunk of the lottery is used for good causes where these sites are private profits, and large amounts if you look at companies house). I've won a couple of cars which does influence my views admittedly. Although to your point, the casino roulette game is better odds all in all really (I think most casinos work on relatively low margins but backed up by volume)

NB this post is not financial advice / not a suggestion to you etc, merely reflecting on my own habits :)
Click to expand...
How many tickets have you been buying to manage to win 'a couple of cars'?
 
Nasher said:
The lottery is more like giving money to charity and you might win a prize, rather than gambling tbh.
Click to expand...
if it were like a raffle without being told "it could be you" winning 10s of millions no one would buy a ticket.

it's got nothing to do with supporting charity and everything to do with becoming a millionaire
 
Last edited:
The Lottery is what it is, nobody really thinks they'll ever win big on it, but then you have people like @LeeUK who is now set for life. I know a woman who was in my year at school who just won £1million on the Euromillions Millionaire Maker.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom