Online Lottery Betting UK (2023)

Online Lottery Betting In The UK

Did you know that the first lottery in the UK was introduced by Queen Elizabeth I in 1566 to raise funds for public works such as repairing infrastructure? However, until 1826, lotteries were run as private affairs with only the elite eligible. Since then, we have experienced a myriad of changes in the industry. Key among them is the digital revolution that has seen the establishment of online lottery websites and the migration of players from purchasing physical tickets at their local retailers to participating through online platforms and applications.

In this guide, we introduce you to the world of online lottery in the UK, highlight important legal matters to be aware of as you go into playing lottos online, then break down how to play lotteries online in a step to step guide inclusive of how to purchase lotto tickets online as well. 

Besides, we share in-depth reviews of the Top 5 Online Lottery websites In The UK and the criteria we used to create this list. Finally, we will bring you up to speed on the Biggest Online Lottery Jackpots you can win as a UK lottery player.

First things first, though, do you still play the hardcopy version of lotteries? If so, Here are five reasons why you should move to play the lottery online instead:

1. Purchase of tickets made easy: No more queuing at your physical lottery retailer to get your ticket. With an online lotto site, you get your digital ticket immediately after purchase.
2. No more damaged, lost, or stolen tickets: With paper tickets, you must keep them safe in the event you win and need to claim your prize. However, this responsibility is fully eliminated when playing the lottery online, as your ticket is digital.
3. Easy ticket payment: Online lottery websites allow you to pay for tickets via various payment methods, with debit and credit cards as the minimum provision. This makes paying for tickets easier and more secure compared to using cash. 
4. Access to more diverse and higher value lotteries: Accessing lottos online opens you up to a world of popular lotteries from around the world that you can play in. This is bound to be more lucrative than your local lottery games.
5. Offers & Promotions: All online lottery websites offer welcome bonuses, promotions, and discounts on tickets that your local lottery vendor doesn’t.

Top 5 Online Lottery Betting Sites In The UK

The following online lottery sites not only scored highly against our criteria for rating only lottery sites but surpassed our expectations to become the Top 5 Online Lottery Sites In The UK.

Lottoland

Lottoland has been a top lottery site in the UK market since its inception in 2013. The site boasts of having the fastest payouts and the largest so far. Its total amount of winnings paid out to about 740,000 winners is over €110 million, with the biggest jackpot prize awarded to a player standing at €90 million as of 2018.

Lottoland is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission, the Revenue Commissioners in Ireland and Gibraltar Gambling Commission. As a lottery agent, Lottoland allows players to bet on the outcome of numerous lotto games instead of playing in the actual lottery. The site has some of the best welcome offers, competitive promotions, and bonus deals. Additionally, compared to other online lottery sites, Lottoland’s tickets are considerably cheaper and payments can be done in several supported currencies.

The Lottoland website is easy to navigate, even for newbie lottery players. Furthermore, the app available on Android and iOS is easy to use, making playing on the go accessible to most players.

That said, the registration process on Lottoland is more tasking compared to other websites. Full verification is required before access to funding your account. It is important to note that the live chat and other customer support channels are available during specific hours only and not 24/7.

TheLotter

Established in 2002, licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority, and having paid over €81million in winnings to players, TheLotter is one of the most reputable online lottery sites in the market today. The website acts as a lottery agent purchasing tickets on your behalf to almost 52 lotteries from all over the globe. The site serves players who communicate in English,  French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Thai, Russian, Polish, Romanian, Chinese, and Finnish. 

Players on the online lotto enjoy up to 25% in discounts, numerous special offers, and an enticing VIP Program. TheLotter also has an excellently developed mobile app that is available for Android and iOS users.

Some of the most popular games offered by theLotter include:

• EuroMillions
• US Powerball
• US Mega Millions
• EuroJackpot 
• Chile Clasico Loto
• Portugal TotoLoto
• MillionDay – Italy
• Superstar Italy
• Lotto Italy
• SuperEnaLotto Italy
• Baloto Colombia
• Monday Lotto Australia
• Wednesday Lotto Australia
• Saturday Lotto Australia
• Australia Superdraw Saturday Lotto
• France Lotto
• Oz Lotto Australia
• Powerball Lotto Australia
• Austria Lotto
• Poland Lotto
• Poland Mini Lotto
• New York Cash4Life
• New York Lotto
• Texas Cash Five
• Lotto Texas
• Texas Two-Step
• Canada Lotto 6/49
• Ontario 49
• Germany Lotto

TheLotter accepts payments in multiple currencies and facilitates payments via VISA, Mastercard, RapidTransfer, PSE, Skrill, Neteller, Trustly, Paysafecard, Bank Transfer, Sofort and GiroPay.

Ladbrokes

As one of the pioneers in the betting scene since 1886, Ladbrokes is one of the top gambling operators. Their latest addition, Ladbrokes Lotto, does not fall short of the Ladbrokes excellence we are accustomed to. The online lottery site functions as a lottery betting site that allows players to place wagers on the outcome of lotteries based on fixed odds as opposed to investing in the lottery directly.

With Ladbrokes Lotto, you can expect to place your bets on at least 35 weekly draws spread across popular lotteries such as:

• Irish Lotto
• Spain's La Primitiva
• 49's
• NY Lotto
• Spanish Daily Lotto

The online lottery site supports deposits and withdrawals through the following channels; Visa debit, debit MasterCard, Western Union, Delta, Solo/Switch, Skrill, Neteller, and PayPal.

Playhugelottos

PlayHugeLottos is a popular online lottery site owned by Play UK Internet NV. This online lotto was founded in 1998 and has since grown to offer 15 of the biggest lotteries including; 

• UK National Lottery
• EuroMillions 
• Brazil Mega Sena 
• EuroJackpot
• Spanish La Primitiva 
• US Powerball
• Italy SuperEnaLotto, 
• French Lotto, 
• SuperLotto Plus, 
• Australian Oz Lotto, 
• Australian Oz Powerball, 
• Mega Millions Max, 
• Spain’s El Gordo, 
• US Mega Millions, 
• German Lotto 6aus49, 
• New York Cash4Life 
• Powerball Plus. 

PlayHugeLottos is also dedicated to serving diverse audiences, as the website is available in 10 languages. As is with any major online lottery site, PlayHugeLottos offers numerous bonuses, promotions, play options, and competitions.

Jackpot.com

Jackpot.com is relatively new in the market and less popular than the rest of the lottos on our list of online lottery sites in the UK. The platform functions as a lottery betting site allowing players to bet on the outcome of physical lotteries already matched by Jackpot.com.

Jackpot.com supports a good range of payment options, including e-wallets such as MuchBetter and Neteller, pay-by-phone services such as Boku and basic debit and credit card options. 

When it comes to player engagement, the site allows players to set up subscriptions to have tickets automatically purchased on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. The site also offers other gambling options, such as scratchcards, live casino games, table games, and slots.

Introduction to Online Lottery in the UK

Online lottery websites in the UK are grouped into two major categories, lottery agents and lottery betting sites. Here’s the difference:

Lottery Agent Sites

These sites provide online lottery services by purchasing tickets on your behalf. They achieve this by having agents across all the locations of the lotteries they advertise physically purchase your lotto ticket based on the numbers you chose via the site. With lottery ticket agent sites, you can expect:

1. To receive a scanned image of the physical ticket in your account
2. Safekeeping of the physically purchased ticket by the lottery agent
3. Notifications through your account or preferred communication channel of any prizes you win from a draw
4. Instant crediting of winnings from lower tier prizes for your withdrawal and continual use to lay online lottos.

Online Lottery Betting Sites

These online bookmakers present the opportunity to bet on the results of real-world lottery draws by providing fixed odds on the draws. They do not purchase actual lottery tickets; you do not play in the actual lottery but instead purchase a betting lottery ticket.

With this knowledge, you can play the lotto online via ticket-purchasing agents, betting sites, or both to maximise returns. However, before we get into the step by step of playing lotteries online, you must be aware of a few legal issues related to online lottos.

A Brief Legal Overview of Online Lottery In The UK

We won’t go into complex legislation matters; however, as a lotto player, here are four things to keep in mind regarding the law and playing online lotteries:

1. You must be over either 16 or 18 or 21 years of age to buy lottery tickets and claim prizes depending on the lotteries guidelines.
2. Lotto prizes must be claimed within 6 months or one year from the date of purchase, subject to the lotteries guidelines.
3. All winning tickets will be subjected to validation by the Lottery before prizes are awarded.
4. Online lottery wins may or may not be subject to taxation, depending on the home country of the lottery. For example, UK citizens who win in the national lotteries will not have their winnings taxed. However, should they win a US lottery, their winnings will be taxed according to the federal and state tax laws in the US. It is important to read up or enquire from customer support if the tax situation on your winning is unclear.

Now that you know what to expect in legal terms when playing online lottos, here's a simple guide on how to play.

How To Play on Online Lotteries

Here’s how to enjoy online lottos in 5 simple steps.

How To Buy Lottery Tickets Online

The process for purchasing tickets on online lottery websites, whether they act as lottery agents or lottery betting sites, is quite similar. Follow these three steps to acquire your tickets.

1. Log into your account on your preferred online lottery website and choose the lottery you want to purchase a ticket for or place your wager on.
2. If purchasing a ticket, pick your lucky number as required for the specific lotto. You can add as many tickets as you can afford. If placing a wager, pick between 1 to 5 numbers to get the odds of numbers being drawn, and once satisfied, choose the number of times you want to bet. Click on next to allow the site to calculate your total bill.
3. The site will calculate your total bill after submitting your tickets or placing your bets. Finalise your play by authorising payment of the total bill.

Now that you know how to play online lotteries, it’s time to introduce you to the best online lottery sites. But first, let’s make the criteria we used to select the best online lottos.

How We Review The Best Online Lotto Sites

Below are the 10 critical factors we explore when evaluating any online lottery website:

Instant Win Or Number Draw Games

The provision of either instant win games or number draw games is one of the earliest decisions lotto players must make when playing. 

Instant win games such as scratchcards and bingo provide immediate results for players who want to know their fate immediately. On the other hand, number draw lottos need you to wait for the draw to occur to know your fate in losses or wins.

Most major lottery games have their draws at least once a week. To make it to our list of top online lotto sites, we require the provision of both instant win and number draw games as we believe players shouldn’t have to choose either but rather have one platform to enjoy both options.

Jackpot Sizes

The goal of playing the lotto is to try to win the jackpot prize. Therefore, we evaluate online lotto sites based on the jackpot sizes available as well. Jackpot prizes of lotteries can vary from a couple of hundred thousand to millions. The best online lotto sites offer lottos with a medium to a huge amount in jackpot winnings.

Prices Of Lottery Tickets

Playing the lottery online is quite convenient. However, this convenience should come at a relatively low cost. While it is expected for lotto sites that function as lottery agents to charge a considerably higher ticket price seeing as they physically purchase the tickets on your behalf, the price should not vary greatly compared to your local retailer and lottery betting sites. 

Top online lotteries — lottery agents or lottery betting sites — have their tickets averagely priced compared to the market.

Odds Of Winning And Prize Tiers

The best lottery websites offer lottos with favourable odds of winning. You must be extremely lucky to win the top jackpot prize of any lottery; however, this is not all there is to win. With luck being the determining factor of a win, a smart move for any dedicated lotto player is to play in lotteries with a high number of prize tiers.

Lotteries with a high number of prize tiers are more lucrative. For instance, the EuroMillions lottery has 13 tiers — in comparison, UK Lotto has six tiers — hence provides you with more opportunities of winning a range of smaller prizes by striking a prize-winning match-up.

Range Of Lotteries Available

The best lottos online must offer the most popular lotteries available — EuroMillions, US Powerball, Mega Millions, El Gordo, SuperEnalotto, and EuroJackpot, in addition to other games. The more the lotteries availed on the site, the higher the ranking for the lottery site. 

This is because while offering popular lotteries is great, the odds of winning them tend to be lower. The presence of other games allows participants greater odds at winning. Furthermore, the presence of lotteries in which you can match four, five, or six numbers in the same purchase allows players to gain more from their deposits. Our best lottery sites in the UK allow participants to play over 50 different draws.

User-Friendliness Of Website And/Or App

Lottery websites that are easily navigable make placing your lottery draws easy. Our criteria for determining the user-friendliness of a website or app are informed by:

• Optimisation of the webpage to mobile and tablet devices to allow you to play lotteries easier and faster.
• Simplicity and speediness of the registration process
• Proficiency in the deposit process and availability of the money for use after that
• Ease in claiming prizes won and withdrawing wins 
• Functionality when it comes to choosing numbers, adding play slips to the cart, and checking out carts.
• Accessibility to customer support channels.

Lottery websites with betting apps earn extra points, making playing lotteries much easier and intuitive. Furthermore, with mobile lottery apps, you can expect push notifications that alert you on bonuses, promotions and wins, ensuring you never miss out on any communication and experience.

Bonuses & Promotions

Who doesn’t love a good bonus or discount? Top online lotto sites must have bonuses and promotions with fair terms and conditions. You can expect to enjoy anything from 5% to 50% in discounts and promotions off your ticket’s full price.

Some of the most popular promotions we seek out include:

• Welcome bonuses for new players
• Discounted tickets for existing players
• Cashback offers on matched deposits or net losses
• Discounts on subscriptions or specific games
• Bundles of deals for different lottery games
• Loyalty and VIP schemes

Payment Methods System

When it comes to the payment methods system, we qualify the best lotto sites based on the quality and diversity of the payment methods available. Quality of the payment methods system encompasses the total time to process payments — the shorter the timeframe, the better — and the minimum and maximum limits for deposits and withdrawals.

The diversity of the payment method systems refers to the channels available for making withdrawals and deposits. The best online lottery websites support payments via;

• Debit cards
• Credit cards
• Bank transfers
• E-wallets such as Skrill, Neteller, etc
• Cryptocurrency 

Customer Support

The best online lotto sites provide readily available and accessible customer support. This constitutes the minimum of a Live chat support feature, preferably 24hrs availability, a functional support email address, and an operational international telephone number. 

Lotto sites go further to provide support via their social media handles, plus a detailed FAQ section for users to gain an added advantage over their competitors.

Security

This feature may be last on our criteria list, but it is one of the most important requirements. Transferring money online and digitising lottery tickets are sensitive matters that must be handled with utmost credibility. Security requirements that must be met include;

• Valid operating license from the United Kingdom Gambling Commission.
• Existing SSL certificate to guarantee data encryption of users’ information.
• End-to-end secured payment platform 

7 Biggest Online Lottery Jackpots Available To UK Players

Looking to win big? Here are the 7 Biggest Online Lottery Jackpots to pay attention to as a UK lotto player.

US Powerball

To play in the US Powerball you must pick five numbers from 1-69, and a ‘Powerball’ from 1-26. If you match all six balls for the draw then you win the jackpot. The draws happen thrice a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, in the wee hours of the morning, UK time. However, there are nine prize tiers within the US Powerball — hence, you can still win even if it is not the jackpot.

The highest jackpot taken home in the US Powerball is £1.586 billion back in January 2016.

Mega Millions

The biggest lottery in the US, Mega Millions is available to UK players thanks to online lottery websites. To play you choose five numbers from 1 to 70, and a bonus Mega ball from 1 to 25. The jackpot winner is the player with all matching six balls during the draw. The draws happen on Wednesday and Saturday in the early morning hours in the UK.

The largest paid by Mega Millions is $1.537 billion back in October 2018.

EuroMillions

The EuroMillions draw was set up in 2004 and has 9 participating countries — the UK, France, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, and Switzerland. To play, you choose five main numbers from 1 to 50 and two ‘lucky star’ numbers from 1 to 12. To win the jackpot during the draws that happen every Tuesday and Friday, you must have seven matching numbers. However, the lotto has 13 prize tiers available so you have the opportunity to win an average amount of quids within the different tiers.

The highest jackpot taken home from the EuroMillions is £185.7 million back in October 2021.

SuperEnalotto

The SuperEnalotto is Italy’s main lottery where players choose six numbers between 1 and 90, and an optional ‘SuperStar’ number. To win the jackpot you must have all six numbers drawn. Furthermore, if you have the matching six numbers drawn and a ticket for a ‘SuperStar’ as well, you get a bonus of €2 million on top of your prize money. To win the second prize you need to have only five of the six numbers drawn. 

During the draws, a ‘jolly number’ is usually drawn as well. If five of the jackpot numbers matched as well as the ‘jolly number’ you win a bonus €1 million on top of the second prize lottery. The SuperEnalotto draws happen every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

The highest payout so far from Italy’s SuperEnalotto is €177million, paid in October 2010.

EuroJackpot

The Eurojackpot is another joint European lottery that has 18 different European countries participating except for the UK. However, you can still take part in the draw as a UK player on any trusted and major online lottery website. 

The draw takes place every Friday and you participate by choosing five numbers between 1 and 50 and two bonus ‘Euro Numbers’ between 1 and 10. The jackpot winner must have all matching seven numbers drawn. However, the EuroJackpot has 12 prize tiers providing you the chance to win even if you miss out on the jackpot.

The EuroJackpot has a jackpot cap of £90 million — so far it has been won eight times.

UK Lotto

The UK Lotto launched back in 1994 and is arguably the most popular lottery in the UK. The draws take place twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Players choose six numbers from the 59 available. Each UK lottery live draw draws seven numbers — six main numbers and a bonus ball. 

The UK lottery jackpot is won by anyone matching all six main numbers. The second place is for matching five numbers and the bonus ball. Jackpot can roll over if there are no lottery winners until it reaches the fifth rollover, at which point it must be won.

The record jackpot was worth £66.1 million won in January 2016.

El Gordo

El Gordo is the annual world-famous Spanish Christmas Lottery that is now open to Players in the UK as well thanks to online lottery sites. The draw takes place on 22nd December each year and only 100,000 numbered tickets are available. However, the tickets are produced in multiple series numbered between 00000 to 99999 therefore approximately 150-200 tickets may have the same number. 

The winning ticket cashes in the jackpot of  €4 million which will be split among the players with the numbered winning ticket number.

Are you curious about the chances you have of winning any of these big online lottery jackpots? Here’s a summary of your odds of winning a jackpot starting with your best chances to your worst chances.