The first National Lottery Lotto draw under its new two-round format ended without a jackpot winner on Wednesday night, pushing the top prize to an estimated £3.8m for Saturday's game. The £2m jackpot was up for grabs in tonight's draw, but no ticket matched all six numbers in either Round 1 or Round 2.
The new format, described by operator Allwyn as Lotto's "biggest ever" change, means each £2 line now enters two separate draws – Round 1 and Round 2 – using two sets of six main balls and a bonus ball drawn from different machines. A player could win in either round or both from a single line. Allwyn said the chance of winning any prize improves from one in 9.3 to one in 4.9, and the number of Lotto millionaires is expected to double from around 140 a year to around 345.
“No jackpot winner in first two-round Lotto draw; £3.8m rollover for Saturday.”
Tonight's winning numbers for Round 1 were 1, 12, 25, 29, 40, 41 with bonus ball 16. Round 2 numbers were 2, 5, 12, 42, 47, 54 with bonus ball 51. The Thunderball draw also took place, offering a top prize of £500,000. Its winning numbers were 1, 8, 12, 14, 24 with Thunderball 10.
While no one claimed the Lotto jackpot, smaller prizes were awarded: six people won £6,500 each in the Lotto Hot Picks, and two people won £5,000 each after matching five main Thunderball numbers.
Andy Carter, Senior Winners' Advisor at Allwyn, said: "As no one has won tonight's £2M jackpot, Saturday’s draw will have an estimated £3.8M jackpot on offer. Players should be sure to get their tickets early for two chances to win Saturday's fantastic jackpot." He added that every ticket helps raise around £33M weekly for Good Cause projects across the UK. Since the first Lotto draw on November 19, 1994, the National Lottery has distributed around half of all ticket sales to prizes, 28% to good causes, with the remainder split between government duty, retailers and the operator.