The Irish Lottery has been one of the most popular betting products for a number of years now. Horse racing and football are still bookmaking’s big 2, but the Irish Lottery arguably reaches a wider range of customers. This is thanks to the fact that there’s no form or league tables to worry about and the odds are fixed so you will know what you could be due to win from the outset.
At first there may seem like there are endless options but once you know the basics, the Irish Lottery is simple to understand and straightforward to play. Here we’ll go through all that you need to know, from how to place your bets, how to work out your returns and how you can find results.
Bookmakers With Irish Lotto Offers
Betfred Lotto
What is the Irish Lottery?
The Irish National Lottery, much like any other lottery, involves numbered balls being drawn at random and predicting what those numbers will be. The Irish National Lottery works very much like our own national Lottery in that there is a televised draw, where six numbers and a bonus ball are dropped from a machine. With anyone scooping the first six winners sharing the jackpot from that week, and consolation wins for various combinations of fewer numbers.
Here comes the difference, the Irish Lottery that you can play online or in betting shops, doesn’t pay into a shared pool like the national lotteries. Here, you are offered odds on getting one, two, three, four or five numbers using the same numbers that are drawn in the Irish National Lottery.
So, rather than picking six of your own numbers and getting increased winnings the more numbers that you get correct, you actually pick between 1 and 5 numbers, and you’ll be paid at fixed odds if all your numbers that you have chosen come out.
How to Play: Your Questions Answered
We’ll look at the various aspect of how to play the Irish Lottery in more detail later on, but here’s the basics to get you started.
How Many Number Are There to Choose From?
The first thing to say here is that there are 47 numbers to pick from in the Irish Lottery, as opposed to the 59 in the UK National Lottery.
How Many Numbers Do I Pick?
The next thing to decide is how many numbers that you would like to pick. You can pick 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 numbers. The more numbers that you pick the higher the odds. This because the chance of all your numbers coming out decreases with the more numbers that you choose.
6 Number or 7 Number Draw?
When betting on the Irish Lottery you will need to decide whether you bet with the 7th bonus ball or without it. These are known as the 6 number draws, which doesn’t include the bonus, and the 7 number draws, which do include the bonus ball. You will need to state whether you are betting on the 6 number draw or the 7 number draw when placing your bet.
Picking the 6 number draw means that the numbers that you have picked will need to be within the first 6 out of the drum. Picking the seven number draw means that the numbers you have picked could be in the first six drawn or they could be the seventh bonus ball.
The advantage with the 7 number draw is that you get an extra chance for one of your numbers to be drawn. However, as a result, the odds you receive will be lower, even if your one of your numbers isn’t the bonus ball.
How Many Draws Are There?
For the main Irish Lottery, there are three draws on Saturday evening, and three draws on Wednesday evening. These are usually known as the main draw, second draw and the third draw. You will need to select which draw you are betting on when placing your Irish Lottery bet.
There are a total of six draws per week and you can bet one of them, all of them or any combination in between. Be aware that each draw is considered a separate bet, so if you wanted £1 on the numbers that you have chosen for every draw in the week, that would be a total stake of £6. If you wanted to bet £1 on just the Saturday main draw, that would be £1 total stake.
Irish Lottery Odds
As we mentioned above, the Irish Lottery provides what is known as fixed odds betting. That means that unlike the National Lottery, where you receive a set amount for getting some numbers and a share of the pool for the jackpot and five numbers plus the bonus ball, in the Irish Lottery your winnings will be a multiple of your stake plus your stake back.
For example, if you staked £1 on five numbers being drawn at 150,000/1, your returns would be £150,000 plus your £1 stake irrespective of how many people also have 5 numbers on that draw. This is because your bookmaker is offering you odds of those numbers being drawn, rather than joining in a pool of other bettors.
A benefit of betting on the Irish Lottery is that you can tailor your bet entirely to your preferences. You can alter your stake as you wish and may feel that betting on three numbers at 700/1 for example gives you much better value that going for all five numbers.
Below we have a guide to the odds for on the Irish Lottery. These will vary from bookmaker to bookmaker so it can really pay to shop around.
6 Number Draw Odds
| 1 Number | 2 Numbers | 3 Numbers | 4 Numbers | 5 Numbers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/1 | 60/1 | 700/1 | 8500/1 | 150,000/1 |
7 Number Draw Odds
| 1 Number | 2 Numbers | 3 Numbers | 4 Numbers | 5 Numbers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5/1 | 45/1 | 375/1 | 4000/1 | 45,000/1 |
As with any odds, to work out your returns you simple multiply your stake by the odds that you have been given and add your stake on at the end. So, £5 on a single number at 6/1 in the 6 number draw would mean £30 winnings (6 x £5) plus your £5 stake giving a total return of £35 for a winner.
Picking and Matching 3 Numbers
Although there are range of betting opportunities, by far the most popular way to bet on the Irish Lottery is picking three numbers.
Why, you might ask? That’s because if you pick 3 numbers and match three numbers on a given drawn, your winnings for a £1 stake on the 6 number draw will be around £700, and around £375 for the 7 number draw. When compared to the £30 from the National Lottery, it really does show better value.
Finding the Results
Which ever bookmaker you use, the results will be readily available via their website. What’s more, you will be able to go back thorough a number of weeks to check previous draws should you wish.
The draws take place at around 8pm on both Wednesday and Saturday, with results published at your bookmaker normally within the hour.
The Irish National Lottery, by which the numbers are obtained for the Irish Lottery, is broadcast on RTE, the Irish public tv and radio broadcaster. If you have access to the channel you could watch the numbers being drawn live.
Alternative Bets
One huge benefit of the Irish Lottery is that there is a wide range of ways to bet on it. We’ve outlined straight line bets, picking 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 numbers as you might with a football singles, doubles, trebles, four-folds and five-folds. You can also combine these, as you could with sports bets to cover various permutations.
For example, you could pick 3 numbers, a place a patent bet with them. Meaning, for a single draw you would be betting on 3 single numbers, 3 combinations of 2 numbers, and one bet on all three numbers being drawn, making 7 bets in total.
The only difference with sports bets if that your odds wouldn’t roll over, they would simply be paid at the fixed odds for that many balls being drawn.
If we use the patent example again, on a the 6 number draw, that would be three singles at around 6/1, three doubles at around 60/1 and a treble at around 700/1.
Other multi bets can be used such as Yankees and Lucky 15’s, although bear in mind you won’t receive any concessions such as double odds for one winner on numbers betting.
You could also consider perm betting for example picking 5 numbers and betting on any 3 being drawn. This would be 10 bets, and so 10 separate opportunities to get a winning treble.