The French lottery provides winning opportunities for South African players. So, in this article we will dive into the French Lotto and have a look at the jackpot forecast.
The French Lotto in a nutshell
France’s official lottery draw takes place three times a week. This lottery offer’s great chances of winning (with a 1 in 16 chance of winning any prize) and boasts minimum pay-outs of at least *€2 million. That’s a whopping R31.5 million for South Africans!
It’s the most popular draw in France and it gains momentum quickly with three draws per week. It uses a double-matric system to randomly pick winning numbers for each draw and offers remarkable odds. With each roll over, roughly another R16 million (€1 million) is added to the pot.
Hitting the French Lotto pay-out
Simply select five numbers from the main pool of 1-49 and a lucky number from a further pool of 1-10. To win, you must match all five numbers and the bonus ball.
Match all five main numbers and the lucky number to hit the main prize. The French Lotto offers eight additional prize divisions, ranging from matching just the lucky number to matching all five numbers, which is why the chances of winning a prize are so high.
The minimum pay-out is roughly R31.5 million (€2million) and the maximum anyone can bank is roughly €36 million which is over half a billion Rand!
So, don’t forget to check the French Lotto results after each draw you take part in to see if you have the winning French Lotto numbers and have become this week’s millionaire!
The chart below explains the odds of winning the different prize tiers and the estimated jackpots for the French Lotto.
| Prize Tier | Odds of winning | Estimated prize pay-out |
| 5 numbers + Bonus number | 1 in 19,068,840 | Jackpot |
| 5 numbers | 1 in 2,118,760 | €100,000 |
| 4 numbers + Bonus number | 1 in 88,677 | €1,000 |
| 4 numbers | 1 in 9,631 | €500 |
| 3 numbers + Bonus number | 1 in 2,016 | €50 |
| 3 numbers | 1 in 224 | €20 |
| 2 numbers + Bonus number | 1 in 144 | €10 |
| 2 numbers | 1 in 16 | €5 |
| 0 numbers + Bonus number | 1 in 18 | €2.20 |
It’s useful to understand the French Lotto rules as the French Lotto is listed as one of the top 10 best lotteries when it comes to the best odds of winning the main prize. Historically, the biggest main prize ever in the French Lotto weighed in at the equivalent of R390 million a few years ago. That’s definitely a lot of life-changing money.
When is the French Lotto draw?
The French Lotto is drawn at 21h18 SAST (South African Standard Time) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, meaning the tier 1 prize grows 50% faster than lotto’s that only offer 2 draws per week!
French Lotto Jackpot Forecast
The forecast below shows all the jackpot dates dating throughout the course of 2021 to 2022 and how much each whopping jackpot value was.
The jackpot value is currently increasing so it may be a good time to start having a better look at the French Lotto if you haven’t already.
