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Thunderball odds — every division, derived

Every figure on this page is calculated from the game's published rules. The operator's own odds page is linked below as verification — but the working is here, on this page.

The combinatorics

A standard entry picks 5 numbers from 39 plus 1 from a separate pool of 14. The number of possible combinations is:

C(39, 5) = 575,757 × C(14, 1) = 8,060,598

Division odds

DivisionMatchWinning combinationsDerived oddsProbabilityPrizeOperator says
Match 5 + Thunderball5 main + 1 supp.11 in 8,060,5981.241e-7£500,000 fixed1 in 8,060,598
Match 55 main + 0 supp.131 in 620,0461.613e-6£5,000 fixed1 in 620,046
Match 4 + Thunderball4 main + 1 supp.1701 in 47,4152.109e-5£250 fixed1 in 47,416
Match 44 main + 0 supp.2,2101 in 3,6470.0274%£100 fixed1 in 3,648
Match 3 + Thunderball3 main + 1 supp.5,6101 in 1,4370.0696%£20 fixed1 in 1,437
Match 33 main + 0 supp.72,9301 in 1110.9048%£10 fixed1 in 111
Match 2 + Thunderball2 main + 1 supp.59,8401 in 1350.7424%£10 fixed1 in 135
Match 1 + Thunderball1 main + 1 supp.231,8801 in 34.762.88%£5 fixed1 in 35
Match Thunderball only0 main + 1 supp.278,2561 in 28.973.45%£3 fixed1 in 29

"Winning combinations" counts how many of the possible outcomes land in that division. "Operator says" is the operator's published figure — shown so you can check us against them (small differences are their rounding).

Odds of winning any prize

1 in 12.38

Sum of all division probabilities — usually the number the ads quote.

Odds of the top prize

1 in 8,060,598

One standard game. Two games doubles it — and it's still tiny.

How long are these odds? Winning the top prize is about as likely as calling 22.9 coin flips in a row correctly (222.9 8,060,598). If you bought one line every draw, at two draws a week you would expect one top-prize win roughly every 77,506 years.

Sources

Last verified: 2026-08-29