South Africa

Lotto (South Africa) 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 6 numbers from 52. The number of possible combinations is:

C(52, 6) = 20,358,520

After the 6 winning numbers, 1 supplementary/bonus ball is drawn from the same pool — they create extra divisions but don't change the jackpot odds.

Division odds

DivisionMatchWinning combinationsDerived oddsProbabilityPrizeOperator says
Division 1 (6 numbers)6 main11 in 20,358,5204.912e-8Jackpot pool share1 in 20,358,520
Division 2 (5 + bonus)5 main + 1 bonus61 in 3,393,0872.947e-7Pool share1 in 3,393,087
Division 3 (5 numbers)5 main + 0 bonus2701 in 75,4021.326e-5Pool share1 in 75,402
Division 4 (4 + bonus)4 main + 1 bonus6751 in 30,1613.316e-5Fixed prize1 in 30,161
Division 5 (4 numbers)4 main + 0 bonus14,8501 in 1,3710.0729%Fixed prize1 in 1,371
Division 6 (3 + bonus)3 main + 1 bonus19,8001 in 1,0280.0973%Fixed prize1 in 1,028
Division 7 (3 numbers)3 main + 0 bonus283,8001 in 71.741.39%Fixed prize1 in 72
Division 8 (2 + bonus)2 main + 1 bonus212,8501 in 95.651.05%Fixed prize1 in 96

"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 38.25

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

Odds of the top prize

1 in 20,358,520

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 24.3 coin flips in a row correctly (224.3 20,358,520). If you bought one line every draw, at two draws a week you would expect one top-prize win roughly every 195,755 years.

Sources

Last verified: 2026-08-29