El Gordo
El Gordo de Navidad, Spanish christmas lottery is the most important draw in Spain and it´s played in completely different way than typical lottery game, where lottery players select 5 or 6 numbers from a pool of numbers
How the “El Gordo de Navidad” lottery ticket differs from traditional one?
The whole lottery sheet is called: “Billete” “The image on the left would help to understand: Billete” is divided into 10 tenths called “Decimo” (Red box). Each year, there are 100.000 different numeracy, 5-digits numbers are printed on them ranging from 00.000 up to 99.999 in each set. Each set of sheets is printed multiple times in many different “Billete”.
How Tickets are constructed for “El Gordo de Navidad”, Spanish christmas Lottery?
There are a limited number of “El Gordo” lottery tenths (“Decimo”) on offer. When all of the tenths are sold out, there are no more tenths available for sale. The number of printed sheets varies each year. Because of that, the total number of “El Gordo de Navidad” tenths on offer is different each year. For example, in 2016 there were 100.000 numbers printed in 165 sheets each number.
100.000 Numbers x 165 Sheets = 16.5 million of “Billete”
Since each “Billete” is divided for 10 tenths (“Decimo”), it means that 165 million of tenths were available for sale in 2016.
Very comon practise among Spanish lottery players is to buy as many “Decimo” from different numbers. This allows to increase chances of winning a prize, however at the expense of the winning size.
Another common way to participate in the Spanish christmas lottery is to create a group of players or syndicates, where all participants agree to share the winnings between the total number of people taking in that kind of scheme.
A great lottery for Syndicates
The way it´s structured, this lottery is ideal for syndicates where you can garantee a minimum prize/return. Choosing the right numbers and combine them we can guarantee a minimum prize/return from 10% to 25 % in Xmas Draw. The percentage will depend on the amount played:
About the Xmas Draw
Since December 18, 1812, the draw was used two spherical vessels. The big one contains 100.000 small wooden balls, each with a unique 5-digit number on it, from 00.000 to 99.999.
1 ball for the first prize, called
“El Gordo”. (5 digits number)
1 ball for the second prize.
(5 digits number)
1 ball for the third prize.
(5 digits number)
1 ball for the first prize, called
“El Gordo”. (5 digits number)
1 ball for the second prize.
(5 digits number)
1 ball for the third prize.
(5 digits number)
Examples of Prizes
Direct Prizes Per “Billete”
El Gordo (first prize)
“12345”
4.000.000 €
Second Prize
“98765”
1.250.000 €
Third Prize
"44322"
500.000 €
Fourth
2 Numbers
200.000 €
Fifth Prizes
8 Numbers
60.000 €
La Pedrea
1.794 Numbers
1.000 €
Secondary Prizes
For the two consecutive numbers, one before and
one after the first prize
12344 and 12346
40.000 €
For the two numbers, one before and one after
the second prize
98764 and 98766
12.500 €
For the two numbers, one before and one after
the third prize
44321 and 43323
9.600 €
For the 99 numbers with the same first three digits of
the first prize
123XX
1.000 €
For the 99 numbers with the same first three digits of
the second prize
987XX
1.000 €
For the 99 numbers with the same first three digits of
the third prize
443XX
1.000 €
For the 999 numbers with the same two last digits as
the first prize
XXX45
1.000 €
For the 999 numbers with the same two last digits as
the second prize
XXX65
1.000 €
For the 999 numbers with the same two last digits as
the third prize
XXX22
1.000 €
For the 9.999 numbers with the same last digit as
the first Prize (Refund)
XXXX5
200 €