The size of the respective jackpot should play an important role when you decide whether to buy a lottery ticket or not. The reason is pretty clear. Assuming that the price for a lottery ticket is the same, a bigger jackpot means a better value for your money.
On our site, you can easily check the current jackpot amounts for Powerball, Mega Millions and a number of other lotteries from across the globe. Just take a look at the top area of our site. Here, we list the various jackpots, ordered by size. You can scroll through the list of jackpots very easily. Then you can decide which lottery you want to participate in.
Why does the jackpot amount matter?
In mathematics, there is a term called expected value. It is defined as the amount you can expect to win back when you look at gamble money. If there is a set probability for the outcome of an event (or a combination of events), then you can calculate the expected value. It is determined by three factors:
- Factor #1 is the odds – for example, the odds of having all numbers required to win the Mega Millions jackpot on your ticket are 1 in 302,6 million.
- Factor #2 is the price you have to pay for the ticket.
- Factor #3 is the amount you can win if you do have all the numbers right.
Now let’s calculate the expected value for a Mega Millions jackpot with an amount of $100 million. Normally you would have to take all the smaller prizes into account here as well, but then the calculus would become very complicated. So let’s just focus on the main prize here.
The ticket price is $2, the odds are 1 in 302,6 million, and the jackpot size is $100 million. The expected value or EV would then be 100 million divided by 302,6 million multiplied by $2, which is $0,66 – roughly a third of what you pay for your ticket. If the jackpot were at $200 million, the EV would be double.
As you can see, your mathematical EV is higher when the jackpot is larger. Actually, at a certain point, your EV can be positive – namely, in our example when the jackpot is higher than $605 million.
Check the jackpot amounts and then pick the lottery with the currently highest jackpot
That is the big advantage you have playing worldwide lotteries online via our service. Instead of sticking to your local lottery no matter how high today’s jackpot is, you can choose from a larger number of lotteries and jackpots. No more need for you to wait until the current Mega Millions or Powerball jackpot reaches an amount that is worth your while.
At the same time, if you live in a country outside the US, your lottery may be offering jackpots that never even go anywhere near the huge Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots. Maybe Euromillions is currently highest, and you want to give this lottery a try.
Another interesting strategy to increase your chances would be to use the same numbers for two, three or even more worldwide lotteries. Again, you should pick your lotteries according to the size of their jackpots. Make sure that you always get the best value for the money you spend on lottery tickets. It is the only way to improve your chances of actually winning a big jackpot.
