Syndicates: the maths of sharing
· Every figure is worked out from the game's rules.
10 friends put in €2.50 each and play 10 different lines of EuroMillions together. What changed for each of them? The group's chance of winning rose, each one's share shrank by exactly as much, and the average loss stayed the same.
The chance goes up
Alone, with one line, the jackpot chance is 1 in 139,838,160. With 10 different lines, the group has 1 in 13,983,816. The lines have to differ: two identical lines add no chance, they only split the same prize.
The share falls by as much
If the group wins, each member gets a tenth. Ten times the chance, a tenth of the prize: the average does not move. A EuroMillions line pays back €0.58 on average for every €2.50, 23.3%, and that is what each member's stake in the group pays back too. The average loss per person stays €1.92 a draw.
What really changes
- Wins come more often and smaller. The group wins something more often than one player alone, but every win is shared. For someone who plays for the fun of waiting for the draw, that is the real gain.
- Larger systems for the same money. A group can play a system no one would play alone. Each of its lines still has the same chance and the same price.
- Write the agreement down. Who paid what, which lines, how a prize is split. A dispute over a shared prize can cost far more than the lines ever did.
See what a line pays back, and how that changes with the jackpot, on the EuroMillions "is it worth it?" page.